Today, California's vast diversity is but a mere reflection of its past. Prior to becoming a state, California's history was marked by three distinct eras of rule: the Spanish, Mexican and Military. During the Spanish Era (1769-1821), California was ruled by twelve different governors. The first governor, Don Gaspar de Portolá, was appointed by Visitador-General José de Gálvez in 1767 with the objective of blocking English and Russian expansion into California. Two years later he discovered the area which would become known as the Ciudad de Los Angeles, City of Angels. Don Gaspar was also responsible for leading the parties that colonized San Diego and Monterey. It was during this period that twenty of twenty-one missions were founded up and down California, located approximately a day's horseback ride from each other. The crude road that linked the missions, pueblos, and presidios was called El Camino Real. The first nine missions, including San Gabriel Mission (see Los Angeles), were founded by Padre Junipero Serra. The next nine, which included San Fernando Mission, were founded by Serra's successor Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuén.

Although San Fernando Mission was supposed to relieve the long march between San Gabriel and San Buenaventura, Padre Lasuén selected land somewhat to the south because of the barren terrain and poor drainage of the middle area. This land was already occupied by Francisco Reyes, a Spanish settler and mayor of the pueblo of Los Angeles who apparently had acquired the rights to raise cattle in the San Fernando Valley. Reyes gave up his territory, but there are discrepancies as to why he did. Some maintain that he had received the land as a grant from the King and was forcibly driven out from the rancho, while others claim that he had simply squatted and that his departure was graceful and cooperative. The most plausible reason, however, was that in exchange for relinquishing his use of the land, Reyes apparently received 4,460 acres of land later known as Rancho Encino. Whatever the agreement, records show that Reyes remained on the property long enough to perform the patron duties at the Mission's dedication services, and that he was the godfather of the first child to be baptized there. Two months following the dedication, the Church was completed and had a new congregation of more than forty members.

The padres and their converts prospered, and by 1804 San Fernando Mission was home to nearly 1,000 Indians who learned blacksmithing, farming, ranching, carpentry, and weaving. The blacksmiths became well known for crafting such items as spoons, forks, ladles, brands, candle holders, hinges, scissors, fences, tools, and grilles. The Indians also made leather, bricks, tallow, soap, and cloth in considerable quantities. San Fernando became a huge rancho comprising 121,542 acres of land. Its farms produced olives, dates, wheat, barley, corn and other foods, and at the height of its prosperity owned 13,000 cattle, 8,000 sheep and 2,300 horses. Additionally, the Mission’s vineyard consisted of 30,000 grapevines and the Indians became famous for their winemaking. Situated directly on the highway, the Mission would become the most popular stop-off for travelers on El Camino Real, as well as the major supply source for the growing pueblo of Los Angeles, approximately twenty-two miles away. The number of overnight visitors increased so steadily that the padres added to the hospice facilities of the convento or missionary quarters. The famous two-story convento measured 243 feet long and 50 feet wide, and the front featured 20 arches. All travelers, regardless of their status, were accommodated, but the governor's chamber was a special room set aside for particularly notable visitors.

After 1811, several factors caused the Mission’s productivity to decrease substantially. A decline in the Indian population created a labor shortage that at times left the padres scarcely able to supply the produce required by the military headquarters in the pueblo of Los Angeles. The earthquake of 1812 wreaked such significant structural damage to the Mission that considerable repairs were necessary to ensure the integrity of the buildings. And finally, in addition to these misfortunes, the padres at the San Fernando Mission had to fight a losing battle against the intrusion of new settlers.

The Mexican Era succeeded the Spanish Era and spanned from 1821 through 1846. Both these eras had twelve different governors, but the Mexican Era had fifteen periods of governance. It was during the Mexican Era that the last of the twenty-one missions, San Francisco Solano, was founded on July 4, 1823. The mission system, which controlled much of the property, thrived until the 1830s. As more settlers moved into the area, however, the pressure for land ownership led to secularization and property turnover from the Church to the people. The California missions had essentially started as Spanish colonies; but as the Spanish empire declined and more non-Spanish trading ships arrived, the Spanish influence at the missions also declined. This loss of control over the missions was accelerated by the defection of Mexico from Spain in 1810 which disrupted supplies and caused the missions to become even more independent of the mother country.

