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.
Mission San Jose was built near the South Eastern shore of San Francisco bay in order to exercise more control over the 'difficult' indians that lived in the area and in the region to the East. Mission Pass is located just North of the Mission and provides a relatively easy passage to the Sunol, San Ramon and Livermore valleys to the East, and from there into the central valley beyond. Both author Richard Henry Dana and explorer Charles Fremont spent time at Mission San Jose.
After the mission lands passed into private hands the settlement was a center for outfitting miners bound for the gold fields through the pass. Washington Boulevard ends at the mission and runs downhill to the landings that provided the mission with water-borne transportation.
The old church was destroyed by an earthquake on the Hayward fault in 1868, 38 years before the 'great' earthquake of 1906. The current buildings were reconstructed in 1985. Services are held in the main church, and the old convento building houses museum displays and a gift shop.
More about the Mission from Wikipedia