Castro Home

The bronze dates the fire April 20, 1956; most accounts put it a night later, on the eve of a hearing on whether to save the adobe or clear it for El Cerrito Plaza. Eleven days earlier the council had refused to preserve it, while the pharmacist Louis Stein gathered petition names. Two fifteen-year-old boys admitted pouring the gasoline; suspicion about the timing never lifted. Built with Indian labor in the late 1830s, the adobe had been a nightclub and casino. No state plaque stands here; a 1937 porcelain sign nearby marks the rancho's southern boundary.

What the plaque says

The Adobe Houses of Victor Castro Late 1830's to 1956 Four hundred feet west of this plaque Victor Ramon Castro 1817 - 1900 built three adobe dwellings, the south one in late 1830's the main one or west one in 1840's the north in late 1840's They with later additions were destroyed by fire April 20, 1956. This plaque dedicated by Contra Costa County Historical Society Cerrito de Oro Parlor 306 Native Daughters of the Golden West El Cerrito Cal. Oct. 25, 1958.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Woods National Monument — 15 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Muir Beach Overlook — 16 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.

More markers nearby

• University of California, Berkeley Campus — 3.0 mi
• Berkeley City Club — 3.0 mi
• Piedmont Way — 3.3 mi
• Richmond Shipyards District — 3.9 mi