Best Historical Landmark San Jose Near Me

4worldlovers: Visitors get to experience San José before cars, computers, and smartphones. They are welcomed into the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe and Carmela & Thomas Fallon House, two restored historic homes in the heart of San José. There, they journey through the past and see how San José transformed from El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in the late 1770s to California’s first state capital in 1850. Through the tour, they explore why people moved into the region and how the world changed around them.

4worldlovers: Commemoration of the Founding of the Pueblo San Jose de Guadalupe

The founding of the Pueblo San José de Guadalupe on November 29, 1777 established San José as California’s first civil community, supplying necessary agricultural products for the presidios and missions of San Francisco and Monterey. This project honors a pioneer settlement and its founders and the beginnings of a continuous migration of people who have come to this region from north, south, east, and west.

The migration is represented through four columns placed at each point of the compass. Each triangle shaped column has cast relief images on the outside walls and a tile mural on the inner face. Polished granite slabs top each of the columns with a descriptive title for the art on the face of the column. A tile floor map depicts the trek of the original settlers from the Sonora desert to what is today the city of San José.

4worldlovers:
The Luis Maria Peralta Adobe is the last remaining link to the Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe, one of Spanish California's oldest settlements and first municipal government. Manuel Gonzales was the first owner of the adobe. Gonzales and his family, among the earliest Spanish settlers of California, were part of the Anza Party of 1776. The Pueblo, believed to date from 1790-1800, is a rare survivor of a once common domestic type of architecture. The walls of the building are constructed of adobe blocks two feet thick, the floors are earthen, and the walls were originally plastered. After Gonzales died in 1804, Peralta, also a member of the Anza party, purchased the property.


The Peralta Adobe is located at 184 West Saint John St., San Jose and is administered by History San José. It is open Saturday and Sunday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm for tours. There is a fee. Call 408-918-1040 for more information. History San Jose also operates the Fallon House located on the northside of West Saint John St., which is the fully restored and lavishly furnished Italianate home of an early mayor of San Jose.


The San Francisco Bay Discovery Site, a National Historic Landmark, marks the site on top of Sweeney Ridge, where, in 1769, members of Gaspar de Portolo's overland exploration expedition first saw the San Francisco Bay. Following this momentous discovery by the Spaniards, a presidio and two missions were established in what is now San Francisco.


To get to the site from Pacifica, Sweeney Ridge trailheads are located at Sheldance Nursery off of Highway 1, and at the east end of Fassler Avenue. From San Bruno, trails start from the west end of Sneath Lane off of Hwy 35 (Skyline Blvd) and from Skyline College Parking Lot #2. Sweeney Ridge is part of the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area.


The Sanchez Adobe Park represents a continuum of human existence in the San Mateo area from its early occupation by Costanoan Indians, through the era of colonization, including the Spanish Mission, Mexican, and American periods. Also located at the site are the archeological remains of an agricultural outpost of Mission Dolores in San Francisco. They are the only known extant remains of a series of outposts established throughout the San Francisco Peninsula. At one time this outpost provided most of the food for Mission Dolores. The Costanoan Indian village once located at the site is the only known Indian village in the region directly associated with the remains of a mission outpost. The mission outpost began ca.1785, but in 1791, an epidemic wiped out most of the Native American population there. Following the disastrous epidemic, emphasis on crop production was decreased in favor of cattle raising. By 1834, the buildings of the mission outpost were no longer in use. From 1842-1846, Francisco Sanchez (a former commander at the San Francisco Presidio) constructed an adobe near the site of the former Indian village and mission outpost. It has been suggested that Sanchez constructed portions of his adobe with bricks from the ruinous buildings of the old mission outpost. The Sanchez Adobe is considered the finest example of early California Mexican-influenced architecture remaining in San Mateo County. The restored Sanchez Adobe is the centerpiece of the Sanchez Adobe Park, which includes five acres of park land, the adobe, archeological remains of the Costanoan Indian village, and the remains of the agricultural outpost established by Mission Dolores of San Francisco.


The Sanchez Adobe Park is located on 1000 Linda Mar Blvd., one mile east of CA 1, in Pacifica. From Hwy. 1 in Pacifica, turn east (away from the ocean) at Linda Mar Blvd. Drive approximately one mile. Turn right into the parking lot just past Adobe Dr. Sanchez Adobe is open Tuesday-Thursday 10:00am to 4:00pm Saturday and Sunday 1:00pm to 5:00pm. For information call 650-359-1462.


View from cemetery courtesy of Fremont's Museum of Local History, photo by Hugh Danaher


The Mission San Jose District includes the mission founded in 1797 by Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. San Jose, the fourteenth of the 21 coastal Spanish missions, was the only mission founded in the East Bay, and the last mission to be secularized (1836).


Mission San Jose, located at 43300 Mission Blvd. in Fremont, is open daily 10:00am to 5:00pm. Group tours are available by appointment only-for more information, please call 510- 657-1797 or visit their website.