Retreat center rising again from ashes of 2006 fire
Less than three years after a predawn fire leveled the historic
Flint-Bixby mansion that was the centerpiece of St. Francis Retreat
Center near San Juan Bautista, a new center is starting to
rise.
”
We are started,
”
said Ed DeGroot, the retreat center’s business manager, during a
tour this week.
”
The story of fighting back here has been an interesting one.
”
Retreat center rising again from ashes of 2006 fire
Less than three years after a predawn fire leveled the historic Flint-Bixby mansion that was the centerpiece of St. Francis Retreat Center near San Juan Bautista, a new center is starting to rise.
“We are started,” said Ed DeGroot, the retreat center’s business manager, during a tour this week. “The story of fighting back here has been an interesting one.”
Interesting, indeed. The 25,000 square foot Victorian that housed dining, meeting and staff housing areas was originally built in 1863 out of lumber shipped around Cape Horn.
It was purchased by the Franciscan Fathers of California along with 73 acres of land and several outbuildings in 1947.
Smoke alarms began screeching at 4 a.m. on June 23, 2006. Before dawn, the structure was reduced to ashes.
Even after the fire, St. Francis continued to serve as a gathering place for self-discovery and religious exploration. In 2008, some 6,000 visitors came to the retreat center tucked into a lush landscape off Mission Vineyard Road, DeGroot said.
In addition to the surviving outbuildings, a group of modular buildings serve as temporary dining, kitchen, meeting and office areas. Furnishings came from IBM and Cisco Systems. New kitchen equipment was purchased with the intention of moving it into a permanent kitchen when the new building is completed.
“We’re in the middle of a real challenge here,” DeGroot said. “The exterior of the building will be completed by mid-May. We’re still working on the balance of the funding to finish the inside. I need pledges for the last $1.5 million so I can secure financing from the diocese.”
The Franciscans originally purchased the entire property for $100,000. The current project comes at a cost of $6.4 million.
“The interesting thing is that donations to this point have spanned the globe from $5 to $500,000,” DeGroot said. To date, some 2,000 individuals have contributed toward rebuilding the retreat center.
The building set to rise on the site of the old one will be smaller, coming in at 11,300 square feet. The sprawling single-story structure will more closely resemble the chapel and other buildings on the site, evoking mission-style architecture.
“The old ranch house was actually built to house three families,” DeGroot said. “It was cut up strangely. We were used to it but being able to design a facility with a food service designer, to build in current audio-visual equipment with wireless connections,” has been an opportunity.
A dining room and gift shop will open onto a patio that serves as an extension of the new building.
No one was injured in the fire, even though the friars working at the retreat center were sleeping upstairs at the time.
“Ever since I’ve been here, every year we’ve done something to make sure the friars could get out in the event of an emergency,” DeGroot said. In fact, a new exit created only a few years before the fire proved to be the life-saving path out of the inferno in 2006.
St. Francis Retreat can accommodate 115 overnight guests at once. The property is crisscrossed with two miles of hiking trails. (Visitors are asked to call 623-4234 before dropping by.)
Site preparation for the new building was done by Don Chapin Co. of Salinas. Building is directed by XL Construction of Milpitas.
DeGroot acknowledged that fundraising is a bit of a challenge given the current economic outlook, but the retreat staff has retained a fund development firm and optimism still runs high.
“We’ll continue to trust in God’s providence,” DeGroot said.
