A look at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa’s 250 years of history
Weddings, graduations, christenings and funerals — over the last 250 years, Mission San Luis Obispo has been witness to the full range of human drama.
The founding of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa put the town on the Vatican and Spain’s map of the world 250 years ago.
The Northern Chumash lived in the nearby village of Tixilini. Indigenous people would be the majority of labor that built the California missions, a relationship at times marked by coercion and conflict.
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was the fifth California mission founded and a waypoint between existing missions at San Antonio and San Gabriel.
According to the California Missions foundation website, Vatican law said churches must be as tall as the local tree, like the sycamores and oaks lining the creek. The width of the building was determined by the length of lumber beams. The front doorway is wide enough to accommodate horses in an emergency.
It was founded near an abundant source of bears, a source of meat discovered by the Don Gaspar de Portola expedition in 1769 in Los Osos.
The building has seen fire and flood, celebration and tragedy, and the plaza has become a beloved gathering place for the community.
Thanks to historian Dan Krieger for help pinning down dates for this timeline.
The history of Mission San Luis Obispo
Sep. 1, 1772: Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded by Junipero Serra at the confluence of Stenner and San Luis creeks near the present day Promontory building.
January 1773: Flooding forces a move upstream near to present day Oddfellows building.
1776: A flaming arrow shot by a Native American into tule thatched roof severely damages church. Some accounts trace the creation of traditional mission tile roofs to this event, though the fourth mission, San Antonio de Padua may have a prior claim.
1777: Current Mission building begins construction.
1787-90: Asistencia, or sub-mission, founded at Santa Margarita de Cortona to expand farm and ranch operations.
1789: Padre Jose Cavaller dies and is buried in Mission.
1793: Present day church building completed.
1819: Quadrangle completed.
1820: Bells arrive from Lima, Peru cast by Manuel Vargas.
1821: Mexico wins independence from Spain, and soon missions begin to be sold off by the new government.
1830: Earthquake damages SLO’s Mission.
1830: Buildings were in poor repair in a report to government: “... the front of the Mission Church has to be taken down, because it threatened to tumble over.”
1834: Scavengers steal roof tiles for local construction.
1845: Secularization comes to San Luis Obispo. Gov. Pio Pico sells Mission to sea captain John Wilson and James C. Scott for $510.
1846: Lt. Col. John C. Frémont quarters troops in the Mission during war with Mexico.
Feb. 2, 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed, ceding California to United States.
1850: California admitted as 31st state in the United States.
1856: San Luis Obispo incorporated as a town. The Mission building would become the first courthouse, jail and a school for the town. The area immediately around the building would fill with commercial buildings.
1857: Fort Tejon earthquake (measuring a 7.9) breaks along San Andreas fault from Parkfield to Wrightwood, an almost 225 mile surface rupture.
1858: Vigilantes hang seven Californios near the Mission. They had been accused of being involved in a gang that had murdered ranchers in the North County.
1859: Mission returned to Catholic Church.
1877: Bell loft and portico removed due to earthquake damage. Church is covered with New England-style belfry and clapboard walls.
1893: Annex added to original church.
March 27, 1920: Fire destroys roof, likely due to faulty wiring.
1925: La Fiesta de las Flores founded to help raise funds to repair Mission.
1933-34: Campanario, or bell wall, is rebuilt.
1948: Annex is extended.
1970: Mission Plaza is dedicated.
1988: Bear and Chumash sculpture by artist Paula Zima installed.
1990: Rabbi Harry Manhoff of Congregation Beth David and Father Jim Nisbet of Old Mission Church celebrate Hanukkah with menorah lighting at the center of town in December 1990.
2001: Serra statue installed in front of Mission.
2001-02: Seismic retrofit.
2018: New bells replace aged metal fatigued originals
2020: Serra statue removed from front
2022: Community celebrates 250th anniversary of Mission.
This story was originally published June 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
