The full story
Mexico’s independence from Spain changed the political setting of San Diego while leaving the settlement small and closely tied to ranching. Mission lands were secularized, and prominent Californio families built adobe homes around the plaza that is now interpreted in Old Town. Casa de Estudillo gives this period a physical scale: rooms open around a courtyard, and thick adobe walls respond to the local climate. The Mexican–American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred California to the United States in 1848. At Old Town, the useful question is not simply which flag flew overhead, but how land ownership, trade and daily life changed across Spanish, Mexican and American rule. Reading those layers makes the restored buildings more meaningful than a collection of period facades.