Peralta Adobe

The oldest building in San Jose today is known as the Peralta Adobe. It was built in 1797 by Manuel Gonzalez, an Apache native who came to the area as part of the Anza Expedition, helped found San Jose, and became the second Alcalde, the equivalent of mayor of San Jose. Luís María Peralta, whom the house is now named after, purchased the house after Gonzalez’s death. He too had arrived with the Anza Expedition and became a leader in the pueblo as the Comisionado, something like the sheriff of San Jose. Peralta also lived in the adobe until his death. Today you can see the adobe right in San Pedro Square while you enjoy a meal. You can go to HistorySanJose.org to sign up for a tour and to learn more about the building.

Peralta Adobe
Peralta Adobe
Peralta Adobe
Peralta added this wall turning the one room adobe home into a two room house with a living room separate from the bedroom.
Peralta Adobe
That is a very old bit of straw peeking out of the adobe wall.
Peralta Adobe
Sometime after Peralta’s family left the home, it was used for storage by different owners. One owner who ran a hotel next to the adobe widened out the doorway to the bedroom so that barrels of wine could be rolled through for storage.
Peralta Adobe
Peralta Adobe
You can still see stencil on walls throughout the adobe used to identify the wine barrels stored in various parts of the adobe when it was used as a warehouse.
Peralta Adobe
Peralta Adobe
The adobe, today sitting in the San Pedro Square, with a reproduction of the oven that use to stand alongside it.

California Theatre on First Street

California Theatre

The California Theatre, with the entrance pictured, was built in 1927 in downtown San Jose. You will find it on first street with it’s various painted details and architectural styles blended throughout. This is where the Silicon Valley Symphony performs.

California Theatre
California Theatre

Looking up offers much to appreciate in the various spaces of the theater.

California Theatre
California Theatre

Friendly Plaza, Monterey

Monterey, Ca
Property entrance built in 1832 across the street from Friendly Plaza.

Monterey is a little over an hour by car and well worth the drive, which is itself a pleasure. For those interested in San Jose history, it is impossible not to get excited about several of our nearby cities that are as wound up in the history of California.

Monterey is one of those important cities in our California history. Like San Jose, this is a city that one could spend a lifetime visiting, learning about, and photographing with great satisfaction.

Monterey, Ca
Colton Hall.

Pictured above is Colton Hall in the Friendly Plaza. In this building the California Constitution was written in 1849. It stated that San Jose would be the state capitol, was written in English and Spanish as a bilingual constitution, and led to California becaming the 31st state in 1850.

Monterey, Ca
Moon Tree in Friendly Plaza.

500 seeds comprising four species of trees were sent in orbit around the moon with Apollo 14 in 1971. When they returned, some of what became known as Moon Trees were planted alongside similar trees for research, some were given to states or countries as gifts. In 1976, many were given to cities and states with appropriate climates for the various tree seedlings in order to celebrate the bicentennial of the USA. The Moon Tree pictured above is one of these 1976 trees. In the bay area, the nearest two Moon Trees are in Monterey and in Berkeley. For comparison of two very different earth species, the human species woman visiting the Monterey Moon Tree in the photo above was born in 1976 when the Coast Redwood species Moon Tree next to her was planted.

Monterey, Ca
Bear statue in Friendly Plaza.

One interesting thing about bronze statues is that you can always tell where people are drawn to touch them most by the clearing of any natural tarnishing. For this bear, it is clearly the teeth that people are drawn to touch. It took my youngest child all of seconds before placing a foot in the bear’s teeth and asking me to take a picture.

Across the street from the Friendly Plaza is the Montery Museum of Art. Below are a few of the treasures located there.

Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca
Monterey, Ca

Monterey and Monterey Bay are incredible locations for discovery. The factors that brought people here for thousands of years continue to influence the lives of the people and continue to draw me to learn and discover more with great appreciation.

Monterey, Ca