Estudillo Home

The bronze says the family founded San Leandro; the men who drew the town were sons-in-law. José Joaquín Estudillo, once alcalde of Yerba Buena, was granted Rancho San Leandro in 1842 and died in 1852, the year the family's claim went before the Land Commission. Squatters had crowded onto the grant, and it took two of his daughters' husbands, John B. Ward and William Heath Davis, the merchant who later wrote Sixty Years in California, to bring them under control. In 1855 Ward filed the townsite map. St. Leander's now stands on the house's ground.

What the plaque says

Estudillo Home Site of the last home of Jose Joaquín Estudillo, grantee of Rancho San Leandro and his wife, Juana Martínez de Estudillo. It was built about 1850. The family founded San Leandro, built a hotel, and donated several lots, including the original site of St. Leander's Church. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 279 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with St. Leander's Parish Centennial. June 7, 1964

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 25 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 25 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.

More markers nearby

• Rancho San Antonio — 0.3 mi
• Peralta House — 0.5 mi
• San Leandro Oyster Beds — 2.7 mi
• Mills Hall — 4.0 mi