Monday, December 6, 2010

Mission San Francisco Solano

Not in the city of San Francisco (that is Mission San Francisco de Asís) this mission  is in Sonoma, California.
 Mission San Francisco Solano is the farthest north and the last of California's 21 Missions to be built.
The mission, along with the Presidio of Sonoma and the homes of General Vallejo, is now part of Sonoma State Historic Park
 Displayed in the dining room are water colors painted in 1903-1904 by Chris  Jorgensen.  These depict many of the California missions as they looked at that time.  Some were in pretty good shape, others had almost crumbled into oblivion.
 Once in a terrible state of disrepair, the mission has been lovingly restored.
See more of this wonderful planet we call home at That's My World Tuesday, hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren and Sylvia.

18 comments:

Diane AZ said...

Neat post! I enjoyed Chris Jorgensen's watercolors of the missions. Also, I love your header photo. :D

clairz said...

What a nostalgic post for me! I grew up in California and loved the missions. I never dreamed that I would one day live in a house made of adobe (like the missions), with big ceiling vigas (as in your second photo), in a place where people have hornos (as in your last photo) in their yards for baking bread!

Thank you for sharing these photos of your part of the world.

Anonymous said...

Great blog! I've included it on a site I've created, which is a compilation of some of the best blogs in the city.

Best of Blogs San Francisco
http://bestofblogssanfrancisco.wordpress.com

Barb said...

I like the old kiva, Martha. The colors and statues show the Spanish influence. Hope you are both well.

Sylvia K said...

Marvelous post as always, Martha! Love the old kiva! I'm so glad the mission has been restored! I've been able to visit a few of them, but not this one! Your photos are the next best thing! Have a great week!

Sylvia

EG CameraGirl said...

I think it's GREAT that this mission has been restored. History needs to be remembered and what better way than with actual buildings and artifacts!

Photo Cache said...

beautiful images. i'm slowly visiting all the missions; only gotten to 9 so far :)

Gaelyn said...

Interesting post. Glad the mission is now a protected park.

Reader Wil said...

What a beautiful mission ! Thank you for the tour around your world. It 's so great to be able to visit places all over the world. Thank you for visiting my blog, Martha! Have a great Tuesday!

eileeninmd said...

Lovely tour of the mission, your photos are beautiful.

Unknown said...

That is just excellent, that this mission has been restored. I'm always heartened by such things. Great history and beautiful sentiment.

LifeRamblings said...

wonderful series of the mission.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Very interesting. I have seen missions in New Mexico but not California, yet.

Arija said...

Lovely Martha and so nice to see it restored again.

Unknown said...

i like the simple altar. marvelous shot.

Marites said...

I was able to visit the one in San Francisco and I find it really nice that it was restored throughout the ages. Thank goodness, this one was restored too. I like seeing things how people in the past lived. Really good captures!

My world is here.

Anonymous said...

The restorers did a great job, and a great favor for the rest of us. Thanks for a lovely visit!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I love to see good historical restorations and the Mission is beautiful and beautifully re-done. Is the bottom picture an oven of some kind? (Maybe I missed that in the text; I'll go back and look.)