Old Town History

Old Town San Diego is a frequent visit for many San Diego residents as well as tourists. What attracts so many to this small area of San Diego is the history and culture that remains a part of old town. There are over 25 restaurants in a mile radius all offering authentic and cultural cuisine. In addition to the food and shopping Old Town hosts many events and has nightly entertainment in many of the restaurants located here. Within Old Town there are three Park Agencies: State, City and County, all of which have historic sites operated as museums. Located at the northern end of Old Town, Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is the most visited park in the state system and all of its museums are free to the public. The state park spans the decades from Californio rule to the Mexican Period and finally to the American Period. Experience the days of the dons at the 1825 Casa de Estudillo, one of the finest adobe haciendas in the state; view a rare original stagecoach at the Wells Fargo Museum; see a scale model of nineteenth century Old Town at the reconstructed Robinson-Rose House, one-time Lodge of the Freemasons and home of San Diego’s first newspaper The San Diego Herald; the Black Hawk Livery & Blacksmith; the San Diego Union newspaper building; and the first public schoolhouse in San Diego, the Mason Street School.

There are many more historic museums at the center of Old Town: the Whaley House Museum Complex is a county-owned park consisting of five historic buildings, the most famous of which is the Whaley House, believed by many to be the most haunted house in America in addition to housing the former county courthouse and San Diego’s first commercial theater; the Old Adobe Chapel, San Diego’s former parochial church and setting for the famous wedding of “Ramona,” is now a city-owned museum; the Church of the Immaculate Conception was formally dedicated in 1919; El Campo Santo Cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 500 nineteenth century residents including the Indian leader Antonio Garra and the notorious boat thief Yankee Jim Robinson; and you won’t want to miss the Sheriff’s Museum. All of these museums can be found along San Diego Avenue, Old Town’s main thoroughfare. Just up the hill from San Diego Avenue are the Serra Museum and Presidio Site, the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, and Heritage Park, a 7.8 acre county park where seven Victorian homes have been relocated to save them from demolition and now house shops and bed and breakfasts.

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