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By 1810, a granary building stood at this location, a point of congregation for local Indians, 20 miles from the mother mission, Mission San Luis Rey de Francia. Padre Antonio Peyri, who headed the San Luis Rey church, dedicated the 144-by-27-foot chapel at the Pala Asistencia Mission on 06/18/1816. It was an Asistencia mission, meaning it focused on ministering (and converting) the local Native Americans tribes. The mission expanded to its greatest size by c. 1830, when it possessed a chapel. residences and agricultural buildings. Mission property was taken by the new Alta California government in the late 1830s, leading to a decline in its maintenance; the 5.75 (estimated) San Jacinto Earthquake of 12/25/1899 further undermined its condition. The newspaperman and California booster, Charles Fletcher Lummis, started the Landmarks Club in Los Angeles in 1895, "dedicated to the preservation of historical sites throughout California, starting with the Spanish missions." (See State of California, Office of Historic Preservation, "History of the Landmarks Program,"Accessed 11/03/2010.) Lummis's Landmarks Club purchased the Mission Pala Asistencia from private ownership in 1903 and returned it to the Catholic Church. The adobe walls of the chapel and quadrangle were softened due to rain in 1916, heavily damaging it. Father Januarius Carillo undertook a restoration of Pala Asistencia between 1954-1959, and further work to repair the roof's cedar logs from termite damage occurred in 1992.