Casa Adobe de San Rafael

Tomás Ávila Sánchez rode with the lancers who cut up Kearny's dragoons at San Pasqual in December 1846. Fourteen years later the county elected him sheriff, the first Californio to hold the office, and returned him seven years running. In 1859 he backed Andrés Pico's bill to break Southern California off as a separate state called Colorado; it passed in Sacramento and Congress never took it up. He and María built this on a hundred acres of the old rancho between 1865 and 1871. She had to sell it after he died.

What the plaque says

Built by Tomás and Maria Sanchez, 1865-1871. Restored by the City of Glendale, 1932. California Historical Landmark No. 235.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 5.9 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 10 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Santa Monica Pier — 17 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• Catalina Adobe — 2.1 mi
• Ennis House — 3.8 mi
• Black Cat Tavern — 5.2 mi
• Campo de Cahuenga — 5.9 mi