Site information:

Mission Blvd at Washington Blvd, Fremont

37.533947,-121.920054

Plaque information:

State plaque

Plaque text:

Mission San Jose

At the Ohlone Indian village of Oroysom, Padre Fermi­n Francisco de Lasuén founded this fourteenth of twenty-one Franciscan missions June 11, 1797. Taught by Padre Narcisco Durain, the Ohlone Orchestra and Choir became famous. By 1830 almost 2,000 Indians were living at the mission. The mission was secularized in 1836 and its lands divided into ranchos. During the Gold Rush, a store in the west wing outfitted miners. The 1868 earthquake destroyed the adobe church and most other mission buildings. The church was rebuilt in 1985.

Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in Cooperation with Grand Parlor, Native Daughters of the Golden West, June 8, 2003.

OHP description:

On June 9, 1797, troops under Sergeant Pedro Amador, accompanied by Father Fermín Lasuén, set out from Santa Clara for the spot that the natives called Oroysom in the valley of San Jose. The following day a temporary chapel was erected, and on June 11, the father presidente 'raised and blessed the cross. In a shelter of boughs he celebrated holy mass.' On the 28th Fathers Isidoro Barcenilla and Agustín Merino arrived to take charge of the new mission. The mission, except part of the padre's quarters, was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1868.

Registered 8/8/1939