Mission San Rafael was originally a sub-mission (a "asistencia") of Mission San Francisco de Asis, intended as sort of infirmary to treat the sick Native American population - also giving it claim to fame as the first sanitarium in California. (Which is a medical facility, often one that treated tuberculosis before antibiotics were discovered; it's not an insame asylum - unless I'm alone in that confusion.) That said, San Rafael was granted "full mission" status on October 19, 1822.

Like so many others, San Rafael was turned over to the Mexican government in 1833, and was secularized in 1834. In 1840, there were still 150 Native Americans living at the mission, but only a few years later, it was fully abandoned by 1844 and the buildings were sold. The mission site served as a headquarters by John C. Fremont while fighting battles to help make California a possession of the United States. In 1847, a priest was back, and a new parish church church was built nearby; the only remains of the mission was a single pear tree. The smaller (mission-looking) chapel near Saint Raphel's Church was built in the late 1940s. This mission also claims its fame as the "most obliterated of California's missions."

Founded: December 14, 1817 (#20) by Father Vicente Francisco de Sarria, in present-day San Rafael, California at 1104 5th Avenue.

Visit: Admission - not sure; Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Learn more: Mission's Web Site * Wikipedia: Mission San Francisco Solano (in California) * Photos I Took * No tour map from Mission San Rafael Arcangel... the museum decided to be closed the Saturday I visited