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The monumental structures designed by missionary friars and accomplished craftsmen were constructed by Indigenous California Natives, neophyte laborers, baptized as Christians, building the many impressive and imposing architectural wonders of Alta California’s Spanish missions. Shown here for the first time as a complete collection, California’s first architectural structures, from the 18th and early 19th centuries, are photographs that capture the earliest European colonies of original adobe, stone, and brick construction arranged in the order of their founding. The chain of missions, numbering twenty-one monolithic landmarks, was completed solely through the manual toil of the Native Americans, during a period of far more than a few fleeting moments in California history. As the images indicate, the Alta California buildings are courageous efforts in size, monumental accomplishments, and equally immense in their impact on the sentient lives of the original California Native Americans who constructed them. The rediscovered glass plates unveil a gallery of over 70 photographs, nearly lost a century ago in obscurity, revealing the actual Alta California mission buildings as they were before contemporary restorations were completed.
The 1933 Historic American Buildings Survey, or HABS, an arm of the Smithsonian Institute National Museum, in assigned several photographers to document America’s historical buildings, reassessing their condition. I determined I likely possessed the original negatives once used for WPA renovation of the California missions in the late 1930s, and the work of a single photographer’s journey to the landmark buildings, leaving a glimpse of these earliest California structures. The photographer of the Alta California buildings traveled throughout the twenty-one missions along El Camino Real, or Royal Road, over a distance of nearly 650 miles in dedicated journeys over nine years. Of similar images at the Library of Congress, only two exact matches were found online among all the images I discovered. The creator of this trove produced spectacular works, and his identity still remains unknown today. The existence and influence of Alta California architecture, interwoven with the legacy of Spanish missionaries, lasted nearly eight decades, permanently etched into the annals of history and the California Native American Indian culture.
The photographer from this collection traveled the California mission trails carrying a wooden camera and a tripod in the late 1920s and captured nearly one hundred photographs of California’s earliest history. The large-format wooden box cameras unfolded, and a bellows with a large convex glass lens mounted slid to its end. Wet glass plates for film created high-quality photographs, though each exposure required processing the wet plates in the field within a fifteen-minute deadline. The photographs left us an incisive glimpse of the Alta colonies, as they existed during the American Revolution at the birth of the United States, and decades later, still producing images sharply defined. Isometric photographs skillfully framed in the 250-year-old Spanish Missions buildings to portray an expertise and enormity of each subject, although few notes of explanation were left about the photographs, but one name, “Dirkson”, appeared on two manila envelopes, and one mention of Bechtel Corp., a California construction company. This led to the conclusion that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) contracted renovators of the mission buildings, and verifies Bechtel as one of the subcontractors in the rebuilding of California missions. The 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers steadily worked on the missions through the Great Depression era. I deduced our photographer likely lived near San Fernando and closer to southern mission sites, and appeared to have created several trial exposures testing celluloid film.
The freedom of the automobile gave photographers unlimited abilities to roam over the countryside and visit these remote historical sites, and they often considered touring the entire California Mission Chain. In this edition, the unveiling of many images hidden for more than nine decades, then organizing and scanning the entire collection, has resulted in sharply defined negative images, now bringing new life to the centuries-old buildings of Alta California. All California Spanish Missions are revived and fully restored today, and several have been intricately replicated to accurately impart the look and feel of the forgotten past.
At the turn of the Century, few missions were left standing as serviceable or inhabited by clergy, often as the victims of random earthquakes, fires, and neglect. Today, all the Spanish missions of California are open to the public as California’s first landmark structures and settlements. Collaborative efforts in preservation to restore the original architectural designs, expansive mission properties, and garden landscapes began by the Catholic Church, as an outcome of the 1830s secularization laws and the privatization of the properties. After 1850, codified U.S. Statehood permitted the Church to petition and reclaim ownership rights of the mission properties, and many were returned through several U.S. presidential Executive Orders. Father Anthony Ubach began independent efforts to restore the mission buildings at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, which had been in ruins for decades. The Mission Santa Barbara, the church and its apostolic college, and the numerous renovations to preserve the site, including renovation of the church's interior in 1873, and renovations that enlarged the living quarters between 1856 and 1870. In 1889, at the turn of the century, the Association of the Preservation of the Missions had begun piecemeal repair work, then by 1895, the work carried over to the ‘Land Marks Club’ headed by Charles Fletcher Lummis, an influential newspaper writer. The club members leased the Mission San Juan Capistrano to rescue it from utter ruin, and in 1899, early efforts were begun rebuilding Mission San Fernando, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and Mission San Antonio de Pala. Between 1892 and 1912, beloved Franciscan Father Joseph Jeremiah O’Keefe, an Irish native, became a major restorer of the southern missions in decades of efforts at Missions Santa Barbara and San Luis Rey de Francia. The Historic Landmarks League of 1902, Native Sons and Native Daughters, California State Parks, Hearst Foundation, the Franciscan Order, and the Catholic Church each contributed to continued repairs on the building’s upkeep. After 1856, Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo fell into deterioration, once again piquing interest from the public in the identification of Father Serra’s remains, discovered with other church friars, found buried beneath the mission floor. The discovery of Alta California’s past pioneers in Carmel was commemorated as an 1884 Centennial, led by Father Angelo Casanova, hosting 400 dignitaries at the official State ceremony identifying the tomb under the church and the remains of the founder, Father Junipero Serra.
