Casa de la Guerra, the 1820s adobe home of José de la Guerra, fifth commandant of the Presidio, was for decades the social centre of Mexican-era Santa Barbara. Richard Henry Dana, in Two Years Before the Mast, describes a wedding held in this house in 1836. The U-shaped courtyard inside the building was the model for the Paseo de la Guerra shopping arcade that now wraps around it.
The house operates as a small museum, with rooms restored to their 1840s appearance. The surrounding Plaza de la Guerra, between the house and City Hall, is where Santa Barbara was first laid out as a town.