Let us now enter the old Friars' quarters. These interior adobe walls with white plaster stucco built in the early 1820's are original. Decorations and every day furniture would have been spare, very simple like this, and probably locally made in the Mission's carpentry work shop.

San Miguel is located in the Salinas Valley, to the east of the coastal Santa Lucia Mountains. There is a very good source of Lime Stone in the mountainous Adelaida region, just to the west of San Miguel. The lime stone was heated to make lime (Calcium Oxide), which was then mixed with sand and water to make the white mortar plaster for the the stucco covering on the walls.

Shelves and cabinets, like the ones seen here were simply and easily made by shelving hollows made in the thick adobe walls. The Mission floors were originally earthen, then later covered with simple unglazed terra cotta tile like in this picture.

“Terra Cotta” like abobe is made from clay. But unlike adobe, it starts off as just clay (no straw and gravel for strength) and instead of just sun drying, after it is dry it heated in a fire pit to a high temperature - a process called “firing” - to make it as hard as stone. Terra Cotta literally means “cooked earth”!

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