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18-608: Luís María Peralta never lived on the rancho himself, but his four sons and their families did. With their wives, families, landless Spanish-Mexican laborers (from New Spain), their families, and some native peoples, the Peralta sons established the first Spanish -speaking communities in the East Bay. As the rancho prospered, the Peralta brothers built newer and bigger houses. The main hacienda contained two adobes, and some twenty guest houses, and became an established stop for travelers along what

36-586: A 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -story building, the old Peralta house had its main reception rooms on the second story. Peachey continued this emphasis on the second story in his additions, treating the ground floor as a basement . The house remained in the Peachey family for thirty-four years. Between 1909 and 1926, it went to Daniel and C.L. Best. Eventually in November 1926, it was purchased by the Alta Mira Club, who are still

54-617: A sergeant, he was honored by appointment as comisionado in charge of Pueblo San José in 1807, the highest military and civilian official. Peralta held this position until 1822, when the position ended with Mexico 's independence from Spain. In 1804, he moved into what is now known as the Peralta Adobe , the oldest building in San José. In 1820, he was rewarded for his long service with the Rancho San Antonio land grant. He never lived on

72-536: The 1868 Hayward earthquake destroyed many of the rancho's buildings, Antonio (the third son), built what is now known as the Peralta Hacienda, an Italianate Victorian two-story frame house in 1870, located in what is today the Fruitvale district of Oakland. In 1872, the combined property of the sons of Luís María Peralta was assessed at approximately $ 200,000 (their father's estate had been valued at $ 1,383,500 at

90-718: The Presidio of San Francisco , Mission Santa Clara , and the Pueblo of San José . When he reached the age of 21, Luis entered, as was traditional, into the military of the King of Spain . Upon his marriage to María Loreto Alviso in 1784, Luis transferred from the Monterey to the San Francisco Company serving with the Escolta (guards) at Mission Santa Clara , Mission San José and as corporal of

108-422: The rawhide and tallow produced by their cattle. The Peralta family built a total of 16 houses over a fifty-year period on Rancho San Antonio. There were eleven adobes, three frame houses, one brick house, and one built of "logs and dirt" (the very first structure built). Son Domingo 's home was located on Codornices Creek adjacent to the site of what is today St. Mary's College High School . Son Vicente's home

126-493: The "Sisters Title case" was eventually resolved in the brothers' favor by the California Supreme Court in 1859. By 1860, the brothers' land holdings had been substantially reduced, partly to pay for the previous decade's litigation and to cover newly imposed property taxes. Among the lawyers representing them were Horace Carpentier who acquired large chunks of the Peralta lands as compensation for his services. After

144-635: The 1870 house to its present location. That house and a brick house (the Peralta Home built by the eldest son Ignacio in 1860) are the only two remaining structures out of the entire complex. The 1870 House now sits in Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in Oakland and is open for tours. Lu%C3%ADs Mar%C3%ADa Peralta Luis María Peralta (1759 in Sonora , New Spain  – August 26, 1851)

162-928: The Peraltas to hold on to their property. Although the United States government promised all rights of citizenship and property ownership to the Californios through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, the California Land Act of 1851 required the Californios to prove their land titles in court. The resulting litigation lasted years. In the interim, squatters continued to overrun Rancho San Antonio, stealing and killing cattle and even subdividing and selling land belonging to

180-600: The Peraltas. Although the United States Supreme Court confirmed the Peralta title in United States v. Peralta (60 U.S. 343) in 1856, the Peralta family had their own internal title dispute to resolve. Left out of the distribution of the land grant, The Peralta sisters felt cheated out of the family land, and contested their brothers' sole claim to the Rancho San Antonio land grant. The court case, known as

198-467: The current owners. One of the more interesting of 19th-century houses in San Leandro, it has additional historic associations with the large and land-rich Peralta family, who were pioneers of the area. Peralta's father, Luís María Peralta , received the Rancho San Antonio land grant from Spanish Governor Don Pablo Vicente de Solá on October 20, 1820. The house is a California Historical Landmark and

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216-551: The guard at Mission Santa Cruz . Phyllis Filiberti Butler records in her book, The Valley of Santa Clara, Historic Buildings, 1792–1920 , that after an attack on the priest and majordomo of Mission San José in 1805, "he led the full garrison from the fort at San Francisco into the San Joaquin Valley in pursuit of the Indians." Surprising the Indians in their village, Peralta won a swift victory, which enhanced his reputation. Then

234-558: The rancho, however, but his four sons, Hermenegildo Ignacio , José Domingo , Antonio María , and José Vicente , did. In 1842 he split the rancho among them, leaving his five daughters his cattle , his adobe , and the land on which it sat. He died in 1851 in San José. Peralta's most famous descendant is the Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara . Peralta Home The Peralta Home , at 561 Lafayette Avenue in San Leandro

252-415: The time of his death, equivalent to $ 38 million in 2023). By the time of Antonio Peralta's death in 1879, he only had 23 acres (93,000 m) left of the original 16,067 acres (65.02 km) his father gave him. In the end, the 1870 house and the remnants of Antonio's share of the land grant were sold by his daughter Inez Galindo in 1897 to developer Henry Z. Jones who laid out streets and parcels and moved

270-859: Was a Californio ranchero and soldier in the Spanish Army . Peralta received Rancho San Antonio , one of the largest of the rancho grants in California , covering 44,800 acres (181 km ) that encompassed most of the East Bay region of the Bay Area in Northern California . The Peralta family (the 17-year-old Luis, his father, mother and three siblings) was part of the group of settlers that arrived in Alta California with Juan Bautista de Anza on his 1776 expedition. This group of settlers subsequently helped found

288-484: Was during the Spanish era the only camino real on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. The hacienda became the social and commercial center of this vast rancho. Annual rodeos and cattle round-ups, horse racing , and games often took place here. The Peraltas eventually had over 8,000 head of cattle and 2,000 horses grazing on the rancho, and built a wharf on the bay near the hacienda headquarters in order to trade

306-456: Was located in what is today the heart of Oakland's Temescal district. In 1842, Luís María Peralta decided to split the rancho among his sons. His five daughters received his cattle and his San Jose adobe (the Peralta Adobe ) and land. He died in 1851, but not before telling his sons to steer clear of the California gold rush , stating, "The land is our gold." However, it would not be easy for

324-528: Was the first brick house built in Alameda County . It was constructed in the Spanish Colonial style in 1860 for Ignacio Peralta , early San Leandro Spanish settler, by W.P. Toler (Peralta's son-in-law). A.C. Peachey purchased the house from Rafaela Sanchez Peralta (Ignacio's widow) on May 18, 1875. Immediately thereafter Peachey added a large wood extension at the back of the brick house. Technically

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