I can't lie - Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana is both a beautiful location and church... and it confused me. The museum featured not only artifacts from the mission era, but also motion picture and Dr. Pepper memorabilia. Don't get me wrong - I like history as much as the next duck - but it just felt a bit... misplaced.

Anyhoo; established later in the series but still relatively early (before the 1800s) - on September 8, 1797 - it was humming along with marriages, baptisms and deaths by the end of that year. This location had a fairly revolving-door sort of leadership chain with the religious staff, which didn't serve its stability much. The December 1812 earthquake impacted its stability in the physical sense, requiring 20 new beams to be put in to support the church's wall,

When the missions were secularized in 1834, San Fernando was eventually sold (in 1846), used for a number of purposes before being returned to the Roman Catholic Church in 1861 - though not before the locals stripped the buildings for their materials. The church was reborn in 1923 with the arrival of Oblate priests, who attempted restoration; it wasn't until the Hearst Foundation gave a large monetary gift in the 1940s that the work could be completed. .

Founded: Sepember 8, 1797 (#17) by Father Fermin de Lasuen, in present-day Mission Hills area of Los Angeles, California at 15151 San Fernando Mission Boulevard.

Visit: Admission #7 adults, $5 seniors (65+), $3 children ages 6-18; active military, their family, and any children 5 or under are free. Monday-Friday 9:30am to 5pm, weekends 10am to 5pm; closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day.

Learn more: Mission's Web Site * Wikipedia: Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana * Photos I Took * (There was no tour map of Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana)