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Old Town

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Places to Explore

1. Heritage Park
Victorian homes lend grace to this park.
2. Junípero Serra Museum
The city was born right here.
3. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
A rebuilt part of the city's history.
4. Presidio Park
Go green in this 40-acre park.
5. Zocalo Grill
Mexican food, but far from traditional.

Map of Old Town

San Diego's Spanish and Mexican roots are most evident in Old Town, the first European settlement in Southern California. Old Town San Diego's first houses, of sun-dried adobe bricks arranged around a central plaza, began to appear in the 1820s; by the 1850s, after the discovery of gold drew prospectors to California from around the globe, they began to be replaced with wood-frame structures. In the 1860s, however, the advent of Alonzo Horton's New Town to the southeast stole thunder from Old Town, which began to wither. Efforts to preserve it began early in the 20th century, and when it became a state historic park in 1968, the process of restoration gained momentum.