The masonry seems the work of an apprentice.  Timbers are obviously hand-sawn, and  rawhide fastens some joints.  The bricks in the columns appear burned and irregular. We are  strolling along the arcade of a building that housed the Franciscan Padres at La Mision de la  Purisima Conception de la Santisima Virgen Maria, Madre de Dios y Nuestra Senora, otherwise  known as La Purisima Mission.  The literature tells us that these mission buildings were constructed between 1812 and 1818.

The small museum and visitor center gives us a more complete story.  Having been secularized and sold, the mission was well on its way to becoming ruins by 1844.  Ninety years  later, only wall fragments and a few pillars remained.  The miracle of La Purisima is its  resurrection, from 1934 through 1941, at the hands of the Civilian Conservation Corps and based  upon careful archeology and research of the National Park Service.  The CCC, one of the  alphabet agencies created during the New Deal to employ the unemployed, used the same local  materials, tools and techniques as the neophyte Indians under the direction of the Padres.  The  result is the most complete and authentic of any of California’s 21 missions, providing perhaps the clearest portrait of mission life.  La Purisima’s authentic appearance, now under the curatorship of California State Parks, extends from the lack of pews in the church where the neophytes once worshiped sitting or kneeling on the floor, to the period livestock in corrals and costumed docents. 

Alta California’s missions began in the 1760's, following 160 years of the Spanish government’s benign neglect of the province. To protect her interests against Russian and English incursion Spain established a chain of missions to train and Christianize the local Indians and make them citizens of the Spanish crown.  Two Franciscan Fathers, Junipero Serra and Fermin Lasuen, who each founded nine of the missions, led the undertaking.

Built between 1769 and 1823 largely with Indian labor using only local stone, adobe, wood, tile, and brick, the missions were similar in their architectural style and construction. Except for La Purisima, the main buildings formed a square or quadrangle with open-air, interior arcades.  The most imposing building was the church with a campanario or bell tower to call the Indians to work or prayer.  Indians worked outside the mission compound producing all necessary food and supplies.  Most missions fell into disrepair after they were secularized beginning in 1833.

Today, these missions represent California's oldest extant architecture.  Most have been restored at some time during the 20th century, but many still need help-some need major help-to assure their preservation.  Most are Catholic parish churches; La Purisima is a state park.  Recently, we explored six on California's central coast.  Each was a window through which caught glimpses of modern California's beginnings.

El Camino Real or the Royal Road linked the missions, established a day’s journey apart.  Modern Highway 101 approximates the original route of El Camino Real and takes travelers near most of the central coast missions.  Our journey began in the north at Carmel.  Father Serra moved San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1770), the second mission after San Diego, from the Monterey Presidio to Carmel Valley in 1771.  Alone among mission churches, the current church was built of local sandstone using mortar and plaster made from abalone by Mexican stonemason Manuel Ruiz in 1793.  The exterior has a Moorish influence with a unique star window decorating the front. 

Carmel Mission served as Father Serra’s headquarters and he lies buried along with Father Lasuen under the church altar.  A museum includes Father Serra’s simple room with a wood plank bed, the library that housed 2000 volumes in 1820, and the original silver altar service among other artifacts.  After secularization, the mission was abandoned and roofless for almost 30 years.  A 1930's restoration returned the mission to its original grandeur. 

Agricultural fields surround Nuestra Senora de la Soledad (1791) in the Salinas Valley, about 50 miles southeast of Carmel, via Highways 1, 68 and U.S. 101.  In 1954 the Native Daughters of the Golden West extensively restored the 1832 buildings.  A small chapel and seven rooms may be visited.  However, three unrestored sides of the quadrangle continue to melt slowly back into the earth. 

Our first glimpse of San Antonio de Padua (1771) surrounded by oak-studded, grass covered hills within the Hunter Liggett Military Reservation allowed us to imagine we were time traveling.  Located about 45 miles south of Soledad via U.S. 101, Jolon Road and Mission Road, San Antonio was restored in 1949 nearly to its original state.  The mission’s unique campanario is of burned brick.  We explored the remnants of a reservoir and aqueduct system designed to bring water to the mission three miles from the San Antonio River.  A small museum includes old mission rooms and a painted decoration says the first Christian marriage in Alta California took place here. 

Squeezed between the freeway and the railroad, Mission San Miguel Archangel (1797) stands about 45 miles southeast of Mission San Antonio via Jolon Road and U.S. 101.  The colorful interior of the church was painted by Spanish artist Estevan Munras and his Indian assistants in 1820 as a fresco secco or watercolor painting on dry plaster. 

During secularization a saloon once took up residence.  In 1928 the mission was returned to the Franciscans.  Many rooms are open to visitors. A store room and wine making facility houses a large wine vat dating to the 1820s.  Other rooms depict typical mission-era living quarters while the courtyard features olive presses and other period equipment. 

Portions of San Miguel have not been restored in nearly 200 years.  Church walls reveal severe cracks due to earthquakes and the rumble of nearby trains.  Water stains on the ceiling threaten the original Indian and Spanish paintings--some of the only surviving such artwork in the mission chain. 

San Luis Obispo de Toloso (1772) sits on the bank of San Luis Obispo Creek in downtown San Luis Obispo 35 miles south of San Miguel along U.S. 101.  After California entered the Union, the mission gave birth to this town.  At various times mission rooms functioned as a jail and courthouse.  The church was remodeled several times including once with a New England-style steeple!  Today it is restored to its original appearance including an arcade with square openings and round pillars.  

An 1812 earthquake destroyed the original La Purisima Concepcion mission (1787) and the Padres rebuilt it in a unique linear design at a new location just northeast of Lompoc.  To get there we traveled nearly 60 miles from San Luis Obispo via U.S. 101, and Highways 135 and 1.   

Like San Antonio and Soledad, La Purisima sits in the open without intrusion of modern civilization.  A dusty path runs parallel to the mission; one of the few surviving portions of the original El Camino Real. 

Thirty-seven furnished rooms are open to visitors including el cuartel or soldier’s barracks, the church, shops, and living quarters of the Padres.  Mission Life Days, Purisima People Day, candlelight tours and other living history events are scheduled during the year.  The Visitor Center displays information about the CCC restoration project. 

It’s fun to try and trace the original path of the padres, but by whatever route, pilgrims will find no better windows through which to glimpse early California than the missions of the central coast.

California Missions Foundation 

The non‑profit California Missions Foundation was established to support the preservation,

protection and maintenance of California’s historic missions, many of which are in urgent need of

repair.  The foundation welcomes tax‑deductible contributions for those purposes.  It publishes an

excellent 36‑page educational guide, "The Missions of Alta California" which includes a brief

history of the missions and a catalogue with facts and photos of each mission.

California Missions Foundation

1007 Seventh Street, Suite 319

Sacramento, CA 95814‑3407

(916) 498‑0120

www.save‑the‑missions.org