Parish Facilities Overview

 

Mission San Jose was established in 1797 at the site of an active Ohlone settlement.  Click here for more information about the history of our location.

Our buildings and grounds are where our worship, prayer, ministries, formation, and fellowship take place. They are also physical signs of our Catholic faith and proclaim our presence to the wider community. We are blessed to have Mission San Jose, our school, other parish buildings, and a beautiful campus without any financial debt.

The map below shows the buildings on our parish campus:

Photo Tour of Parish Buildings and Grounds

The museum is the parish’s oldest building and was part of the original mission compound. It dates to 1809. Mission San Jose is the fourteenth of the 21 Spanish Missions in Alta California. The church is an authentic replica of the original adobe church which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1868. The rebuilt mission church was completed in 1985.  An historic cemetery dating to the mission era adjoins the mission church. We have another parish cemetery, Saint Joseph Cemetery, located about a mile south of the parish campus on Mission Blvd at Felipe Common.

The Carriage House was built in 1882 and used as the parish office for many years. The building was closed in early 2022 because of its deteriorated condition. The parish office, previously housed in the Carriage House, has moved to Ministry House 2, which was renovated in 2021. Future renovation of the Carriage House is part of the parish master plan.

St Joseph school was built in 1960, and the main church and hall were built in 1965.  The church and hall portions of the 1965 building are separated by a movable wall to allow the size of the worship space or hall to be enlarged.  The parish will remodel the church and hall in 2023. 

The rectory was built in 1975 and was moved to its current location in 2007. The kindergarten is our newest building, added in 2013.  A kindergarten playground is located behind the kindergarten building.  Our new Holy Family Picnic Area next to the Carriage House was completed in 2022. 

The two ministry houses and the parish storage building date from the 1940s and were acquired from the Dominican Sisters when we purchased the land behind the school in 2004.  The land behind the school will become an outdoor sports field as part of the parish master plan. Ministry House 1 previously housed the parish Faith Formation office.  Ministry House 1 is closed pending repairs. The Faith Formation Office has relocated to the office portion of the rectory.

About our campus

As good stewards we want to make the most of the facilities we already have and plan wisely for our future needs. This includes being aware of the regulations and government policies that affect our buildings and grounds, add cost, and limit the changes we can make and where we can build:

 

  • Our location has been characterized as Alameda County’s most important historic site. The Mission is a California Registered Historical Landmark, and the Mission and museum building are on the National Registry of Historic Places.
  • The city has classified the Carriage House as a “primary historic resource” and identified hundreds of “landmark trees” on our property requiring protection.
  • We are also subject to the city’s hillside ordinance, Mission San Jose Historic District design guidelines, and the city’s riparian corridor policy because of the creek running along the north side of our property.
  • City policy now requires us the meet all parking needs onsite. There are also additional fire prevention and building code requirements because we are within an area of increased wildfire risk.
  • Two state-recognized Native American tribes have determined that our property is a “tribal cultural resource” for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act. We do not yet know how this may affect us.

Maintenance Planning and Improvements

As our facilities continue to age, our repair and maintenance needs will also grow. Over the last several years we have been catching up on deferred maintenance.  These repair and maintenance projects have been funded from our parish and school operating and maintenance budgets.  No capital campaign funds were used to pay for this work.

We have repaired roofs on the church and hall, school, rectory, and museum, replaced the museum’s leaking gutters and downspouts, tented the church and hall, school, and rectory to eradicate termites, replaced a failed wood retaining wall along the south side of the school parking lot, repaired soil erosion along the Mission Blvd frontage of St Joseph Cemetery, repaved the pathway behind the Mission cemetery and church, trimmed trees and removed overgrown brush, filled in the basement of the old site of the rectory and converted the area into additional parking, and renovated Ministry House 2 for use as a temporary parish office.  We also took advantage of a PG&E-funded program to replace our incandescent and fluorescent lights with new, energy efficient LED lighting in the church and hall, school, and parking lots.

Numerous improvements funded by special donations from parishioners and school parents have allowed us to beautify the interior of the main church and create an adoration chapel, add votive candle racks, install kneelers in the Mission church, build the Holy Family Picnic Area and our new gathering area on the Mission Blvd side of the church, replace the school playground, add new landscaping around the campus, and provide devotional opportunities with outdoor statues like Sleeping St Joseph in the picnic area and Our Lady of Fatima near St Joseph Terrace.

Click here to see pictures of what’s been accomplished.

What's Next

We still need to repaint the exteriors of our buildings, but with three exceptions our parish facilities are in good condition.  Repairs and maintenance work is budgeted and prioritized in our parish operating budgets by the parish facilities team.  In addition, the parish is moving forward with three facility projects in 2023:  renovation of our parish church and hall, replacing the building foundation under part of the museum, and repairs to Ministry House 1.  In addition to these projects, the parish master plan includes future renovation of the carriage house, completing a building connecting the Mission church and the museum, and creating a sports field on the land we own behind the school.  Click here to see the parish master plan.