Historical Marker · No. 49
Adobe Chapel of the Immaculate Conception
San Diego, San Diego County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the City of San Diego, San Diego County Historical Days Ass'n, and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, September 24, 1988, 1988
John Brown built this as a house in 1850, and it stayed a house for eight years before Jose Antonio Aguirre bought it and made it a parish church. What stands here is not that building. The original came down, and a Works Progress Administration crew put this one up in 1937, close to the original site rather than on it. A second bronze in the wall records the rebuilding. Aguirre's tombstone is set into the floor of a replica of the church he paid for.
What the plaque says
Adobe Chapel of the Immaculate Conception Originally built as the home of San Diego's John Brown in 1850, the house was converted to a church by Don Jose Aguirre in 1858. Father Antonio D. Ubach, formerly a missionary among the Indians, was parish priest here from 1866 to 1907. It is said that he was the model for "Father Gaspara" in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona. In 1937 the WPA rebuilt the Adobe Chapel close to its original site. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 49 Originally registered December 6, 1932. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the City of San Diego, San Diego County Historical Days Ass'n. and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, September 24, 1988.
Where it stands
32.75164, -117.19427 · Directions
More markers nearby
- El Campo Santo — steps away
- The Whaley House — steps away
- Site of Casa de Cota — steps away
- Casa de Lopez — steps away