SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

THE SECOND CHURCH AND CONVENTO (continued)

The Northern Addition to the Church

At the north end of the church, construction on the walls of the side chapels, sanctuary, apse, and sacristy progressed steadily. Early in the construction of the apse, the construction crew had built the retaining wall forming the front of the high altar platform. At its east and west corners they set two large beams vertically into the stonework, forming the edges of the mouth of the apse. The two beams were about twelve inches square and thirty-two feet long, and would eventually extend up to the cross-viga that supported the roofing vigas above the mouth of the apse, when this was put in place later. [35]

When the masons had raised the walls to about nine feet, they built the roof of the sacristy. First they set bearing plate timbers on the inside edges of the east and west walls of the sacristy. Each of these beams was 0.8 feet by 0.6 feet in cross-section, with the short dimension set horizontally. On this they set corbels and vigas with the same dimensions. The vigas and corbels were spaced at 1 1/3 foot intervals, center to center. The corbels were set into the wall a distance of 2.0 feet, while the vigas were set in 2.6 feet. The carpenters decorated the vigas and corbels with carving similar to that used at Quarai and later in San Buenaventura at Las Humanas, circular designs enclosing six-pointed floral patterns. As at San Buenaventura, the circular design may have alternated with a diamond-shaped design enclosing four-pointed floral patterns.

When the construction crew finished the stonework at the thirteen foot level of the completed sacristy roof, they began work on two large windows on the east side of the church (see the east elevation of the church in figure 9). These were the same size as the window inserted into the east nave wall, measuring about 6 1/2 feet wide on the exterior, and nine feet high. Each was splayed so that the interior width was four feet. One window was placed in the center of the east wall of the side chapel, and the other in the center of the east wall of the sanctuary, or transept-like area. The window opening into the east side chapel area also served as a doorway from the roof of the sacristy onto the tribune in the chapel. The masons built two steps into the sill of the window/door, each with a nine inch riser and seventeen inch tread, allowing the friars to climb from the thirteen foot level of the sacristy roof to the sixteen foot level of the tribunes inside the church. [36]

At fourteen feet the masons and carpenters began setting the corbels and vigas that acted as supports for the joists of the tribunes. They placed the corbels of the joists for the floor of the tribunes at 14 1/2 feet, and the joists themselves at fifteen feet. The flooring of the tribunes was set into place at 15 1/2 feet with its upper surface at sixteen feet. When the walls rose above 17 1/2 feet, the masons set in the lower rail of the tribune railing, and at twenty feet the carpenters assembled the vertical position of the railing, probably lathe-turned posts, and the upper rail. At the same height the masons set into place the first set of beams that spanned the width of the sanctuary.

These were two 12-inch-square beams, supported by corbels of the same size, extending across the mouth of the sanctuary north of the side chapels to support the catwalk from the east tribune to the west tribune. The first beam, about forty-seven feet long, extended from within a few inches of the outside west face of the west chapel to just inside the east face of the east side chapel, and was set into the north face of the side chapel walls. The two corbels supporting it, one on each end, were each almost thirteen feet long. At the same height and about seven feet north of the first transverse beam, a second set of beams and corbels were set into the walls, parallel to the first. The carpenters floored the catwalk with thick planks. Thus the catwalk was suspended about the sanctuary at a height of twenty-two feet. Carpenters added the short wooden stair or ladder at each side of the sanctuary which would allow access from the catwalk down to the tribunes, 5 1/2 feet below. Eventually, the masons and carpenters would set thick wooden railing into place above at a height of three and 6 1/2 feet above the catwalk. The boards forming the side of the stairway from the catwalk to the tribune apparently were decorated with a carved spiral design. [37]

Figure 6. The upper level of Abó about 1652. The tribunes and catwalk are shown on this plan, as well as the large windows in the east walls of the nave and the east transept. The doorway and stairs from the roof of the sacristy to the east tribune opens through the east side chapel wall at this level. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Meanwhile, at 16 1/2 feet in the west side chapel the construction crews began work on the stairway through the southwest corner. This was a flight of three steps up to a stone landing opening out onto a wooden platform built between the thickened section of the west wall of the nave and the corner buttress on the side chapel. The landing and platform were constructed at a height of 20 1/2 feet. [38] On this platform the sacristan would stand to ring the big bell that summoned the pueblo of Abó to mass. The bell hung from a beam set into the walls above the platform, at a height of about 27 1/2 feet. But before the bell-support beam could be set into the rising walls, some of the most critical structures would have to be built.