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Mission de la Purisima Concepción
de Maria Santisima Site
Photo Copyright © 2000 Eric Carpio |
Picturesque ruins are all that remain today of the Mission de la Purisima
Concepcion de Maria Santisima Site. The mission was established in 1787
by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. Purisima was the eleventh of the
21 Spanish missions. The mission complex consisted of an enclosed quadrangle
with a chapel; military and secular buildings were located outside the
mission walls. After an earthquake destroyed the mission in 1812 it
was abandoned and a second Mission de la Purisima was constructed at
another site. Following the secularization of the California missions,
the ruined site of La Purisima was purchased by Joaquin and Jose Antonio
Ezequil Carillo. In 1874, the Lompoc Temperance colony purchased the
former mission site and surveyed a townsite which fell within the area
of the old mission. The residential area of Lompoc grew around the ruins
of the old mission and now covers approximately 90 percent of the original
site. The remaining identifiable ruins are primarily centered around
the cloister area, located between "E" and "G" Streets in the block
south of Locust Avenue.
The mission site is bounded by Locust Ave., E and G sts.,
and the Lompoc city limits.
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