[3] The famous altar screen depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, transported in pieces from Mexico City over the Camino Real, is signed by José de Alcíbar and dated 1783.

A visitor in 1881, John Gregory Bourke, wrote It shows great age in its present condition quite as much as in the archaic style of its construction.

At present, I am not informed upon this point and cannot speak with assurance, but I am strongly suspect that most of them were the work of priests connected with the early missions of Mexico.

The beams and timber exposed to sight have been chopped out with axes or adses, which would seem to indicate that this sacred edifice was completed or at least commenced before the work of colonization had made much progress.At the time of Bourke's description, the church was only being used once a year for the festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

A native of France, Lamy preferred European architectural styles over the local adobe vernacular and had the church remodeled with a pitched roof and steeple starting in 1881.