When it comes to planning a day trip from Los Angeles, history lovers will want to make the one-hour drive to nearby San Juan Capistrano. This storied city in southern Orange County is centered around Mission San Juan Capistrano. It’s also notable for holding the oldest neighborhood in California: The Los Rios Historic District. Here’s everything to know about this ancient piece of local history.
In 1776, Spanish missionary Junípero Serra founded Mission San Juan Capistrano as the seventh of 21 Spanish missions in California. The mission system subjugated tens of thousands of indigenous people to the devastating effects of colonization, including the Acjachemen people, whom the Spanish renamed the Juaneños during this period.
The city of San Juan Capistrano grew and spread around the mission, with the development of Los Rios Street running right next door. Originally, the district consisted of 40 or so adobe homes divided by rough dirt roads, using large trees as property markers. Two hundred years ago, the street extended all the way down to today’s Dana Point Harbor.
These days, Los Rios Street is now only about 600 feet long, stretching from Del Obispo Street to the south to La Zanja Street to the north. You can still find three of the original adobe homes, all of which are about 230 years old. European immigrants built most of the others at the turn of the 20th century.
Historic homes on Los Rios Street
- Montanez Adobe (31745 Los Rios Street): This original adobe home belonged to Dona Polonia Montanez, holding religious services when the mission could not. The home was built around 1794 and is now a small self-guided museum open to the public. See an original jail cell from 1896 next door.
- Rios Adobe (31781 Los Rios Street): Spanish soldier Santiago Rios built the Rios Adobe in 1794, and his family still lives there. It’s the oldest continually-occupied home in the western United States.
- Silvas Adobe (31861 Los Rios Street): This original one-room adobe was first built in the 1790s and rebuilt by Jose Maria Silvas in 1868.
- Lupe Combs House (26711 Verdugo Street): This home was built in 1878 in Forester City and moved to San Juan Capistrano four years later. Town constable Jack Combs lived here before it served as a general store, candy store, post office, and gift shop.
- Ramos House (31752 Los Rios Street): Built in 1881, this historic board and batten home served the city’s Aguilar and Ramos families. In 1995 it opened as a quaint cafe that’s still running today.
- Garcia/Pryor Residence, O’Neill Museum (31831 Los Rios Street): Saloon owner Jose Garcia built this historic home between 1870 and 1880. It is now a small public museum with $1 entry.
In addition to the historic homes and buildings along Los Rios Street, visitors will find plenty more to explore in California’s oldest neighborhood. Some more popular stops include Zoomars Petting Zoo, The Tea House on Los Rios, and the River Street Marketplace (opening this summer).
You can get to San Juan Capistrano from Los Angeles in under an hour by car with no traffic. If visiting via public transportation, you’ll can look for Metrolink trains from Orange County as well as the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner.