Extending a cultural fight that started years ago, Caltrans has quietly demolished a statue of 18th century missionary and Catholic saint Junipero Serra that had overlooked Interstate 280 in Hillsborough for 50 years — perhaps pleasing some who had questioned Serra’s legacy, even as the move enraged his supporters in the church.
The artwork’s construction — built half a century ago, using rebar sprayed with a powdered form of concrete — meant that it could not easily be moved to another site, officials said, so it was demolished instead.
Standing at 26 feet tall, the larger-than-life Serra was dressed in a monk’s robe with a cowl falling onto his shoulders as he overlooked commuters trekking across the Peninsula. The statue had the names and founding dates of several missions carved onto its base; Serra established the first nine of 21 missions across California as he traveled north from Baja California with a band of conquistadors from Spain.
The Junipero Serra statue was built out of steel and concrete by artist Louis DuBois in 1975.
Since August, the statue’s former spot at the Crystal Springs rest stop in Hillsborough has been empty after the artwork was removed by Caltrans. The statue did not meet the current requirements of the Transportation Art Program, according to Jeneane Crawford, public information officer for Caltrans District 4.
Crawford did not respond immediately Monday to a question about which criteria the statue had been found not to meet.
The statue was also frequently targeted with vandalism and graffiti, Crawford added. There are currently no plans to put another statue in its place, she said.
The statue’s removal comes several years after an influx in protestors defacing statues of the now-controversial missionary in 2020 — including one in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park that was toppled by a group of 100 people, one in San Rafael that was coated in red paint before being pulled down and one in Los Angeles that was taken down in a demonstration by Native American tribes — amid larger conversations about whether monuments of historical figures should remain standing even as their legacies are being questioned.
The statue was dedicated in June 1976, according to the Smithsonian Institute.
Serra was canonized into a saint by Pope Francis in 2015. At the time of his canonization, hundreds of Native Americans from across California gathered in protest because of atrocities inflicted on their ancestors at the missions, including stripping them of their languages and religions and punishing people who tried to flee. At the protest, elders spoke of whippings, beatings and other brutalizations of their ancestors.
The Caltrans Transportation Art Program installs artwork on transportation infrastructure across the state that represents communities’ “unique aesthetic, environmental, scenic, historical and cultural values,” according to Caltrans. Proposed art installations must meet several criteria: they cannot display text, distract transportation users, include moving parts or interfere with traffic control devices, among other requirements.
Caltrans consulted multiple religious, arts and historical organizations in its decision to remove the statue, Crawford said. Local Ohlone tribes were also approached for input.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is comprised of surviving modern Native American lineages with ancestry through the Missions San Jose, Santa Clara and Dolores, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
The decision prompted concern from some Catholics, including Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone, who said in a statement that he was not made aware that the statue’s removal happened until after it was destroyed.
“No one fought for St. Junípero Serra because apparently, officials from Caltrans and the Transportation Art Program didn’t consult with anyone who would give them an opinion that differed from their own,” Cordileone said. “Once again, Catholics are subject to prejudice and marginalization.”
The structure was demolished because it contained rebar and shot-crete construction materials that made it so it could not be moved, Crawford said. A CEQA permit was filed for its removal in March.
The statue was evaluated for the California Register of Historical Resources but was found not to be eligible, Crawford added.
Family members of DuBois, who were interviewed for the Historic Resources Evaluation Report, were given notice of Caltrans’s decision to remove the statue so that they could pay for its removal and preservation if they chose to do so, Crawford said.