Mission San José, founded by Franciscans in 1797 in present-day Fremont, became the fourteenth California mission and grew into a large multilingual community built largely through Native labor on land long inhabited by Ohlone-speaking people. Its substantial adobe church was dedicated in 1809, and the mission prospered through farming, orchards, and vast herds, while Father Narciso Durán became known for its celebrated music program. After Mexican secularization in 1833, mission lands were broken up and the Native community suffered devastating losses. Earthquake damage, later rebuilding, and twentieth-century restoration transformed the site into today’s historic mission, museum, and active chapel.