Visiting My Roots in Northern California

While my daughter, Michele, and I were visiting my Mom, who is a spry 90-year old, we made a road-trip to the coast to Eureka, California to show my daughter our roots.  My Mom and I were both born in Eureka and both attended the same high school, Eureka Senior High, which was built in 1914 and demolished in 1981 due to earthquake damage.  Part of the present school structure is the original Eureka Jr. High, which sat right next door and was built in 1896.  Amazing that it survived these same earthquakes and was not damaged beyond repair!  Some of the other buildings on the high school campus were built after 1981.  Too bad, the original high school did not survived as it was a lovely building two-story building with a basement and pillars and gingerbread on the front facade!

Another lovely structure from our roots is St. Bernard's Catholic Church, which was first dedicated in 1886 and is known as the "Cathedral of the Northwest."  It was nice to see how beautifully it has been preserved.  Though it is now painted a soft cream with taupe trim, whereas as a little girl I remember it being white.  Whatever its color it is still very beautiful and looks just as I remembered it.  Here are some pictures of our visit. . .you will note Mom and I on the front steps in picture #3.

 

     

 

We were happy to see there was a 12:15 p.m. Mass on Monday afternoon during our visit, thus we were able to attend and actually get into the inside of the church for a visit!  It is such a lovely church. . .and bring back wonderful memories!