Page last updated: November 17, 2021
All glass plate photographs by Harold A. Taylor. Digital images copyright © 2021 by Pinyon Publishing. No reproduction without permission.
Missions Home North to South: Dolores Santa Cruz San Juan Bautista Monterey Carmel
San Antonio de Padua San Miguel San Luis Obispo Santa Ines Santa Barbara-Glass SB-Celluloid
San Buenaventura San Fernando Rey de Espana San Gabriel Arcangel San Juan Capistrano Miscellaneous
San Fernando In Distance with Palm Trees (851, 8”x10”)
The Washingtonia palms mark the location where mission grapevines once stood.
San Fernando Front (852, 8”x10”)
San Fernando Along the Corridor (853, 8”x10”)
San Fernando Door (854, 8”x10”)
The church for this mission endured a long cycle of destruction and restoration, replacements built in 1799, 1800, and 1806; and following the 1812 earthquake, restorations took place in 1879, 1912, 1916, and the 1930s. After irreparable damage from the 1971 quake, a replica was built in 1974. Thus we see the pre-replica version in Taylor’s photographs.
A 19-arch colonnade borders the long (243’ x 50’) adobe building that survived after the church fell to ruins, the church having passed through several leases including a hog farm in 1896. Padres digging in their onion patch found a little gold in the soil before the “first” 1948 discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in Colona.