Photograph of the Students' Chapel burning during the 1926 fire in the Mission Church
Photograph of the Students' Chapel burning during the 1926 fire in the Mission Church
Photograph of the Students' Chapel burning during the 1926 fire in the Mission Church
Photograph of men with hose spraying fire in Mission Church in 1926. Fire burns in the north tower of the Mission Church.
Photograph of the 1926 Santa Clara Mission fire
Photograph of the 1926 Santa Clara Mission fire
Photograph of the 1926 Santa Clara Mission fire
On October 25, 1926, a fire originating in the old Mission Church swept rapidly across campus and burned many buildings beyond restorations. It was ignited by faulty wiring and broke out in the north tower that had been added to the church in the 1860’s. Among the buildings destroyed was the Students’ Memorial Chapel. A hastily constructed new chapel, with the rescued furnishings of the ruined students’ chapel, was installed in the large study room of Kenna Hall.
During the week of November 18 the work of totally dismantling the students’ brick Memorial chapel was in progress, large charges of dynamite having been used in the process. Workmen, while digging up the ground around the foundations of the old Memorial Chapel, unearthed the partial remains of several people buried long before. One of the findings was a coffin containing nothing but an abundance of jet black hair, the sole of a slipper, and a glove. In another a shawl was found, such as were worn by the señoras and señoritas in the prosperous days of the Missions. On the top of another casket was affixed a silver plate, with the inscription “D. P.”. This was supposed to have been the grave of Dolores Pacheco, an eighteen-year-old girl, recorded in the Mission funeral book as having died in 1850. Later in the day seven skulls were exhumed from under one footing, and four from another; also a lower jaw containing all of the teeth, together with an assortment of human bones.
