Preservation in the works for Carrillo Adobe in Santa Rosa

This past week personnel from TAC’s western office toured the remains of the historic Carrillo Adobe in Santa Rosa, California. The Carrillo Adobe was constructed in the 1830s and is said to be the oldest standing structure in Santa Rosa, containing significant associations to the city’s history.  TAC personnel are working with local archaeologists, tribal representatives, and preservation enthusiasts concerning the future and potential preservation of the historic adobe.

There is new research and archaeological investigations conducted in 2006 that suggest the foundation of the structure were meant for greater things.

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[Research suggests] the clan of Maria Ygnacia López de Carrillo did not build the 1837-38 adobe ranchhouse from scratch but erected it partly atop stout, stone foundations that were placed earlier, evidently with a much more substantial building in mind.

A Petaluma archeologist, William Roop, discovered the footings during 2006 excavations required by a developer’s proposal to build 140 condominiums on 15 acres that stretch along Santa Rosa Creek and Montgomery Drive from the adobe west to St. Eugene’s Cathedral. To Roop, the origins of the heavy-duty foundation beneath the Carrillo Adobe are clear. He’s convinced they were placed by laborers on the orders of Franciscan priests intent on building in Santa Rosa the 22nd and northernmost California mission. If true, this would mean the place where Santa Rosa was born is the exact spot at which the colonial quest to hold and tame California through a string of missions died…

It’s not a new idea that the Franciscans who founded the 20th mission in San Rafael in 1822 and the 21st in Sonoma in 1823 planned also to build a mission in Santa Rosa no later than about 1829 — nearly a decade before the arrival of Maria Carrillo, widowed mother-in-law of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, one of the most powerful men in what was then Mexico’s California. But prior to the discovery of the foundation footings, it was unknown just how close Santa Rosa came to having a mission or exactly where it would have been located.

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Quote from Was Carrillo Adobe supposed to be a mission? , July 4th, 2011

There is great urgency to protect the structure and develop a preservation plan as the building has been subject to squatting in the recent past ( read more History trashed at Carrillo Adobe) and new residential development in the area is likely.