New restrooms at Mission SJB are more accessible
Parishioners and tourists at Mission San Juan Bautista are the beneficiaries of new restrooms, designed to shorten the distance people have to travel while preserving the architectural integrity of the historic structure.
Father Jim Henry, the mission’s pastoral administrator, said the restrooms opened near the site’s gift shop within the past couple of weeks.
“I’ve been here about 10 months, and the most-asked question I receive on an average day is, ‘Father, where are the restrooms?’” he said, noting the closest public restrooms to the church were located in classrooms behind it – not a convenient place, even for those who know the mission grounds. “They were difficult to find and were too far away from the church itself.”
Aware of concerns about the integrity of the adobe structures that house the church, gift shop and museum, the new restrooms were actually constructed as a “room within a room,” Henry said, noting that the new walls for the facility were built a couple of inches away from the adobe walls, so as not to compromise their strength.
“They’re functioning and everybody’s happy with them,” said Henry, noting that A & N Plumbing of Hollister did the work.
The restroom upgrade – located right next to the gift shop entrance – was started as other, more ambitious project was put on hold. Plans had called for moving the gift shop to a new building near the Maryknoll Rectory so the existing shop could be used as museum space. That new structure would have also included restrooms.
“Those other things are on hold for now,” Henry said, adding that the restroom project was done because it is “an immediate need.”
“Rather than make it part of a bigger project, we put the new restrooms in the place they were years ago” and subsequently used for storage space, he said. “It proved to be a good solution as they’re in the right place and people don’t have to walk a long way to the restrooms.”
The project also included the construction of restroom facilities for gift shop employees.
