Dr. Craig Fischer and his wife Sandra bought the Bishop’s House on Comercio Street in 2006, a house with a history dating back to the 18th Century which once was the home of Bishop Antonio de los Reyes, the first Bishop of the Californias. Dr. Fischer’s presentation was made on the patio of their home.

There are elements in the Bishop’s House both sacred and profane: “sacred” in that the first Bishop of the region, a large area encompassing what is now the Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Baja California and the U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and parts of Oregon and Idaho, lived in this house from 1784 until his death in 1789, but “profane” in that it was also the 19th Century home of mine owner José María Almada’s mistress Mercedes, who demanded that a second floor be added to the structure in keeping with the homes of the “proper people” of Álamos.

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