NOTE: see bottom of post for personal Christmas gift ideas.
As we continued our exploration of the Mission Inn, we stumbled upon (not down, luckily) a wonderful spiral staircase in the rotunda. Of course, we stumbled upon the rotunda also. This wing was added in 1931 and filled out the city block, so from then on additions had to go upwards.
The Rotunda Wing has this spiral staircase, the St. Francis Chapel,
and a dome called Amistad, or Friendship Dome.
Emblems of many countries are cemented into the walls of this wing since it’s dedicated to friendship among all nations.
This place was full of surprises. We walked down the stairs, not worrying about the non-compliance with safety codes. Here are some of the doors and windows we saw as we explored different floors.
Plus, we found a reflecting pool.
and an herb garden
in this lovely wing.
And in a hallway, we found more evidence of the wedding:
We spotted her counterpart in a patio by a fountain.
We went to the bottom, found this patio and encountered something incongruous. This Inn is a combination of whatever suited someone’s fancy at the time. Frank Miller’s son-in-law created this Famous Flier’s Wall in 1932 when the St. Francis Chapel was dedicated. I think it goes that since St. Francis was the patron saint of animals and birds, fliers, or “birdmen,” should be honored. The chapel was dedicated as an international shrine for aviators.
Famous aviators visited the Inn and signed and dated their “wings.” The wall includes Lt. Gen. Doolittle, Jackie Cochran, Amelia Earhart, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, and on October 13 Buzz Aldrin had been there to sign his wings.
We weren’t able to get into the Assisi chapel but we did go into the room on the right (smaller brown door). Among all the statuary in the room was this:
It didn’t seem to have any religious symbolism but I love the colors.
When we checked out, we asked the desk clerk if he could show us the chapel. We were particularly interested in the Golden Rayas Altar. Although you normally see that chapel by taking a docent tour, he was kind enough to show it to us.
The altar was commissioned and made in Italy, but it’s first real home was Vincent Manuel Sardaneta Y Legaspi’s home chapel in Guanajuato, Mexico. It was built in the 1720s and brought to the Inn in 1921.
Miller was not really aware of the implications of buying an altar sight-unseen, and at 25 feet high, his original vision of perhaps putting it in a bedroom or sitting room was kaput. The chapel was constructed. Chapels need stained glass windows, so he secured Tiffany windows and mosaics from Stanford White’s Madison Square Presbyterian Church when it was razed in 1919. Tiffany himself aided Miller in acquiring the windows.
Neither the Inn nor Riverside has anything at all to do with missions, but they adopted an identity that perpetuated the association, like an invented history. Whatever the origin, the Inn and the surrounding pedestrian mall are fantastic. We walked around a bit but the mall is under renovation so we didn’t tarry, but headed back to the Inn to retrieve our luggage and car.
A last picture of a bell from the Mission Inn that has nothing to do with missions.
Christmas at the Mission Inn: The Inn has an annual Festival of Lights and it must be really something. Nearly 3.5 million lights and hundreds of holiday characters are put up by 15 full-time employees who work for over two months on this alone! Parts of the Inn are decorated in different themes: Spanish, Victorian, nutcrackers, Santa’s Workshop, etc. We saw many of the decorations going up and it looks like it is worth a trip. Wow. This page of google images makes me want to go this year!
COMING SOON: new photos in my web page galleries. Don’t forget, these are for sale! Help a starving artist. Ok, ok, I know I don’t look like I’m starving. But – Christmas is coming and a nice matted photograph, using all archival materials of course, of someone’s favorite type of landscape or animal, etc. could make a lovely personal gift.
