Ventura Sites

This statue of the Franciscan missionary, Father Junipero Serra was commissioned by the WPA in 1935. John Palo Kangas made the statue out of concrete. The original concrete deteriorated over time. In 1989, the original was placed in storage and replaced with an exact replica in bronze. The Art Inventories Catalog gives the following description: "Full-length portrait of Father Junipero Serra. He wears a cleric's robe with cowl and rope belt around the waist. A rosary hangs from his belt at his proper left side. He holds a book in his proper left hand. In his proper right hand he holds a...

John Palo-Kangas created this 14-foot concrete sculpture in 1937 for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It stands in front of Ventura's city hall. In 1989, Wilbur Robottom made a bronze copy that replaced the decaying concrete original. The statue is of Junipero Serra (1713-1784) whose Mission San Buenaventura, built in 1782, was the last of nine Serra founded in California.  Serra is today a controversial figure – both sainted by the catholic church for his missionary work in New Spain and hated by many native Californians because of the treatment of indigenous peoples by the Franciscan padres who ran...

This 1936 post office boasts the traditional New Deal cornerstone.

"Agriculture and Industries of Ventura" Large murals depicting cattle, dairies, fields, and citrus groves and packing--all with many busy laborers.

Funded by the National Industrial Recovery Act, the construction of the Ventura overhead structure separated the grade of the main line of the Southern Pacific Company and the Coast Route of the State highway. Located about three miles north of the city of Ventura, this work consisted of a steel and concrete structure carrying the highway at an elevated grade over the railroad tracks. It was part of a major project for reconstruction and improvement of the Slate highway from Ventura northerly to Santa Barbara County. Designed in part to ameliorate high local unemployment, the project as a whole addressed deteriorating...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a seawall along the Pacific Coast Highway north of Ventura. The original was a rubble wall type of construction, but it has recently been replaced by a concrete wall.  Harland George Voight, a farmer from Nebraska, migrated to California after locusts destroyed his crop during the Great Depression. Upon finding no private work he joined the CCC and was stationed in Ventura County. One of the projects he helped to build was the seawall.      

Bartholume Mako created two artworks for the auditorium foyer of Ventura High School in Ventura CA. One is a 12-foot high plaster sculpture titled "Roman Goddess" and the other is a 15 x 6-foot plaster frieze called "Roman Scene." They were paid for by the Federal Art Project of the Works Project Administration (WPA).