Tag: Downtown San Jose

Downtown San Jose

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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.
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Artwork Honoring Ernesto Galarza

Ernesto Galarza Monument Art

The art work is large and includes much to consider and learn about Ernesto Galarza; activist, educator, author, and defender of human rights. The above captures just one piece of the public artwork in downtown San Jose, a part of the poem that is on the art and also included below.

Could Be

I only sang
because the lonely road was long;
and now the road and I are gone
but not the song.

I only spoke
the verse to pay for borrowed time
and now the clock and I are broken
but not the rhyme.

Possibly,
the self not being fundamental,
eternity
breathes only on the incidental.

                                    – Ernesto Galarza