We went to Alameda, Calif., in July to see its vast array of well-preserved Victorian homes. But the first thing we wound up photographing was the Basilica of St. Joseph, a Roman Catholic Church.

Its foundation dates to 1873; the original mission church was used as a place of worship for more than 20 years.

However, the old wooden St. Joseph Church burned to the ground in 1919, so this new church built in Spanish Colonial Revival Style. The new church was designed by architect H.A. Minton of Massachusetts, who had come out West to help rebuild after the great 1906 earthquake of San Francisco. It opened in 1921.

In the spring of 1972, the church was elevated to the rank of a minor Basilica, one of one four basilicas in the western U.S.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.