California Missions – Nuestra Señora de la Soledad
Mission Soledad deteriorated rapidly after secularization. It served for several years as the Felilano Soberanes ranch house, a grocery store and a restaurant and was then abandoned for almost 100 years. The Daughters of the Golden West restored the chapel in 1953, and the convento wing (present day museum) in 1963
Founded: October 9, 1791 – Thirteenth of the California Missions
Named For: Our Lady of Solitude (Also Called Soledad Mission)
Mission Site: Thirty miles southeast of Monterey in the Salinas River Valley at a site thought to have been an Esselen village known by the natives as Chuttusgelis.
Layout: A courtyard-centered quadrangle with out-buildings. Neophyte housing was located to the south and the cemetery to the east.
Special Attraction: The grounds, which still contain the ruins of the mission’s adobe walls, are a haunting reminder of how difficult life must have been at this remote and desolate mission.
Current Status: A chapel of Our Lady of Solitude Catholic Church is in the town of Soledad
