Peralta Adobe

The Peralta Adobe is the oldest surviving structure in San Jose, built around 1797 during the Spanish colonial period. It stands in what was once the centre of the original pueblo, now surrounded by the modern city. The adobe is a simple two-room building — a vivid contrast to the glass towers that have grown up around it — and it gives a clear sense of what California looked like before the American period.

The site operates as a small historic park, and guided tours combine the adobe with the adjacent Fallon House, a Victorian mansion built in 1855. The combination of the two buildings tells the story of San Jose's rapid transformation from Spanish colonial outpost to booming American city in the space of a single generation.

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A story
The Peralta Adobe is the oldest surviving building in San Jose, dating to around 1797 — built when California was Spanish, a century before it became American. Luis María Peralta, the adobe's original owner, was later granted the largest private land grant in California's history: a rancho covering most of what is now Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda. He died in 1851, just as the Gold Rush stripped the land from his family.