1769 Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Franciscan missionary Father Junipero Serra’s expedition in 1769 firmly planted a memorial cross and consecrated the first California Spanish site, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Father Serra claimed Alta California for the Crown King Charles III, the Spanish ruler during an era of “enlightened expansionism”. The Mission San Diego de Alcalá was relocated by Father Serra to the present-day site in 1774 and completed in 1780, and was rebuilt in 1813. The mission building survived many diverse histories, days of neglect, and was a US military garrison encampment during the Mexican-American War of 1846, and later as a school for Native Indian neophytes.
San Diego had the most densely populated number of California native tribal groups and languages from all the territories in Alta California. Nearly 100 languages or dialects among the Kumeyaay, baptized Mission Diegueños, and the daughter of Chief Pontho, witnessed the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846, describing the battles for American freedom from Mexico. She was a recognized figure among Kumeyaah families, moving near San Pasqual, and later married Boley Morales, a nickname Boley took from Teddy Roosevelt’s popular “bully bully” speeches. Felicita became well-known in the encampment of Diegueño Mission Indians, now dedicated as a 300-acre park and once an Indian settlement, under the eastern shadow of Mt. Woodson. An Escondido pageant during 1927-1931 was started in her honor.
Towards the eastern desert edge, Mission San Diego de Alcalá’s trails led to an asistencia requested by Father Juan Mariner. The inaugural mass was held in September 1818, and the site later became Mission Santa Ysabel, named to honor Elizabeth of Portugal (born 1271). Located 35 miles from downtown San Diego near Julian, the mission chapel was built at the 3,000-foot elevation. It included a granary and several adobes with a cemetery, serving hundreds of Luiseño and Diegueño Indians from the nearby foothills and mountains east of San Diego. The mission bells, considered among the oldest in the chain, were brought by early mission Indians on mules from San Diego and raised on a scaffolding near the adobe building. After 1913, the bells disappeared, leaving only the clappers found, and a museum was soon opened at the mission site. The loss of the bells remains a mystery, and the first mission structure had vanished into the soil even earlier. In 1924, a new Church of Saint John the Baptist was built at the original Santa Ysabel asistencia site.
Felicita, a baptized Diegueño Indian witnessed the Battle of San Pasqual of 1846, a child of the chief, Pontho, who became a legend of Escondido. The natives were thought to be fierce aborigines in the Eastern foothills, but in truth peacefully roamed the hills and forests gathering acorns and seeds for food. Felicita La Chappa with Boley Morales, a life long companion, lived their life in a small cabin until 1916, and Boley was said to have lived to 120. As a child, her name “Felicita” was the chosen after baptism given by the padres at Mission San Diego de Alcalá. A native home to Diegueño Indians, the regional tribes eventually were relocated to Pala, including Felicita, a young witness to the momentous upheaval of the Mexican American War, and the early mission culture. Boley Morales, and Felicita were life long companions into an unknown old age, and both were considered centenarians by 1915. Her legend endures as the Indian Princess baptized by the early missionaries in San Diego. A survivor of the Battle of San Pasqual, during the Mexican American War, her name remains at the central Escondido park to memorialize native history in the area.
Carmel – Mission San Carlos
Robert A. Bellezza, author
Santa Clara – Mission Santa Clara Mission San Juan Bautista Mission San Luis Obispo
Mission San Diego de Alcala
Mission San Antonio de Padua Solvang – Mission Santa Ines
Alta California's Spanish Missionary Pioneer History
by Robert A. Bellezza
A five-volume series from "Images of America"
Available from Arcadia Publishing
New Premiere Edition Release for 2026
The Saga of Spanish Galleons, Conquistadors, and Explorers
Take a glimpse down the forgotten Mission Trails and passageway of centuries-old Spanish conquistadors and the seafarers navigating California’s rugged coastline. Living in the foothills of the Golden State, I had uncovered the legendary tales of fantastic treasures and wandered over wide river canyons, exploring long-lost ghost towns, including gold mines hidden away in the Sierra Nevada. One visit to an estate sale in Grass Valley caught my attention unexpectedly with a discovery in a tattered box. Inside were 100 antique photographic glass plates, all of which, to the best of my knowledge, were negative images of massive adobe structures in California, dated from 1928 to 1937.
