Mission San Francisco de Asís
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Mission San Francisco de Asís, , also known as Mission Dolores, was founded on October 9, 1776. It was the sixth Alta California mission, founded by Lt. José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palou (both members of the de Anza Expedition). It is located in San Francisco within what was the Fourth Military District, and received the nickname "Mission Dolores" from the nearby Lago de los Dolores ("Lake of the Sorrows"), now vanished. It was named for St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order. Though most of the Mission complex (including the quadrangle and convento) has either been altered or demolished outright during the intervening years, the façade of the Mission chapel has remained relatively unchanged since its construction in 1782. At one point, wood clapboard siding was applied to the chapel walls as both a cosmetic and a protective measure; the veneer was later removed when the Mission was restored.
The Mission chapel, along with "Father Serra's Church" at Mission San Juan Capistrano, is one of only two buildings remaining standing where Father Junípero Serra is known to have officiated (although "Dolores" was still under construction at the time of Serra's visit). In 1817, Mission San Rafael Arcángel was established as an asistencia to act as a hospital for the Mission, though it would later be granted full mission status in 1822. After the California Gold Rush began in 1848, the City of San Francisco had grown tremendously; there were saloons and two race tracks on the Mission property. During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the basilica was destroyed, while the Mission itself remained relatively unharmed.
The Mission is still an active church in San Francisco. Many people attend services in the Mission church and even more attend mass in the basilica next door. The Mission is open to visitors, and is located on Dolores Street near its intersection with 16th Street. The Mission District is the name of the San Francisco neighborhood adjacent to the Mission, and was one of the few areas of San Francisco not destroyed by the fires that sprang up in the aftermath of the 1906 'quake. The mission was featured prominently in the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo, as was the Mission San Juan Bautista.
Historic designations
- National Register of Historic Places #NPS-72000251
- California Historical Landmark #327-1
- California Historical Landmark #393 - "The Hospice" (an outpost of Mission Dolores in San Mateo, California)
Trivia
The City of San Francisco was a streamlined passenger train jointly operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway , the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Union Pacific Railroad between 1936 and 1971; the service ran between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California. Many of the cars bore the name of locales in and around its namesake city, one of these (a dining car) being Mission Dolores.In Vertigo James Stewart follows Kim Novak into the Mission and out to the cemetary, where she lays flowers at the grave of "Carlotta Valdez." Although the grave marker was fictional and set-up specifically for the film, it was reportedly left to stand in the cemetary for a number of years after filming.
References
See also
- Spanish missions in California
- Mission San Rafael Arcángel
- USNS Mission Dolores (AO-115) — a ''Buenaventura Class fleet oiler built during World War II.
- USNS Mission San Francisco (AO-123) — a Buenaventura Class fleet oiler built during World War II.
- 49-Mile Scenic Drive
External links
- [Official mission website]
- [Elevation & Site Layout sketches of the Mission proper]
- [San Francisco Public Library - Photographs of Mission Dolores]
- [Map of Mission Dolores and nearby water sources (from ShapingSF.org)]
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