The terms of Spanish secularization allowed the missionary fathers to colonize the area for ten years and to convert and educate the natives. These natives included the Tongva and the Chumash, two groups who traded with each other, socialized, intermingled and intermarried. The Tongva were part of the Southern California Shoshone. The Chumash, though originally a coastal people, kept mostly to the western and southwestern foothills and had villages as far north as Point Conception, as far south as Malibu, and eastward to the Carrizo Plain of present-day Kern County. Following secularization, the Mission was to be turned into a pueblo. The Church would be allowed to retain the priest's quarters, garden and chapel, but they were to be operated by a parish priest instead of the missionary order. All other buildings were turned over to the government of the new pueblo. Secularization worked relatively well in most Spanish colonies; however, for a variety of reasons, the mission padres in California were opposed to it. Nevertheless, in 1834, under the governorship of José Figueroa, Mexico's Secularization Laws were ratified, which effectively ended the mission system over a ten-year period. Using the Spanish model of secularization, the missions' buildings were divided and the lands given to the native Indians. As anticipated by the mission padres, the natives did not understand the significance of land ownership, and consequently were easily tricked into giving away their land rights to speculators. As a result, in the absence of central guidance from the padres, the mission lands were quickly moved into private hands and the Indians were effectively banished from them. Similarly, mission buildings were often looted and the materials taken to be used for private construction. At one point, vandals stole the tiles from the missions’ roofs, which allowed the rain to melt the adobe bricks. After the discovery of gold by Francisco Lopez on March 9, 1842, in the nearby Canyon de los Encinos (see Walker Ranch), vandals acted on false rumors that the missionaries had been prospecting for gold and dug up the Church floor in search of buried treasure. Soon, without routine maintenance, the buildings fell into disuse and their adobe walls crumbled.

Secularization of the missions was completed under the leadership of the last Mexican Governor, Pio de Jesus Pico. Pio Pico became governor in 1845 after a bloodless artillery duel near Cahuenga Pass at the Campo de Cahuenga, opposite from where Universal Studios is today. Pio Pico is also noted for seizing mission property and distributing it among his friends and to his brother, Andres. Later, the land was sold to another purchaser, and Andres acquired half ownership. For several years the hospice of the San Fernando Mission was the summer home of the Governor's brother. Following a two-year period of hostilities with Mexico starting in 1846, the U.S. assumed control of the area under military rule. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made California a United States Territory, and California came under the control of seven military governors until an election could be held. During this time, San Fernando’s missionary quarters served as the headquarters for Col. John Charles Frémont who was in charge of the army. A Constitutional Convention met in Monterey on September 1, 1849, and a new Constitution was ratified by the people on November 13, 1849. During the 1850s and 1860s, acts of Congress and court actions returned most of the mission properties to the Church. Unfortunately, the Church was not always able to carry out the much needed repairs or even take on the burden of maintenance. Consequently, some missions continued their decline.

In the late 1800s, the Butterfield Stage Lines used the San Fernando Mission as a station, and the Porter Land and Water Company used it as storerooms. In 1888, the property was used as a warehouse and stable, and later the quadrangle grounds and patio became a hog farm. The fortunes of the San Fernando Mission did not improve until 1896 when Charles Fletcher Lummis, a prominent member of the Landmarks Club, began a campaign to reclaim the Mission property. In 1923, San Fernando's Church became a working church once more and was returned to the Mission, while the property was turned over to the Oblate Fathers. In 1933, the governor's chamber was rediscovered and restored. The room reflects a level of comfort and cheeriness rarely attained within the solid and gloomy adobe walls of the usual mission structure. Fortunately, over time various restoration groups recognized the importance of the mission chain; but it was not until the Hearst Foundation gave a large grant in the 1940s that the San Fernando Mission was completely restored. On February 9, 1971, the large Sylmar Earthquake severely damaged the church and it had to be completely rebuilt. The repairs were completed in 1974.

Once built by mission Indians, San Fernando’s restored structure serves as an excellent example of the rancho life of 19th century California, and as a result has been made a landmark. Furthermore, its close proximity to Hollywood enables filmmakers to use San Fernando Mission as a backdrop for both film and television. One of the first films to be shot at the Mission was Over Silent Paths (1910), an early two-reeler Biograph short directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Marion Leonard and Dell Henderson. Two Men of the Desert (1913), starring Blanche Sweet and Henry B. Walthall, was another D.W. Griffith Biograph short filmed at San Fernando. In the late 1940s, RKO visited the Mission for a better-than-most B-Western oater, The Mysterious Desperado (1949) starring Tim Holt and Richard Martin. In the 1960s and 1970s, this site also became a popular locale for such television shows as Dragnet, The Incredible Hulk, Falcon Crest, Knight Rider and Remington Steele.

Today, the San Fernando Mission is the Archival Center for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Researchers are required to make appointments. The Historical Museum is also open to the public on selected days and times. Restoration activities at the mission chain continue to this day, making it possible for future generations to recognize the important role missions played in California's history. The San Fernando Mission is located just north of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley at 15151 San Fernando Mission Boulevard (California Landmark 157), within the triangle formed by Interstate 5, Interstate 405 and the Simi Valley Freeway (SR 118).