La Casa de Machado y Silvas (Commercial Restraunt)

The Machado y Silvas adobe features thick, whitewashed walls and a deep, tiled porch that faces the open plaza. It began as a family home in eighteen thirty-three for Juan Machado, a corporal at the San Diego Presidio. After the Mexican-American War, the house shifted from a private residence into a noisy social hub. A traveling merchant named Jose Silvas moved in, opened a store in the front rooms, and turned the parlor into one of the busiest saloons in early San Diego.