Casa de San Pedro

The hide trade came first. In 1823 the firm of McCulloch and Hartnell put up an adobe warehouse above the bay to hold cattle hides bought from the San Gabriel and San Fernando missions, the first commercial building on San Pedro Bay. Mission San Gabriel took it over in 1829, and Abel Stearns bought it in 1834 and gave it the name it still carries. Richard Henry Dana landed here on the brig Pilgrim in 1835 and put the hide house into Two Years Before the Mast. Only the site survives, inside Fort MacArthur.

What the plaque says

The first known commercial structure on the shore of San Pedro Bay was built here in 1823 by the trading firm of McCulloch & Hartnell to store cattle hides from the San Gabriel and San Fernando Missions. Richard Henry Dana described this adobe hide house in Two Years Before The Mast. Thus began the development of the Port of Los Angeles.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Monica Pier — 23 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

• Timms' Point and Landing — 0.8 mi
• Liberty Hill Site — 1.4 mi
• S.S. Catalina — 2.1 mi
• Site of Home of Diego Sepúlveda — 2.3 mi