The entrance to the private ranch where the Asistencia is located.
Somewhere in this direction...
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Founded c1800.
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Personal ObservationsBecause this Asistencia is not open to the public, it is one of the few sites I have not visited, but am hoping to arrange a visit. |
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Asistencia Santa Margarita de Cortona was attached to Mission San Luis Obispo de Toloso and is considered by some to be one of only two Mission Assistencias with buildings still maintained and in tact. Still visible is a rocked-wall barn where priests came regularly by horseback up the grade from Mission San Luis Obispo to conduct mass for the Indians. Asistencia Santa Margarita de Cortona is sometimes referred to as San Luis Obispo County's "third mission." The asistencia was at one time the most northern outpost for Mission San Luis Obispo de Toloso. The building of this auxiliary mission was originally 120 by 20 feet and consisted of a chapel at the southwest end and eight rooms for the use of the majordomo and his servants and for visiting priests. One room was used as a granary for storing mission crops. Crops including wheat, grapes and vegetable crops were grown and cattle, were raised to support the mission community The "asistencia" still stands near the main ranch buildings on the Ranch that was acquired by Joaquin Estrada in September, 1841. He acquired the 17,734 acres and owned it until bad times caused him to lose his rancho, which became the property of General P. W. Murphy in the 1860s. It was Murphy who constructed a barn over the asistencia to protect it from the elements. "Three elliptical, beautiful arched doorways gave entrance to the main building," wrote Senator Chris N. Jespersen in his "History of the San Luis Obispo County." A portion of the asistencia remains today in one of the barns visible from either El Camino Real or Highway 101. The ranch eventually came to be owned by the Reis family who later offered the property to Cuesta College for a campus. Cuesta in turn gave the ranch to Stanford University and in the 1970s sold the rancho to the Robertson family of Texas. The ranch today is under the ownership of four families. Six miles from San Luis is the Rancho Camado, where are some hot springs. Opposite these are to be found remnants of walls. These are ruins of the church of a vista or asistencia of San Luis, and a padre went regularly from the Mission to say mass for the Indians there. Location: Rancho Santa Margarita Hay Barn (private property, no trespassing), 1/4 mi N of intersection of Yerba Buena Ave and F St, Santa Margarita In 1999, the Santa Margarita Ranch was purchased by a group that includes Rob Rossi, a local developer |
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The entrance to the private ranch where the Asistencia is located. |
Somewhere in this direction... |
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South to North
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