SFMission

Misión San Francisco de Asís, known locally as Mission Dolores, is the oldest structure in San Francisco having survived the 1906 earthquake that nearly leveled the city. The mission was the sixth in the chain of missions built by Spanish priests throughout Alta California, with a small structure dedicated in 1776 and the present church dedicated in 1791. In 1952, the church became the first west of the Mississippi River to be designated as a minor basilica. (Courthouse News photo / William Dotinga)