Page last updated: November 17, 2021
All glass plate photographs by Harold A. Taylor. Digital images copyright © 2021 by Pinyon Publishing. No reproduction without permission.
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MISSION SAN LUIS OBISPO
Mission San Luis Obispo (3634, 3”x4”)
Downtown San Luis Obispo hosts this fifth mission, founded in 1772 (present building dates to 1792-94) on Highway 101. This is the first mission to have tile roofs after the dry tule roofs kept burning when hostile Indians set them afire with flaming arrows. Soon after, this fire- and water-proof roofing material quickly spread throughout the mission chain.
In 1868 remodelers encased the adobe in painted siding which was later removed in 1934. The floor of the colonnade once level with the ground now sits above the street. Additional restoration took place in 1947.