How old is the church at 43300 Mission Boulevard? Many people would guess two centuries, based on the white walls, the bell tower and the buttresses. The walls you see today were raised between 1982 and 1985 and dedicated on June 11, 1985. That makes the church building 41 years old this year. Some of the homes on the streets around it are older.
That age explains the news. The Committee for Restoration of the Mission San Jose says the adobe brick walls need resurfacing "after over 40 years of exposure to the elements," and it has scheduled the work for 2027. The building has reached its first major maintenance cycle. The committee that helped rebuild it is now raising money to look after it.
Fifty-Nine Years, Then a Century of Wood
The first adobe church on this site dates to 1809. In 1868 an earthquake on the Hayward Fault destroyed it, along with many nearby buildings. The original adobe church stood for 59 years.
A Gothic-style wooden church replaced it. It was built over the original tile floor and stone foundation and served as the parish church until 1965. When the reconstruction finally went ahead, the wooden church had to leave. It was sold for $1 to Christ Anglican Church in San Mateo and moved across the Bay in 1982. It is still in use there, and in 2014 its congregation restored the building's original name, St. Joseph Church. So the wooden church that stood on Mission Boulevard for about a century still holds services in San Mateo.
A Decade of Planning and Three Years of Building
Rebuilding the adobe church took longer to approve than to build. According to the Mission's own church history, the dates ran as follows:
- 1973: Mission leaders began planning a reconstruction.
- January 13, 1975: The Committee for Restoration of the Mission San Jose incorporated.
- 1982: Bishop John S. Cummins approved the start of work, and construction began.
- June 11, 1985: The reconstructed adobe church was completed and dedicated.
Father Michael P. Norkett coordinated the project through to completion. Richard Menn worked as consultant, principal investigator, art-restoration craftsman and conservator. The builders used original materials and methods wherever they could, and they hid steel earthquake reinforcement inside the walls. On the outside the church follows the methods of 1809. Inside the walls it was built to survive the kind of shaking that brought down the first church in 1868.
The parish's history breaks the cost down as follows:
| Funding source | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Walter M. Gleason | $1,319,000 |
| Diocese and parish | $2,608,000 |
| Committee for Restoration of the Mission San Jose | $454,000 |
| Total | $4,381,000 |
Other accounts round the figure differently. The Los Angeles Times, reporting the day before the dedication, put the restoration and reconstruction at $4.5 million and said the effort had taken more than a decade. On its own site, the committee rounds the reconstruction to about $5 million. Whichever total you use, the volunteer committee covered roughly a tenth of the cost in the 1980s. The large donor and the Diocese paid most of it.
The 2027 Plan Asks the Committee for Half
The exterior has not been treated since the 1985 dedication. The committee's future plans page lists "Restore exterior surface of the Mission church, last treated in 1985." Its fundraising page shows photos of the bell tower and buttresses captioned as being in need of repainting.
The committee held its Founder's Gala on Saturday, June 13, 2026. Tri-City Voice covered the event in advance on June 2. The committee has since reported that the gala raised $60,000 toward the exterior restoration. It plans to keep fundraising "with the goal to reach 50% of the cost, or approximately $100,000." If half is about $100,000, the full job would come to roughly $200,000. That figure is our arithmetic. The committee has not published a total.
The comparison with 1985 explains the timing. In the original rebuild, the committee's $454,000 was about 10 percent of the total. This time it aims to cover half the cost on its own. The gala's premier sponsors were Cris and Evelyn Raimundo and the Sisters of the Holy Family. At its April 21, 2026 meeting, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors set aside $500 for the committee in support of the gala. The committee has not named who will fund the other half.
Several details have not been made public yet. The committee's pages do not name the materials or finish for the walls, and they don't say whether scaffolding will go up or whether the church or museum will close while the work is underway. Until a schedule is released, all that is confirmed is "This project is scheduled for 2027."
The Objects Inside Are Older Than the Walls
The exterior is the largest item on the committee's list. The other projects mostly involve pieces that predate the 1985 building by a long way.
- Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows): a painting more than 200 years old from the original adobe church, slated for restoration.
- Statue of St. Bonaventure: the patron of the Franciscan missionaries, original to the adobe church, slated for preservation.
- Interior wall murals: the decorative murals inside the church, which the committee says have deteriorated "from wear and tear since 1985."
The committee's work covers two timelines. One is the 41-year-old building, which needs regular upkeep like any structure of its age. The other is the collection of objects that survived the 1868 earthquake and returned to a new church. The murals belong to the 1985 building, so they are wearing out on the same schedule as the walls.
Seeing the Church Before the 2027 Work
The current exterior can still be seen for the rest of this year. The Mission's visitor page lists these hours:
- Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Closed Monday and Tuesday, and on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day
That page was published in 2024, so check the hours before you go, especially around Thanksgiving.
Self-guided visits are available any time the Mission is open. Docent-led half tours run on the second weekend of each month, and the ticket calendar shows these dates for the rest of 2026:
| Date | Time |
|---|---|
| Saturday, November 7 | 11:00 a.m. |
| Sunday, November 8 | 1:00 p.m. |
| Saturday, December 12 | 11:00 a.m. |
| Sunday, December 13 | 1:00 p.m. |
According to the guided tours page, each tour lasts about 1.5 to 2 hours. It covers the Diocesan Shrine of St. Joseph, which is the Old Mission San José church, plus the Mission Museum, or Convento, the historic cemetery and the patio garden. Sunday tours include a Spanish organ interlude by music director Ron McKean when he is available. Tickets are $20 for adults over 12, $15 for children ages 6 to 12, and free for children under 6. Cancellations and no-shows are not refunded.
December also brings Las Posadas, the Mission's yearly tradition of nine evenings of caroling that begins December 15. The Las Posadas page still shows the 2025 schedule, so watch for the 2026 dates before planning around it.
For more local history nearby, the Washington Township Museum of Local History at 190 Anza Street is a separate museum from the Mission Museum. It is holding a book signing on Saturday, November 14, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
The committee accepts donations toward the exterior project through the support page on its site.
At Joseph Sabeh Group, our roots are in Fremont, and the Mission is one of the oldest of those roots. If you'd like to talk about the history of the streets around Mission Boulevard, or what owning a home near a landmark like this involves, we'd be glad to hear from you. Work With Us.
