Padre Francisco Palou (1723-1789) was a companion of Father Junipera Serra, who established 21 Missions up the California coast from San Diego to San Francisco in the mid-1700s. In 1776 Serra appointed Palou to open and operate Mission San Francisco de Asis in San Francisco with the objective of evangelizing the local indigenous Ohlone tribe. Nicknamed Mission Dolores because it was built next to Arroyo de los Dolores (Creek of Sorrows), it was a small log thatch structure located somewhere near Camp and Albion in the Mission District. In 1791 the more permanent Mission Chapel at 3321 16th Street was dedicated. It still exists today, and is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the only remaining Mission Chapel where Father Serra officiated. It has four-foot thick adobe walls and redwood beams supporting its roof. 

Mission Dolores’ peak of operation was between 1810-1820. Owning all of the land out to the Bay and down into San Mateo, it became the largest settlement in Alta California (as California was known during Spanish occupation). There were sheep, cows, horses, goats, pigs, mules and crops. Once baptized, Native Americans were not allowed to leave the Mission. They became unpaid labor and if they left they were hunted down as runaways. Physical punishment was prevalent, and death by foreign disease was rampant.

When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the California Missions began to wane due to Native American rebellion and conflicts with the Mexican government. By 1842 there were only 8 Christian Native Americans living on Mission Dolores land.

Mission Dolores became part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1857. In 1876, as immigrants began moving into the area, a large brick church was built next to the Mission Chapel to accommodate the growing congregation, though the Mission Chapel was still used for religious purposes. Ironically, the new church was completely destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fires^[1] while the original adobe chapel sustained little damage. It was saved from the fires when a school across the street was dynamited. In 1926, Willis Polk^[3] supervised a restoration of the Mission Chapel. The brick church was replaced in 1918 with today’s Mission Dolores Basilica.

The Mission’s Cemetery is adjacent to the Mission Chapel. It is one of two cemeteries remaining within City limits (the National Cemetery in the Presidio^[3A] is the other). 11,000 people were buried in the Mission Dolores cemetery, 6,000 of them from the Ohlone tribe. Most of the cemetery was eventually paved over, but approximately 100 gravestones are still visible^[4].

^[1] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849

^[3] Willis Polk: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5219

^[4] The Mission Chapel and cemetery are open to the public for a fee. Visit them at www.missiondolores.org