The present-day Church of Saint Raphael, also known as Mission San Rafael Arcángel, is the fourth Catholic church to be built on the same site in San Rafael. Pictured above is the late 19th century, gothic revival church that was built in 1869-70, redesigned and enlarged in 1889, and destroyed by fire in 1919. Standing next to the church is the Dominican Sisters’ parochial school and assembly hall, also built in 1889. The Spanish missions have a complicated and controversial history which chronicles the settlement of Alta California by Europeans through the conversion and subjugation of the coastal, Native-American tribes. This history, with all it represents to Californians of every ethnicity and religious faith is our shared history and should not be ignored.
The original church, built in 1817, was really not mission at all. It was an ‘asistencia’, or helper, to Mission Dolores of San Francisco. Its purpose was to serve as a medical hospital and retreat for Native-American converts who were suffering from various maladies and diseases. It was felt at the time that the warmer, more temperate climate of San Rafael would aid in recovery. The ‘asistencia’ was granted Mission status in 1822 and given its name after the archángel Raphael who is venerated as a healer. The mission operated as a church, hospital, ranch and farm until it was abandoned in 1844, a few years after Mexico had won its independence from Spain. Ironically, John C. Fremont used the abandoned buildings and site as his headquarters just before leading the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 which resulted in Alta California becoming a United States territory and state.
A small parish church was built on the site in 1861 but was razed in 1869 to make way for the larger, gothic revival church that was to serve the growing San Rafael population for the next 40 years. Over those decades, thousands of church services, baptisms, marriages and
funerals were performed at the church. On the night of Sunday, March 5th, 1919, three hours after evening services, a fire began somewhere near the building’s heating system and soon consumed the structure in what was described in a San Francisco Call article as a “flaming furnace.” The church was destroyed beyond repair, but fireman saved the nearby school and assembly hall. Though now housed in a separate building just behind the church, the school still operates today. A Marin Journal article of January 9th reported that defective electrical wiring was responsible for the fire.
Within weeks, over $15,000 had been raised to rebuild the church and by October of 1920 enough money had been collected to pay Sausalito architect Arnold Constable to design the current church and lay the cornerstone. The Marin Journal reported that the first services of the new church were performed on June 13, 1920. The building’s walls are stucco-covered, reinforced concrete, a quake and fire-resistant material that proved reliable during and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The small chapel that now sits just to the east of the church was constructed in 1949 with funds provided by the Hearst Foundation and is meant to be a partial replica of the original 1817 ‘asistencia’ structure.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)