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.