Due to Covid restrictions, it is best to check for current information. Weddings and Other Special Services. Special Events. Mission History Day is usually on the first Saturday of the month check the mission website for accurate dates and times in the mission's gardens or museum patio. The Fiesta features religious, historical and cultural activities, as well as game and food booths, rides and free entertainment in the evenings.
Tongva Indians and historical re-enactors hold special events. Details are available on the mission website. Unique Attractions. The oldest bells were cast in In the mission era the principal entrance to the church was through a side door, which opened directly on to El Camino Real Royal Road. The exterior staircase led to the choir loft.
San Gabriel became a parish church after its secularization in and remains an active Catholic Church. The Stations of the Cross are thought to be neophyte Indian paintings which date to the 's. The originals are in the mission museum with copies hanging in the church. The grounds of the mission are filled with displays, equipment, and objects from San Gabriel's long history.
There is also a special room containing a restored mission-era kitchen. One of the favorites of visitors is the "wine room" which has displays of historic wine-making equipment San Gabriel had the largest vineyard in Spanish California. A portion of the cemetery is set aside as burial grounds for Claretian Missionaries. This order has been responsible for San Gabriel since Other Historic Attractions. The Church of Our Lady of Angels has been restored. A visit to Old Town is highly recommended.
Tips for Visitors. There is a small park on the side of the church. This offers the best view of the bell tower, capped buttresses , and tall, narrow windows of this distinctive church. The best time to photograph the church is in the late afternoon, when the sun begins to set.
Be sure to spend enough time in the church interior. The walls were rebuilt in using the original foundations, and this crucifix is a memorial to the 6, Indians buried here.
An active Roman Catholic Church, weddings and other religious services continue to take place at Mission San Gabriel, as they did in the early days of California history. Proceed north to Mission Drive and turn right. Closes at noon on Christmas Eve. Please call for further information. Facilities Museum Gift Shop. By , some residents were envisioning a bigger and better future, and, following a heated battle, voted to incorporate the community as a city.
In , San Gabriel had roughly 2, inhabitants. Subsequent years brought steady land sales and housing construction, as new residents flowed into the city. Home to approximately 12, citizens in , San Gabriel residents numbered more than 20, in Gradually agriculture gave way to residential developments and commercial and industrial enterprises. In the s, many San Gabriel firms were turning out component parts for the burgeoning Southern California aerospace industry.
The Native Americans who lived in what is now the Los Angeles area spoke a language distinct from their neighbors to the North and South of them. They have come to be known as Gabrielino, after the Mission San Gabriel, where many of them eventually lived. When the Europeans arrived, they discovered numerous Indian villages between the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel mountains.
The Gabrielino lived in domed, circular structures with thatched exteriors. Both men and women wore their hair long and used a vegetable charcoal dye and thorns of flint slivers to tattoo their bodies. They required very few clothes, though women usually donned deerskin or bark aprons, and all might wear animal skin capes in cold or wet weather. When the Franciscans established the Mission San Gabriel in the late s, they did so with the intent of converting the nearby Indians and teaching them useful skills-that is, weaving, spinning, farming and other skills typical of a European lifestyle.
Those Gabrielino who did not flee, either moved voluntarily or were forcibly relocated to the vicinity of the mission, where they worked its lands and contributed to its eventual prosperity.
European diseases killed many of these Indians, and others suffered from ill treatment at the hands of the occupying Spaniards. Later, many became laborers for local landowners. Gabrielino Tongva Springs Foundation. Los Angeles Original Peoples. Nearly from the outset, the padres at the San Gabriel Mission tested the fertility of the lands belonging to the mission, successfully growing limes, pomegranates, figs, peaches, pears, and apples. More notably, they were soon nurturing acres and acres of grape vines and orange trees.
Cuttings from their vines and seeds from their orange trees would eventually spread vineyards and orange groves throughout California. Until a blight destroyed the vineyards, the San Gabriel Winery was counted among the largest wineries in the world late in the century. The arrival of the railroads portended the eventual demise of the agricultural industry, but during the s the lands around San Gabriel were still producing generous quantities of fruits, vegetables, and grain.
Rapid population growth in the San Gabriel Valley during the s and s and the spread of commercial ventures and industrial operations ultimately spelled the end of the agricultural focus of the San Gabriel area. Setting up the missions in the wilderness of a new land that was still very much unknown and unexplored, the Franciscan fathers felt called to convert the local Indians to the Catholic religion and, at the same time, to teach them the skills useful to peasants in an agricultural community.
With land holdings encompassing all of present-day Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties and resident Indians who had been trained to weave and sew, care for livestock and crops, tan leather, and tend orange trees and vineyards, the Mission San Gabriel prospered. In the s, the Mexican government secularized all of the California missions and San Gabriel Mission fell into ruins, its Indians dispersed and forced to fend for themselves.
After the United States assumed control of California at mid century, the American government returned the mission to the Catholic church. From to , it functioned as a parish church. Since that time, the Claretian fathers have administered the mission. San Gabriel Historical Walk. After enjoying a performance of the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, Henry Miller, a Riverside resident, decided that someone should write a play about the history of California, particularly the story of its missions.
He looked about for an author and finally approached John Steven McGroarty, a poet, Los Angeles Times columnist, and the writer of a history of California.
McGroarty developed a script for an epic production of more than four hours duration involving some actors. Today the building houses several local retailers and businesses, retaining its Mission Revival architectural style. The building, purchased by the city in , now houses the popular Lunas Mexican Restaurant. The Mission Playhouse is the jewel of the Mission District and a center for arts and culture in the San Gabriel community.
Today the Playhouse is home to many exciting and unique events and performances throughout the year. Next to the Playhouse is the Grapevine Arbor, which houses an offspring of the historic "Mother Vine" planted in from a clipping from the Mission. The San Gabriel Winery was among the world's largest in the late s.
Historic Buildings Another important part of San Gabriel history that came out of the Mission days were the city's many adobe homes. There are still three adobes in San Gabriel today: the Lopez de Lowther Adobe, built between ; the Rancho Las Tunas Adobe, built in the early s; and the Vigare Adobe, built between
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