Mission San Francisco de Asís, Historic Catholic mission site in Mission District, San Francisco, United States
Mission San Francisco de Asís is a colonial church complex in the Mission District of San Francisco, United States. Its 1791 adobe chapel, the oldest intact structure in the city, has walls 1.2 m thick, redwood roof beams and a baroque altar brought from Mexico in 1796. Beside it stands the Mission Dolores Basilica, built in 1918 with two tall towers capped by green domes.
Spanish Franciscans founded this outpost in June 1776, a few days before the independence declaration of the thirteen colonies on the east coast. Indigenous Ohlone built the adobe chapel and were baptized by missionaries, while their traditional way of life disappeared.
The name Dolores comes from a nearby creek once called Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, which supplied water to the area. Indigenous craftspeople created wall paintings with plant-based pigments that remain visible today, showing how different belief systems came together.
The small chapel sits to the left of the larger basilica and shows thick adobe walls and old wooden beams on the ceiling. The cemetery and gardens behind the buildings offer quiet away from the street and are easy to reach during daylight.
The 1906 earthquake caused only minor damage to the adobe chapel, while the brick parish church built beside it in 1876 collapsed. The larger basilica that stands next to the chapel today was rebuilt between 1918 and 1926 in a different style. The chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972.
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