Lynn C. Woolsey: “I rise in support of H.R. 1446, the California Missions Preservation Act. I would like to thank the gentleman for…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1446, the California Missions Preservation Act. I would like to thank the gentleman for introducing this bill, and I am proud to be an original cosponsor. The California Missions provide such an important part of California's past and their history can be traced to 1493, just after the discovery of America. The sixth district of California, north of San Francisco and just over the Golden Gate Bridge, which I am pleased to represent, is fortunate to have one of these missions and another just outside of the sixth district that my constituents visit. The San Raphael mission was originally built in 1817 as an outpost chapel of the San Francisco mission. Named for Saint Raphael, the angel of bodily healing, it was thought that the sunny hillside on the north side of the bay would be a good place for the sick to convalesce. In fact, it is the first known sanitarium in California. In five years it was a healthy settlement and became an independent mission on October 19, 1822. After it was secularized, the mission fell into ruin and in 1854 the original mission was torn down. In 1947 a new mission was built, near the original site, based on a painting of the old mission. The San Francisco Solano Mission, founded in 1823, was the last and most northerly of the 21 Franciscan missions of Alta California.”