Sanchez Adobe Park
The Sanchez Adobe has been a rancho headquarters, a hotel, a speakeasy, and an artichoke farm building. It has sheltered the Commandante of the San Francisco Presidio, a family of Irish-American farmers, Prohibition-era drinkers, and now museum visitors who walk through its rooms free of charge. Located at 1000 Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica, on the north bank of San Pedro Creek roughly a mile from the Pacific Ocean, the adobe is considered the finest example of Mexican-era architecture remaining in San Mateo County. Its layers of use tell the entire story of California's transformation.
From Pruristac to Rancho San Pedro
Before the adobe, before the mission, the Ramaytush band of the Ohlone people maintained a settlement here called Pruristac. A shell midden near the present-day park ranger building preserves evidence of their occupation. The Portola expedition camped about a mile to the west in October 1769, and journals from the expedition record meetings with the villagers and the hunting of a grizzly bear. In 1786, the Franciscans established the San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia at this site. After the mission system was dismantled in 1834, Governor Juan Alvarado granted the 8,926-acre Rancho San Pedro to Francisco Sanchez in 1839. Sanchez -- Commandante of the San Francisco Presidio and eighth alcalde of the city -- began building his adobe residence in 1842, completing it in 1846. He likely reused bricks from the mission outpost.
Twenty Rooms, a Hotel, and a Speakeasy
Edward Kirkpatrick purchased the property in 1871 and remodeled the adobe extensively during the late 1880s, expanding it to twenty rooms. Under subsequent owners, the building served as a hotel called the Adobe House, offering lodging to travelers on the coastal road. During Prohibition, it operated as a speakeasy -- one of several on the San Mateo coast where the combination of remoteness and ocean access made bootlegging a natural enterprise. By the 1940s, the building had been reduced to a farm outbuilding associated with the artichoke fields that spread across San Pedro Valley. The trajectory from military commander's residence to agricultural storage suggests how quickly fortunes shifted on the California coast.
Restoration and Ohlone Day
San Mateo County purchased the adobe and its surrounding 5.46 acres in 1947 and completed a comprehensive restoration by 1953. The site was designated a National Register Historical District in 1976 and is California Historical Landmark #391. In 2002, the adobe received a new roof. The San Mateo County History Museum now operates it as a free historic house museum. On October 26, 2019, hundreds gathered at the site for the first "Ohlone Day" celebration, honoring the Aramai of the Ramaytush Ohlone village of Pruristac as the peninsula's first inhabitants. A new visitor center opened the same day. Each September, the city of Pacifica hosts Rancho Days here with music, historical reenactments, and food -- a celebration of the California that existed between the missions and the suburbs.
From the Air
Located at 37.59°N, 122.49°W at 1000 Linda Mar Boulevard, Pacifica. The park is visible as a small green parcel with historic buildings on the north bank of San Pedro Creek. San Francisco International (KSFO) is approximately 8 nm east-northeast. Half Moon Bay Airport (KHAF) is 7 nm south.