Mission of San Francisco de Asis

The Mission San Francisco de Asis, widely known as Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in the city of San Francisco. Founded in 1776, just five days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the other side of the continent, it serves as a physical link to the region's eighteenth-century Spanish origins. While much of the city around it was leveled by the 1906 earthquake, this chapel remained standing. Its survival is often attributed to its unique construction, as the builders lacked iron nails and instead lashed the heavy redwood roof timbers together with rawhide, providing the building with a structural flexibility that allowed it to sway and settle during the seismic tremors.