Gonzales/Peralta Adobe - Fallon House Historic Site

The story of Gonzales/Peralta Adobe - Fallon House Historic Site

You’re standing in the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe - Fallon House Historic Site, a historic district made up of an 18th century adobe and a Victorian mayor’s mansion. The oldest part of the complex is the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe, which Britannica dates to 1797 and describes as built by José Manuel Gonzeles. In that account, he was an Apache Indian, the first resident, and the second mayor of San José. It also says Luís María Peralta later occupied the adobe and held the highest office in the community as commissioner. Both men were part of the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition, and the adobe is described there as the last remaining structure from El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe.

The other half of the site is the Carmela and Thomas Fallon House, built in the 1850s by one of San José’s earliest mayors. The Victorian mansion has fifteen fully furnished rooms typical of the Victorian period. Together, the two buildings let you walk from an early adobe home into a later formal city residence.

This site is in the historysanjose.org plan-your-visit page, and it’s open for visits with street parking available. As you look around, the contrast to notice is the move from the simple adobe to the furnished Victorian house next door.