Mission San Jose
historic place
Mission San Jose, a historic place in Alameda County, California, was founded on June 11, 1797, by Father Fermín Lasuén. It was the fourteenth Spanish mission in Alta California, established on the Ohlone Indian village of Oroysom. The mission became one of the most prosperous. The first permanent adobe church was dedicated on April 22, 1809. By 1830, nearly 2,000 Ohlone Indians resided here. Father Narciso Durán, serving from 1806, established a renowned choir and orchestra. Historical markers, including one dedicated in 1947 for its 150th anniversary and another erected in 2003, detail its past. Following Mexican secularization in 1833, the mission declined. An 1868 earthquake destroyed the original adobe church and most buildings. The padres' living quarters, now a museum, survived. A replica of the 1809 adobe church was completed in 1985. Mission San Jose remains a significant California Historical Landmark.