Casa de Machado y Silvas
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
2767 San Diego Avenue, San Diego CA 92110

Courtesy California State Library

Photo by Marlena Krcelich

ONE OF FIVE ORIGINAL HISTORIC BUILDINGS in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, this rectangular adobe fronting the plaza was constructed in the early 1840s by one of Old Town's first settlers. Born in 1756 (most likely in Sonora, Mexico), José Manuel Machado arrived in San Diego in 1781 as a corporal of the Leather Jacket Company stationed at the Presidio. He presented this home as a wedding present to his daughter María Antonia, and her husband, José Antonio Nicasio Silvas. The modest whitewashed structure consisted of four rooms, with three doors that opened onto the plaza, and the necessary kitchen garden at the rear of the building.

In 1846, María Antonia ran from this house to the plaza to cut down the Mexican flag from the flagpole, returning to her home with it and hiding it there in order to protect it under the new American occupation. By the early 1850's María Antonia established and operated the Commercial Restaurant in the building, which remained in the family until the 1930s. The structure also operated as a boarding house and a saloon, after which it served the community as the Machado Memorial Chapel before restoration in 1975 by California State Parks, and opened as a museum. The museum currently exhibits María Antonia's Commercial Restaurant.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park LINK