Out & About San Diego with Jim Frimmer, your Mission Valley Realtor: Step back in time in Old Town San Diego

The Park recreates history from 1821, when it was the center of San Diego, to the end of the Mexican war of independence from Spain, and 1872, when the center of the city moved to its current location.

You can get to Old Town by car, bus, San Diego Trolley, Coaster, or Amtrak.

There is plenty of parking throughout the area except on the three-day weekends like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.

Along with knowledgeable docents in period dress, there are museums, historic buildings, and lots of places to eat. Following are some of the more notable in the Park and Old Town:

• Alvarado House - Reconstruction of an 1824 house that was home to the sister of the last California governor appointed by Mexico.
• Casa de Estudillo - Built in 1825 for a Spanish aristocrat. Served as a sanctuary for women and children during the American occupation in 1846.
• Casa de Lopez - Built around 1835 by Juan Francisco Lopez, one of San Diego's early Spanish settlers. Now houses the Rockin' Baja Lobster Restaurant.
• Casa de Pedrorena - Home of Don Miguel de Pedrorena, a member of an old Madrid family. Allied in sympathy with the Americans during the Mexican War, he served as a captain in the American Army. He saved the famous old Spanish gun "El Jupiter" (now standing on Fort Stockton, Presidio Park) by burying it in the yard of his house.
• Casa de Wrightington - Built by Thomas Wrightington and his wife in the mid-1840s. The Wrightingtons provided medical care for Native Americans in San Diego County.
• Casa Machado Silvas - Probably Old Town's best example of adobe construction.
• Casa Machado y Stewart - Originally built in 1836 and reconstructed, it features an extensive period vegetable garden.
• Church of the Immaculate Conception - Begun in 1868 by Father Antonio D. Ubach but not completed and dedicated until 1919. Transferred to the Order of Saint Francis, the same order as the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, in 1925.
• Colorado House - Originally a hotel but now houses the Wells Fargo Museum, a historically furnished Wells Fargo agent's office, including one of the famous 30 coaches shipped to Wells Fargo in 1867; a panoramic painting of San Diego in 1855; and a gold watch given as reward for care of San Diego treasure on a stagecoach.
• Cosmopolitan Hotel and Restaurant - Originally a one-story adobe built in the early 19th century. Served as the headquarters of Commodore Robert F. Stockton during the American occupation in 1846.
• Derby-Pendleton House - Shipped around the Horn of Africa as a prefabricated home in 1850. In 1855 Captain George A. Pendleton, the first county clerk and recorder, acquired it as his office.
• El Agave Restaurant and Tequileria - On display throughout the restaurant on shelving along every wall and overhead, beneath the ceiling beams, are 1,700 bottles of tequila, some over 100 years old. There are many rare bottles of tequila in unique vessels made of ceramic, clay, and glass in every shape and size.
• El Campo Santo Cemetery - Used between 1850 and 1880, and the resting place for over 500 Indians and some of the most famous early San Diego settlers. Much smaller now than its original size, some graves now lie beneath San Diego Avenue and Linwood Street.
• First Brick Courthouse
• Heritage Park Victorian Village - County park with seven restored and relocated Victorian homes that were saved from the wrecking ball. Two of the houses currently serve as bed and breakfast inns. Includes the 1889 building of Temple Beth Israel, is one of the oldest synagogue buildings in the United States. It is open to tourists and is used for exhibitions, weddings, receptions, and bar mitzvahs.
• Johnson House - Built by George Alonzo Johnson, a steamboat operator on the Colorado River and later a California State Assemblyman from San Diego. Displays include artifacts from the Spanish and early American periods.
• Mason Street School - San Diego's first one-room schoolhouse.
• McCoy House - Originally built in 1869 and since reconstructed, it was home to California's first sheriff.
• Mormon Battalion Memorial - The Mormon Battalion arrived in San Diego in January of 1847 to support the American military garrison during the Mexican War. Five companies totaling over 500 men met in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on July 16, 1846, and made the longest march in military history, 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs to San Diego.
• Old Adobe Chapel - The first parochial church in the first parish of California after the secularization of the missions in 1832. The setting for the fictional wedding of Ramona in the 1884 novel, Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson. Includes a Catholic cemetery dating to 1850.
• Plaza Viejo - Set aside for public use when Spaniards planned the town. Site of bull and bear baiting contests and other typical Spanish-Mexican activities. On July 29, 1846, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant and a Marine Lieutenant, under the command of Captain John C. Freemont, raised the first American flag here.
• Presidio Park - Father Junípero Serra established the first San Diego Mission on Presidio Hill. Officially proclaimed a Spanish Presidio on January 1, 1774, the fortress was later occupied by a succession of Mexican forces. The Presidio was abandoned in 1837 after San Diego became a pueblo.
• Racine and Laramie Store - A reconstruction and furnished with period pieces to recreate the store, which sold cigars, tobacco, and stationery.
• Robinson-Rose House - Built by James Robinson in 1853 as his family home, as well as the home of the San Diego Herald and the San Diego and Gila Railroad office. Currently serves as the Visitor Center.
• San Diego House - Reconstruction of an adobe saloon and provisions store from 1830. The store was owned by two black men, Richard Freeman and Allen Light, the first two African/Americans to settle in Old Town.
• San Diego Sheriff's Museum - Located one hundred feet from where the first cobblestone jail once stood. Interactive exhibits include guns, badges, handcuffs, uniforms, patrol car, helicopter, motorcycle, jail cell, and courtroom.
• San Diego Union Newspaper - Prefabricated in Maine and shipped around the Horn of Africa in 1851. Restored as it was when the Union printed its first edition on October 10, 1868. See the original print room with a Washington press.
• Seeley Stable Museum - Albert Seeley ran the San Diego-Los Angeles Stage Line. Seeley Stables was the Yuma/San Diego stage stop in the 1850s. Houses a collection of vintage carriages and transportation memorabilia.
• Serra Museum - Original San Diego Presidio, this museum chronicles Old Town's inhabitants from the Kumeyaay Indians to the present with classic photos and exhibits.
• U.S. House - Originally a general store but has also been an auction house, butcher shop, boarding house, restaurant, and a match factory.
• The Whaley House - According to the Travel Channel's America's Most Haunted, this is the number one most haunted house in the United States. The alleged hauntings of the Whaley House have been reported on numerous other television programs and been written up in countless publications and books since the house first opened as a museum in 1960.

Step back in time in Old Town San Diego!

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