San Juan Bautista Historic Walking Trail Project Receiving PG&E Grant Award
Created by a volunteer committee of members from the Rozas House Org., Inc., San Juan Bautista Historical Society, Inc., San Juan Committee and the City of San Juan Bautista Historic Preservation and Community Design Subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Committee, the San Juan Bautista Historic Walking Trail is receiving a grant award from PG&E at a presentation Friday, July 20th at 11 a.m. at the Anza Adobe in downtown San Juan. The public is encouraged to attend.
Forty-nine historic and fascinating sites lie along San Juan Bautista’s two-mile historic walking trail, affording residents and visitors with a unique chance to experience one of the most historic destinations in the state. Click HERE for a downloadable version of the walking trail map. A full walking trail brochure is available at the Welcome Center, 319 3rd Street, and in many of the downtown restaurants and businesses.
Enjoy San Juan Bautista’s rich California heritage at the perfect pace, one step at a time, on the self-guided walking trail of historically significant sites that tell much of the history of San Juan Bautista. Home to California’s largest Spanish era mission, nationally recognized State Historic Park and Downtown National Historic District, as you walk through San Juan Bautista you will gain an appreciation of California’s people, from Native Americans to the Spanish and Mexican influences, to the early American period of the 19th century.
Your adventure will begin at our name-sake, Mission San Juan Bautista, whose vast central plaza is surrounded by the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. It then leads you through our downtown to visit adobes, stone, wooden and western false front early California structures, and then in the outlying areas of the city, to notable historic homes and sites of importance to our rich cultural history, each with its own captivating story. A website provides old photos and the story of each of these fascinating sites www.historicwalkingtrail.com. The downtown historic district buildings on the historic walking trail each have their own plaque identifier.
The first phase of funding to develop the historic walking trail was made available through a community impact grant from the Community Foundation for San Benito County, and grants from the San Juan Bautista City Council, County Supervisor Anthony Botelho, the San Juan Bautista Historical Society, True Leaf Farms/Church Bros. Farms, SJB, and local property owners Julian Ponce and Georgiana Liu. Donations for the second phase of the project are being accepted now. Visit www.historicwalkingtrail.com for more information.