Make the journey from Mexico City by land and sea, following the dedicated ambition of Fr. Junipero Serra along with Baja governor, Gasper de Portola, and their armies of soldiers, ships, and supplies arriving at the rich agricultural territories of Alta California in 1769. Within the procession of Spanish missions built during the next 52 years under the elaborate planning of the friars, the mission system spread along a 600-mile pathway called El Camino Real. The “Royal Road” served as a main artery for travelers from San Diego, leading north to Sonoma, near San Francisco. Each new settlement featured unique architectural styles and massive mission buildings with a single unified purpose converting neophyte California Indian natives to Christianity. The Spanish mission system of more than 25 monumental adobe and brick buildings has stood through centuries, although left abused in decaying condition, only to be resurrected through private and public funding in modern days to their historically correct magnificence.
Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission Church San Rafael Mission Soledad
The San Diego Missions and How to Visit Them
California’s first permanent Spanish settlements began with converging expeditions on land and sea at the Presidio hill near today’s Old Town San Diego and its original site. The location consecrated by Father Junipero Serra in 1769, is near today’s Serra Museum at Presidio Park. A once simple structure and California’s first, Mission San Diego de Alcala overlooked the mouth of the river, and today the dome of the museum is easily recognized, and landmark seen along I-8 approaching Old Town San Diego. Recently, archeologists have uncovered pioneering settlements from the earliest Spanish colonies near the first mission site founded by Father Serra. A legendary Franciscan missionary and Mission Presidente, he created California’s first settlements and would leave ten permanent missions from his call using the crudest materials of mud covered brush and tree limbs. The Mission San Diego de Alcala began a seventy-year history of great utopian accomplishment, with twenty-one mission settlements in Alta California advancing Spanish territory along with the friar’s commitment of perseverance and faith.
The early adobes always have been important landmarks to visitors even back to the first mission structures. Friars would continuously and tenderly care for the sick, and offering food, lodging and spiritual council to travelers. San Diego County missions include Mission San Diego de Acala and San Luis Rey de Francia, and two Asistenica missions, San Antonio de Pala and Santa Ysabel. The early friars settled the rich farming lands with adequate water nearby. Evidence may be seen in Father Fermin Lasuén’s design elements viewed at the massive San Luis Rey de Francia and seventeenth mission, often referred as “King of Missions”. Oceanside’s Mission San Luis Rey was built in 1790 and housed nearly seven acres of buildings. Although the site originally had been chosen for Mission San Juan Capistrano later established to the north in 1776, Father Lasuén chose the balmy environment and fertile pastureland near Oceanside to establish Mission San Luis Rey de Francia not far from El Camino Real. José Antonio Ramirez, master builder and architect played an important role building many missions, and would begin under the supervision of Father Lasuén and his associate Father Peyri on the construction. Artful moorish elements of design brought a substantial change to the others with its unique two-step belfry, large tiles or ladrillo for veneering exteriors, and the mission’s grandeur of grace. It would become a template for later California missions, and built during a successful era of mission construction. California’s eighteenth, Mission San Luis Rey de Francia had been developed to the scale unlike any other of the missions in Alta California. The design included a culture of self-sustaining comfortable dwellings fed by adequate water. The large walls of its Moorish architecture were built five hundred feet apart, and the church’s design in the shape of a long cross would accommodate over one thousand. An elaborate system of water aqueducts and ditches supplied dormitories and directing water to vineyards, orchards, and gardens around cloisters of the young men, women, monasteries, neophytes and infirmary among the gardens of vegetables and flowers facing thirty-two archways. A pepper tree within the garden is perhaps California’s oldest living tree, originally planted centuries ago by a visiting Friar.
The fruitfulness of farming at the Mission San Luis Rey’s de Francia had been reported in the 1831 a population of twenty-six thousand cattle, twenty-five thousand sheep and over two thousand horses consuming three hundred ninety-five thousand bushels of grain. The mission had tallied producing over two thousand barrels of mission wine. This was a copious bounty that prompted Father Peyri’s development of agricultural lands in the eastern areas of San Diego and twenty miles away from the larger Mission San Luis Rey near Warner Springs and Julian, he would expand and build the San Luis Rey’s Asistencia Mission completed in 1810. It would be constructed, maintained and decorated by indigenous natives carrying on this tradition in attendance over centuries. A second Asistencia was requested by Father Juan Mariner of Mission San Diego de Alcala would dedicate its inaugural mass on September, 1818 as Mission Santa Ysabel. The chapel mission, granary, adobes and cemetery would serve hundreds of Luiseno and Diegueno native Indians towards the mountains of east San Diego. Today, the chapel of St. John the Baptist erected in 1924, is located at the site of the original Santa Ysabel Asistencia Mission.
