Nothing remained of Mission La Purísima Conceptión but a few crumbling arches, till it was taken over by the state. Today it stands in all its former glory, faithfully restored in every detail. The Mission site was made a State park and the restoration carried out by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Purísima stands as a monument to a nation’s industry, but lacks the peaceful state of religious tranquility found in the other missions. [Illustration: _Restored Interior, La Purisima_] [Illustration: _Detail at end of Cloister La Purisima_] [Illustration: _San Luis Obispo_] It was at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa that tile was first manufactured. The buildings have lost much of their Spanish atmosphere, but the interior is in a fair state of restoration. It is now the active Catholic Church of the city which was named after it. A few miles from San Luis Obispo is the Asistencia of Santa Margarita, unique in that the entire ruins have been covered over by a large hay barn. Horses and cattle quietly munch their hay through the arched window openings. [Illustration: _Sacristy, San Miguel_] [Illustration: _San Miguel_] The very walls of San Miguel Arcángel, due to its sympathetic restoration, seem to echo the footsteps of the old padres. Inside the chapel the huge rafters, crudely hewn from logs, are painted in bright colors. The design painted on the walls by the Indians show large fluted pillars with a balcony and railing above. The floor is of burned brick, worn smooth by the tread of bare feet. Its crudely decorated pulpit and confessional are the same as the day they were built. The Mission did not have a bell-tower so the bell was mounted on a wooden scaffold. To enter the ancient edifice is to enter directly into the past. [Illustration: _Detail of Cloister, San Miguel_] [Illustration: _Forecourt, San Miguel_] [Illustration: _Chapel_] [Illustration: _Gate to Forecourt_] [Illustration: _Entrance to Cloister_] [Illustration: _Ruins of Arches, San Antonio De Padua_] [Illustration: _Double Arched Window_] A few rain-washed adobe walls around which the wind blows constantly is all that is left of Mission Nuestra Señora Dolorissima de la Soledad. A picture of dreary desolation and aptly named, Our Lady of Solitude. [Illustration: _Side View_] [Illustration: _Arches_] [Illustration: _Façade, San Antonio De Padua_] [Illustration: _Doorway to Sacristy, San Antonio De Padua_] Father Serra founded his third Mission, San Antonio de Padua, in a well wooded valley. When the bells rang in celebration an Indian appeared out of the trees, and for the first time a native was present at the founding of a mission. Its quiet surroundings are very much as they were in the past. The buildings were constructed of brick instead of adobe. Parts of a stone-walled irrigation ditch which brought water for many miles still stand near at hand.