Mission San Antonio de Padua Museum - near Jolon, CA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 36° 00.908 W 121° 14.995
10S E 657708 N 3987043
Mission San Antonio de Padua was founded in 1771 and has a small museum with Missionary artifacts.
Waymark Code: WMRTA6
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 08/02/2016
Views: 1
The Museum's website (
visit link) currently only informs us that it is temporarily closed for renovations.
The Museum has exhibits which display items from the Missionary period...such as Indian baskets, grinding stones, replicas of the grist mill and well, musical instruments, etc.
The cost is a $5 donation. A small gift shop sells mostly religious items.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us about theMission:
"Mission San Antonio de Padua is a Spanish mission established by the Franciscan order in present-day Monterey County, California, near the present-day town of Jolon. It was founded on July 14, 1771, and was the third mission founded in Alta California by Father Presidente Junípero Serra. The mission was also the site of the first Christian marriage and the first use of fired-tile roofing in Upper California. Today the mission is a parish church of the Diocese of Monterey.
Beginnings of the Mission
Mission San Antonio de Padua was the third Mission to be founded. Father Junipero Serra claimed the site on July 14, 1771 and dedicated the Mission to Saint Anthony of Padua. Saint Anthony was born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal and is the patron Saint of the poor. Father Serra left Fathers Miguel Pieras and Buenaventura Sitjar behind to continue the building efforts, though the construction of the church proper did not actually begin until 1810. By that time, there were 178 Native Americans living at the Mission.
By 1805, the number had increased to 1,300, but in 1834, after the secularization laws went into effect, the total number of Mission Indians at the Mission San Antonio was only 150. No town grew up around the Mission, as many did at other installations.
In 1845, Mexican Governor Pío Pico declared all mission buildings in Alta California for sale, but no one bid for Mission San Antonio. After nearly 30 years, the Mission was returned to the Catholic Church. In 1894, roof tiles were salvaged from the property and installed on the Southern Pacific Railroad depot located in Burlingame, California, one of the first permanent structures constructed in the Mission Revival Style."