WEST GARDEN / TILE ON ROOFS

The San Fernando Mission, like all the other twenty-one California missions established by the Franciscan priests in the latter part of the 18^th century, used roofing tiles called "tejas." These rectangular-shaped tiles were developed to replace the earlier flammable roofs made of straw. Shaped in hollowed forms, these tiles were normally twenty-two inches in length, and were tapered from nine to five inches wide.

A primitive air conditioning was effected by putting roof tiles on either cane or willow poles which, in turn, were laid across large wooden beams. This resulted in a constant circulation of cool air through the attic spaces. Inside one of the museum rooms in the Convento Building is a tile-making device used in the early 19^th Century.

WEST GARDEN / ADOBE WALL

All of the structures that make up the San Fernando Mission are constructed primarily of dried mud bricks, or "adobe." The adobe walls were covered with plaster or mud then could be painted or "whitewashed." At the San Fernando Mission adobe was used to build walls, as well as to buttress piers and floors.

The adobe bricks, or "ladrillos" in Spanish, were fashioned from clay, sand or earth. Added to the clay or earth was chaff, straw and sometimes fragments of tile or stone. Water then created the mud. This mixture was put in wooden molds to achieve the various shapes. Finally, these bricks were laid out in the sun to dry.

WEST GARDEN / PEACOCK

Roaming throughout the grounds of the San Fernando Mission are chickens, turkeys and beautiful peacocks. In the west garden is a cement statue of Father de Lasuen, the Franciscan priest who took over leadership of the California missions from Father Junipero Serra upon the latter's death. Father Serra, who established the first nine missions, died in l784. Father de Lasuen passed away in l803.