Timeline Events of the El Camino Real Trail and the California Missions
1542 – A contemporary of Hernan Cortés, in September Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo made the first landing at San Diego in Alta California, and the following November sighted Point Reyes near San Francisco. On this voyage he had missed the Golden Gate harbor obscured for two centuries later until the El Camino Real overland trail of 1770. Cabrillo never returned from his voyage but became important part of history as the first European exploration charting the Pacific coast of Alta California.
1579 – Sir Francis Drake would explore the upper areas of Alta California with the Golden Hind, returning with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures.
1768-1771 - Three important voyages of discovery and first mapping the South Seas and Pacific by Captain Cook began in1768, 1772, again in 1776 with his discovery of Hawaii and subsequent explorations of the coast of California, Oregon and Alaska.
1769 - Mission San Diego de Alcala founded by Father Junipero Serra in San Diego.
1769-1784 - During his lifetime, Father Junipero Serra's service began in Baja California, later joining the expeditions to Alta California. Father Serra stayed as the mission’s northern Father-President creating harmonious, self-sustaining systems following his utopian vision helping indigenous people and travelers to Alta California.
1770 - Mission San Carlos de Borromeo del Rio Carmelo founded by Father Junipero Serra in Carmel.
1771 - Mission San Antonio de Padua founded by Father Junipero Serra in Jolon.
1771 - Mission San Gabriel Arcangel founded by Fathers Cambon and Somera in San Gabriel.
1771-1773 - Viceroy Antonio Bucareli in Mexico City had charged Spain's explorers to begin settling of Alta California in alliance with the Franciscan missionaries and establishment the California Mission system along El Camino Real to embrace the friendly native people.
1772 – Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa founded by Father Junipero Serra in San Luis Obispo.
1773 - The first California code becoming law: Relamento Provisional gave defined laws for region. It also required with missionaries, the soldiers, carpenters, farmers and livestock to become setters with exploration culminating in San Francisco. The settlement included today's fertile San Joaquin and Sacramento River deltas.
1774-1775 - Juan Manuel de Ayala y Aranza, voyage by sea completed an expedition mapping the port and subsequent value of San Francisco, and would found Alcatraz and Angel Islands. He returned prior to Father Serra and DeAnza's second trip bringing over 240 migrants.
1776 - Captain DeAnza's two expeditions culminating in San Francisco above the harbor was accompanied by two padres Father Garcés and Father Juan Diaz. DeAnza selected a small rivulet on the hill, and named Dolores as the mission site with Father Junipero Serra as the San Francisco de Asis.
1776 - Mission San Juan Capistrano founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in San Juan Capistrano.
1776 - Monterey established as residence for the governor of Alta California. San Francisco founded later in March by DeAnza's party. The last trip marked a culminating point in the Spanish conquest of Alta California, carried on by the missionaries.
1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asis founded by Father Junipero Serra in Santa Clara.
1777-1820 - The era’s peak period of agriculture under expanding mission communities. During this time of secularization, Mexico had granted its citizens private holdings and use of the mission lands dispersing populations and causing most structures to fall into disrepair and eventual ruin.
1782 - Mission San Buenaventura founded by Father Junipero Serra in Ventura.
1786 - Mission Santa Barbara, Virgen y Martir founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in Santa Barbara.
1787 - Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima- Father Fermin de Lasuén in Lompoc.
1791 - Mission La Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in Santa Cruz.
1791 - Mission Nuestra Senora del la Soledad founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in Soledad.
1797 - Mission del Gloriosisimo Patriarca San José founded by Father Junipero Serra San Jose.
1797 - Mission San Juan Bautista founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in San Juan Bautista.
1797 - Mission San Miguel, Arcangel founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in San Miguel.
1797 - Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in San Fernando.
1798 - Mission San Luis Rey de Francia founded by Father Fermin de Lasuén in Oceanside.
1804 - Mission Santa Inés, Virgen y Martir founded by Father Esteban Tapis in Solvang.
1817 - Mission San Rafael, Arcangel founded by Asiscentia Mission in San Rafael.
1823 - Mission San Francisco Solano founded by Father José Altimira in Sonoma.
1848- The discovery of gold in January had occurred nine days before the signing of the historic peace treaty of Hildago with Mexico, February 2, 1848.
1849 - Monterey, Colton Hall would be the scene of the assembly of the Constitutional convention that brought Statehood to California the following year.