Because San Diego was the site of California’s first permanent Spanish settlement, it has been called the birthplace of California. This is where in 1769 Father Junipero Serra came to establish the first of a chain of 21 missions that would eventually stretch from San Diego to Sonoma.

The mission and presidio were built on a hillside overlooking what is today Old Town San Diego. In the 1820s, a small Mexican community sprang up on the land below the mission. By 1835, it had become El Pueblo de San Diego, and in 1846 an American flag was raised.

In 1969, San Diego Old Town State Historic Park was established to preserve the heritage of the 1821–1872 period. In addition to historic buildings, which include San Diego’s first one-room schoolhouse, the park has a main plaza, museums, living history demonstrations and plenty of restaurants and places to buy Mexican clothes, hats and souvenirs.

Just up the hill from Old Town is Heritage Park, where a few Victorian houses have been relocated and beautifully restored, including the Whaley House, said by some to be one of the most haunted houses in the United States.