La Casa de Estudillo

The thick, white adobe walls of La Casa de Estudillo enclose a large, central courtyard, distinguishing this house from the surrounding wooden structures. Built in eighteen twenty-seven by Jose Maria Estudillo, a Spanish commandant at the local presidio, the house served as a grand home for his family and a social hub for early San Diego. When the Mexican-American War arrived, the house became a barracks for American troops who famously occupied the rooms while the Estudillo family moved out to live in tents.