Old Town San Diego is the city's original town site, located beneath the hill where the original Mission San Diego de Alcala was established in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra, and where Fort Stockton was later located. The town officially became El Pueblo de San Diego in 1835, after growing in the 1820s. In 1846, California became part of the United States, as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, from the Mexican-American War. In 1872, a fire destroyed much of the southern portion of the town, and many residents moved to New Town, which became Downtown San Diego. In 1968, Old TOwn San Diego State Historic Park was created, in order to preserve the way of life in the settlement from 1821 to 1872.
The McCoy House, at the end of San Diego Avenue. The house was built in 1869, and was the home of James McCoy, sherriff and state senator for San Diego.
The Robinson-Rose House, on Plaza Viejo. The house was built in 1853 and was later used as a newspaper office and a railroad office. It is one of seven original Old Town buildings.
Buildings on San Diego Avenue. In the center is the United States House, which functioned as a boarding house and general store in the 1860s. On the far right is the Casa Machado de Wrightington, built in 1869, and the site where Señora de Silvas removed the Mexican flag in 1869. On the left is the Casa Machado y Silvas, built in the early 1840s, and used as Commercial Restaurant in the 1850s by Maria Antonia, who received the house from her father, Jose Manuel Machado, as a wedding present.
The Racine & Laramie store, on San Diego Avenue. The store opened in 1869 and was San Diego's first cigar store.
La Casa de Estudillo, on Mason Street. The house was built in 1827 and opens up to a patio in the back. The Estudillo family lived in the house until 1887
The San Diego Courthouse, on the left, and the Colorado House, on the right, on San Diego Avenue. The San Diego Courthouse was the first brick building in Old Town, and first functioned as the town hall. It became the county courthouse in 1869. The Colorado House was built in 1851, and was burned down in the Old Town fire in 1872, and has been rebuilt as the Wells Fargo Historical Museum.
The Mason Street School, on Mason Street. The school was built in 1865, and was the first public schoolhouse in California.
The Casa de Aguirre, on San Diego Avenue. The building is a reconstruction of an original house from the 1850s, built by Jose Antonio Aguirre. The house is now used as a marketplace.
Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, on San Diego Avenue. Construction of the church began in 1968, making the church the first in California that was not part of the California Mission system. However, when Old Town was abandoned for New Town in 1872, the church lost its parishioners, and was not dedicated until 1919.
The Whaley House, on San Diego Avenue. The house was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley, and is the oldest brick house in San Diego.
Temple Beth Israel, on Heritage Park Row. The synagogue was built in 1889. Tempe Beth Israel was San Diego's first synagogue, and is one of the oldest synagogue buildings in the United States.
Houses on Heritage Park Row. The Sherman Gilbert House, built in 1887, is on the left; the Bushyhead House, built in 1887, is in the center; and the Christian House, built in 1889, is on the right.
The Burton House, on Heritage Park Row. The house was built in 1893 by Henry Guild Burton, a retired Amry physician.
Houses on Juan Street.
Old Town Theatre, now the Cygnet Theatre, on Twiggs Street. The theater was built in the 1970s for a theater group that was based in Old Town.
Plaza Viejo, in the middle of Old Town San Diego State Park, and in the middle of Old Town. The plaza was used for public functions by the Spanish. The flagpole in the foreground resembles a ship's mast since the original flagpole was the mast of an abandoned ship. The American flag was first raised in San Diego here on July 29, 1846.
The Johnson House, on Calhoun Street. The house was built in 1870 by George Johnson, who operated a steamboat on the Colorado River.
The Plaza del Pasado, on Calhoun Street. The plaza was originally built in 1940 as the Casa de Pico Motor Hotel, which was centered around a courtyard. The motel was purchased in 1968 by the state of California to help form the state park; the motel was incorporated into the park not for being a historical structure, but for being a historical romanticism of early Spanish colonial architecture.
Ditto. Who would've thought back then that San Diego would become the city it is now? Nice work!! 
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