The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26
A CALIFORNIA LANDMARK SAVED
The Famous Old Mission at sonoma Is Now the Property of the State.

From the San Francisco Examiner.
 In consideration of the payment of s5OOO with $15 additional expense for ob- taining a certificate of title, the ancient Mission of San Francisco Solano of So- noma has been made forever the prop erty of the people.
 The money was paid out of the land mark fund which has been made up Of voluntary subscriptions.
 Twenty-two years ago Bishop Alemany decided to dispose of the mission and he sold to Solomon Schocken, a merchant and land owner of Sonoma. MT. Schock- en has held the property ever since, talk ing good care of the buildings, although he used the old home of the padres as a storage building for wines and the chap el as a hay barn.
 MT. Schocken fully appreciated the value and importance of the mission as California landmark, and he took good care to prevent injury to the walls or other portion of the ancient structure. About 10000 tiles still remain on the roof, just as they were placed there by the builders, but when a portion of the roof began to show signs of collapse MT. Schocken carefully took down about 500 of the tiles and stored them in the base ment with the intention that they should be replaced at some future tune. These tiles he has carefully guarded and al- lowed none to get into the hands of either the vandal relic hunters or the would-be purchasers of them.
 The mission of Sonoma was founded In 1928 and 1924 completing the chain by which the Spanish government had evi- dently set out to bind It's claim upon Cal ifornia and to effectually shut out the yhn were admittedly eager to extend the czar's dominion far south of the Alaska boundary line. There was a desire on the part of some of the padres to trans- fer the mission of San Francisco to the site in Sonoma county because the latter region was more favorable to the mis- sionaries' work of cultivating the soil and converting the Indians. The pos- session of a great harbor was of less consequence to them than fertile and ex- tensive ranch lands.
 According to apparently authentic rec- ords, 1t was on July 4, 1923, that the cer- emony of establishing the mission site took place. although few of the build- ings were erected before the following year. At first the place was called New San Francisco. Padre Jose Altimiri was the Franciscan representative Tn charge of the establishment Bancroft says: Passion Sunday, April 24, the mission church, a somewhat rude structure PAX 105 feet built of boards and whitewashed, but we'll furnished and decorated in the interior, many articles have been pre- sented by the Russians, was dedicated to San Francisco Solano which from this date became the name of the mission. Hitherto it had been properly New San Francisco, although Altimiri had always dated his letters San Francisco simply and referred to the peninsular establish ment as old San Francisco; but this usage became inconvenient, and rather than honor San Francisco of Assist with twb missions it was agreed to dedicate to new one to San Francisco Solano, the great apostle of the Indies' It was largely from this early confusion of names and also from the inconvenience of adding Asisi and Soiano to designate the respective Saints Francis that arose the popular usage of calling one mission Dolores and the other San Solano, the latter name being replaced ten years later by the original one of Sonoma." During the year 1924 the present mission structure was completed. Two other large adobes were partially constructed that year, but early rains were 90 heavy that the walls were destroyed. The edi- flee that stands today was not injured by the storms, as it was entirely roofed before the rains came. The tiles are in