Most of us in St. Joseph Parish Old Mission San Jose can recite from memory that our Mission was founded on June 11, 1797, by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. However, likely few parishioners can tell the “big picture story” of why the Spanish came to Alta California, the strategy behind the sequencing of the Missions, and how the 14th Mission, Mission San Jose, came to be located where it still exists today.
Men’s Club member, Gary Dorighi is volunteer Docent for Mission San Jose and co-author of the booklet, “The Story of Mission San José.” On Tuesday, September 7th at 7pm on ZOOM, he will answer these questions as well as share some unpublished drawings of how the 1797 Mission structures may have looked prior to the 1809 construction of the adobe church.