Mission San Rafael Arcangel was founded in 1817 by Padre Vincente Sarria as an asistencia, or adjunct, to Mission Dolores. It was originally designated as a sanitarium for native converts suffering from San Francisco’s generally damper climate, and under sunnier skies and the medical care of Padre Luis Gil, many of the neophytes were restored to good health. With the addition of local converts, the asistencia soon grew from a few hundred to over 1000 inhabitants. Under Padre Juan Amoro, native women were taught domestic skills while the men were trained as farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, cowboys, and boat builders. Its success as a thriving self-sufficient community led to its elevation to full mission status in 1822. In 1834 the Mexican government secularized the missions, and afterward the church maintained some presence in San Rafael, but the mission entered a period of abandonment and gradual decline, with its facilities at times used by civic and other groups. In 1846 General John Fremont used the mission as headquarters in his battles to establish the Bear Flag Republic. The mission buildings were eventually destroyed to make room for the growing pueblo of San Rafael, though the church continued its presence there, with a priest again living at the mission in 1847 and a small chapel built near the ruins of the original one in 1861. In 1831 the mission had living quarters on one side of the church and a cemetery on the other, but unlike most missions it never had a courtyard or plaza, and the buildings faced the town’s main road rather than the street seen today.