Qualla: What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego

What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego: Introduction

Fri, 08 May 2026 04:45:08 GMT

Photo credit Glen Larson. Original uploader was Glenlarson at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Richard Henry Dana Jr. was nineteen years old when he first saw Old Town San Diego from the deck of a hide-trading vessel in 1835. He described what he saw in Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840 — a cluster of adobe buildings on a slope above the bay, inhabited by a few hundred people living at the far edge of Mexican California. The account he wrote is one of the few contemporaneous descriptions of the place that is now preserved as Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, California's most visited state park.

Image: Glen Larson. Original uploader was Glenlarson at en.wikipedia | Public domain

What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego: The Oldest Neighborhood

Fri, 08 May 2026 04:45:08 GMT

Photo credit Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0. Old Town San Diego sits at the base of Presidio Hill, the site of the Spanish military installation established in 1769. As the presidio's population grew and civilian life developed, families moved down from the hill and established the settlement that would become Old Town — th...

Image: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada | CC BY-SA 2.0

What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego: Casa de Estudillo

Fri, 08 May 2026 04:45:08 GMT

Photo credit Sharon Mollerus, CC BY 2.0. The most substantial original structure in Old Town is the Casa de Estudillo, the home of the Estudillo family, built beginning in 1827. The family patriarch, José María de Estudillo, was a captain in the presidio garrison; the casa that bears his name was the grandest private re...

Image: Sharon Mollerus | CC BY 2.0

What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego: Most Visited in California

Fri, 08 May 2026 04:45:08 GMT

Photo credit Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park was the most visited California state park in 2005 and 2006, a distinction that reflects both its central location in a major metropolitan area and its appeal to the enormous tourism economy that San Diego sustains. The park receives million...

Image: Joe Mabel | CC BY-SA 3.0

What San Diego Looked Like Before It Became San Diego: The Layers Beneath the Surface

Fri, 08 May 2026 04:45:08 GMT

Photo credit Zzannoni1956, Public domain. The archaeological record beneath Old Town is substantial and still being studied. Excavations over the decades have turned up evidence of Kumeyaay occupation long predating the Spanish arrival, as well as artifacts from the Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods. The groun...

Image: Zzannoni1956 | Public domain