This is the real deal. If you want to step back in time and get a feel for what life was like 200 years ago in California, come here. The Mission is in a rural setting surrounded by vineyards and there is very little modern here to distract.
It is now a California State Historical Park and a living history museum which was authentically restored by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s. There is also a wide variety of crops and farm animals.
There are a number of authentic mission era rooms and workshops which showcase weaving, carpentry, saddle-making, blacksmithing, cooking, soldier’s quarters and more. Click on the photos below to enlarge.
La Purísima Concepción is not an active parish and Masses are not celebrated at this Mission. But the church, like everything else, has been authentically recreated.
The mission periodically sponsors “Mission Life Day” which is crowded with visitors and docents. You can explore trades such as weaving, pottery making, candle making, blacksmithing, animal husbandry, and leatherwork.
This is the “Indian Lavanderia” (laundry). An interpretive sign says “unlike the Europeans, the Chumash Indians enjoyed bathing”. They both bathed and washed their clothes here. So it really was a laundry. Click on the photos below to enlarge.
Alta California Missions 