San Fernando Mission

Father Fermín Lasuén founded Mission San Fernando Rey de España on 8 September 1797, the seventeenth of the twenty-one Spanish missions in Alta California. Its convento, built as Lasuén's quarters and as a guesthouse for travellers, is the largest adobe building in California. The 1971 Sylmar earthquake damaged the church beyond repair and it was rebuilt as a replica in 1974; the 1994 Northridge earthquake then severely damaged the convento itself. Visitors describe a sudden chill and a heavy sadness where figures of Franciscan friars are said to appear. The best-known presence is the woman locals call the Cat Lady, who in life fed the stray cats living in the mission cemetery and is said still to walk the convento's arcade with a following of phantom cats. A woman in a white dress, her head covered by a white scarf, has also been seen praying at the front of the chapel before she is gone.