March 2025 Baja Bound Bulletin Article about Mission San José del Cabo +

Quote: Originally posted by cupcake

Great article on the southern most missions, David! Interesting that the Pericu women favored polygamy. Maybe too much work involved with monogamy. It's nice to see the old photos of Mission San Jose del Cabo and Mission Todos Santos (seen via the first linkout). Too bad these two old structures are no longer existing. [Edited on 3-14-2025 by cupcake]

Thank you!
Comparing the 1919 Todos Santos photo to the building seen today at the town plaza... very little change on the north and east sides. What do you think? It is pretty surprising, yes?

1919:


2017:

Quote: Originally posted by cupcake

Is this the original structure? If yes, is it a cut-stone constructed building? It looks remarkably good. I thought the only cut-stone survivors were between (and including) San Borja and San Luis Gonzaga.

Original Jesuit (1697-1767) buildings or parts of building, yes, you are correct. What you see at Todos Santos was or replaced what the Dominican priest had built there, in 1825 to 1840 (when the mission was closed).

Do you have my book or seen my article?: https://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajatravel/la_paz_m...

As you may know from my Baja Bound article, there were two missions at Todos Santos, which began as a visita of the La Paz mission in 1725. The first mission was called Santa Rosa (1733-1748), it was located in front of the 1970 modern church, a mile north of the town plaza (no ruins, just a playground).

The La Paz mission moved from the bay location to the Mission Santa Rosa/ Visita Todos Santos location (from 1748-1825). That final year (1825), it moved south to where the church in the above photos is (today's town plaza).

In the spring of 1822, Baja California officially became part of the newly independent Mexican Empire. The Spanish missions were no more...
However, with still many Natives not yet assimilated to modern living, many missions were allowed to remain open (at least until their priest abandoned it or died). The La Paz mission (at Todos Santos) was operating to 1840, when it became a parish church serving the newly arrived Mexican people.

What I don't have is if that 1825 moved mission's church was modified or replaced with what we see in the 1919 photo.

In 1868, this was a sketch made at Todos Santos... obviously not the exact same building of the 1919 photo: