History of the Casa Peralta
The basic story of the Casa Peralta is the story of three women, Ludovina Peralta Ivey, who built an American Colonial Revival style home on the property in 1901, her sister Maria Peralta Toler who moved in with her in 1903 and inherited the home after Ludovina’s death, and their niece Herminia Peralta Dargie, who inherited the home in 1926 after Maria passed away. Herminia remodeled the home as a grand Spanish Revival casa in 1927.
But it also represents a much larger story, connecting current and future generations to major themes of our local and state history. On the local scale, it is the story of the Peralta family--how they came to California, how they lived as land-grant rancheros, and how they made the transition from Mexican to American California. On the state and national scale, it is the larger story of Spanish and American California, from the first Spanish settlers through the American acquisition of California, the Gold Rush, and the establishment of American towns in the East Bay. The Casa's Spanish Revival architectural transformation in 1926 fits into a 20th-century American story, when interest in historic styles swept the nation in the 1920s and revival architecture styles were popular.
The story begins in 1776, when almost 300 men, women, and children arrived in Monterey, the new capital of Spain’s California colony. Seven years earlier, Spain had sent soldiers and priests to begin colonization. Then the soldier Juan Bautista de Anza was given the task of finding an overland route from Mexico to California, convincing families to begin new lives in a distant colony, and leading them more than 1,200 miles, crossing deserts and mountains, to California. They were mostly poor, willing to uproot their lives for the promised opportunities of the new colony. They were the first non-native families to come to California, as significant to West Coast history as the Mayflower pilgrims were to the East Coast. The families Anza brought here would establish the presidio and mission in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and disperse throughout the Bay Area.
One person on this journey to a new life was the teenager Luís Maria Peralta. A few years after he arrived, Luís enlisted in California’s Spanish military. In 1820, after 40 years of service as a Spanish soldier, he was given a vast East Bay land grant as a reward for his military service.
San Leandro Creek was the dividing line between two land grants—Peralta’s Rancho San Antonio to the north and the Estudillo’s Rancho San Leandro to the south.
The Casa Peralta story is mostly concerned with the Peraltas, but it is situated on land that was once Estudillo’s.
Luís Peralta divided the land grant among his four sons. The first brother settled on the land in 1821; some of the adobe bricks from his 1821 adobe home are in the front of the Casa Peralta today. Ygnacio Peralta took the land along San Leandro Creek that is part of San Leandro.
The four brothers lived the life of Spanish colonial land-owning elites—raising cattle for the hide-and-tallow trade and participating in the much-storied rodeos, fiestas, balls, and bullfights of Mexican California.
Their world would soon change. The United States and Mexico went to war in 1846. At the end of the war in 1848, Mexico ceded California, much of the southwestern United States, and Texas to the United States. And, only a few weeks earlier, gold had been found at Sutter's Mill, launching one of the world’s largest migrations. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from the United States but from all over the world, rushed to California hoping to strike it rich.
It was the wild west in 1850s California. Newcomers frequently ignored the titles of the Mexican landowners. So many men camped along San Lorenzo Creek, the area was called Squatterville. Beef was in demand and fetched a high price, so ranchero cattle were often stolen. One of the Peralta brothers caught cattle rustlers in the act, but they were defiant and he fled for his own safety. Proving their claims in court was a lengthy and costly process. Courts were dominated by the very squatters who were ignoring the Californio’s property rights.
Nevertheless, the Peraltas managed to find their way in this new world. Ygnacio made enough money selling land and beef that in 1860 he was able to build a beautiful house still in existence today, the oldest building in San Leandro and now the home of the Alta Mira Club.
Ygnacio’s daughters continue the Casa story. Ludovina and Maria Peralta were born and spent their childhood in Mexican California but came of age in American California. They married American men. In 1874, Ludovina and her husband William Ivey bought the property at the corner of Clarke and Estudillo on land that had once been part of Estudillo’s Rancho San Leandro. They used it as income property, renting it out.
When her husband passed away, Ludovina had the existing home torn down and in 1901 built a new American Colonial Revival style home. She moved in and would live there until her death. In 1903, her sister Maria Peralta Toler, now widowed as well, moved in with Ludovina.
When Maria died in 1926, the house went to her niece Herminia Peralta Dargie. Herminia was raised in an atmosphere retaining many of the old Spanish customs. She married the founder and publisher of the Oakland Tribune, William Dargie. After Dargie’s death, she traveled frequently to South America and Europe. In Spain in 1925 she met a Spanish Civil Engineer, Captain Antonio Martin, and brought him to San Leandro to remodel the home she inherited from her aunts. Martin transformed the home with balconies, arches, red-tiled roofs, fountains, a walled garden, and other Spanish Revival architectural elements. Beautiful, color-saturated, hand-painted tiles, imported from Toledo, Spain, were used throughout the house and grounds. Some were decorative, others depicted the story of Don Quixote.
But it also represents a much larger story, connecting current and future generations to major themes of our local and state history. On the local scale, it is the story of the Peralta family--how they came to California, how they lived as land-grant rancheros, and how they made the transition from Mexican to American California. On the state and national scale, it is the larger story of Spanish and American California, from the first Spanish settlers through the American acquisition of California, the Gold Rush, and the establishment of American towns in the East Bay. The Casa's Spanish Revival architectural transformation in 1926 fits into a 20th-century American story, when interest in historic styles swept the nation in the 1920s and revival architecture styles were popular.
The story begins in 1776, when almost 300 men, women, and children arrived in Monterey, the new capital of Spain’s California colony. Seven years earlier, Spain had sent soldiers and priests to begin colonization. Then the soldier Juan Bautista de Anza was given the task of finding an overland route from Mexico to California, convincing families to begin new lives in a distant colony, and leading them more than 1,200 miles, crossing deserts and mountains, to California. They were mostly poor, willing to uproot their lives for the promised opportunities of the new colony. They were the first non-native families to come to California, as significant to West Coast history as the Mayflower pilgrims were to the East Coast. The families Anza brought here would establish the presidio and mission in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and disperse throughout the Bay Area.
One person on this journey to a new life was the teenager Luís Maria Peralta. A few years after he arrived, Luís enlisted in California’s Spanish military. In 1820, after 40 years of service as a Spanish soldier, he was given a vast East Bay land grant as a reward for his military service.
San Leandro Creek was the dividing line between two land grants—Peralta’s Rancho San Antonio to the north and the Estudillo’s Rancho San Leandro to the south.
The Casa Peralta story is mostly concerned with the Peraltas, but it is situated on land that was once Estudillo’s.
Luís Peralta divided the land grant among his four sons. The first brother settled on the land in 1821; some of the adobe bricks from his 1821 adobe home are in the front of the Casa Peralta today. Ygnacio Peralta took the land along San Leandro Creek that is part of San Leandro.
The four brothers lived the life of Spanish colonial land-owning elites—raising cattle for the hide-and-tallow trade and participating in the much-storied rodeos, fiestas, balls, and bullfights of Mexican California.
Their world would soon change. The United States and Mexico went to war in 1846. At the end of the war in 1848, Mexico ceded California, much of the southwestern United States, and Texas to the United States. And, only a few weeks earlier, gold had been found at Sutter's Mill, launching one of the world’s largest migrations. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from the United States but from all over the world, rushed to California hoping to strike it rich.
It was the wild west in 1850s California. Newcomers frequently ignored the titles of the Mexican landowners. So many men camped along San Lorenzo Creek, the area was called Squatterville. Beef was in demand and fetched a high price, so ranchero cattle were often stolen. One of the Peralta brothers caught cattle rustlers in the act, but they were defiant and he fled for his own safety. Proving their claims in court was a lengthy and costly process. Courts were dominated by the very squatters who were ignoring the Californio’s property rights.
Nevertheless, the Peraltas managed to find their way in this new world. Ygnacio made enough money selling land and beef that in 1860 he was able to build a beautiful house still in existence today, the oldest building in San Leandro and now the home of the Alta Mira Club.
Ygnacio’s daughters continue the Casa story. Ludovina and Maria Peralta were born and spent their childhood in Mexican California but came of age in American California. They married American men. In 1874, Ludovina and her husband William Ivey bought the property at the corner of Clarke and Estudillo on land that had once been part of Estudillo’s Rancho San Leandro. They used it as income property, renting it out.
When her husband passed away, Ludovina had the existing home torn down and in 1901 built a new American Colonial Revival style home. She moved in and would live there until her death. In 1903, her sister Maria Peralta Toler, now widowed as well, moved in with Ludovina.
When Maria died in 1926, the house went to her niece Herminia Peralta Dargie. Herminia was raised in an atmosphere retaining many of the old Spanish customs. She married the founder and publisher of the Oakland Tribune, William Dargie. After Dargie’s death, she traveled frequently to South America and Europe. In Spain in 1925 she met a Spanish Civil Engineer, Captain Antonio Martin, and brought him to San Leandro to remodel the home she inherited from her aunts. Martin transformed the home with balconies, arches, red-tiled roofs, fountains, a walled garden, and other Spanish Revival architectural elements. Beautiful, color-saturated, hand-painted tiles, imported from Toledo, Spain, were used throughout the house and grounds. Some were decorative, others depicted the story of Don Quixote.
The Casa Peralta soon after it was finished, circa 1927
Herminia didn’t have long to enjoy her beautiful Spanish-style home. She died in December 1929. The Oakland Tribune, already half-owned by her long-time friend William Knowland, would become entirely his after lengthy legal maneuvers and court proceedings. Half of her estate, including the Casa Peralta, went to Antonio Martin, who moved into the main house.
Herminia’s sister contested the will, and after a long, complicated court battle the Casa went to Herminia’s sister in 1938. She immediately sold it. The Casa became a rest home, and later an alcohol rehab hospital. When the property came up for sale in 1969 and was in danger of being torn down for development, John and Barbara Mathews Brooks bought the property and donated it to the City of San Leandro.
Now it shares a beautiful lot with the Historical Society’s Little Brown Church and the San Leandro History Museum. The City maintains the old house as a historic house museum. Many events have taken place here--the San Leandro Art Association held their Annual Festival of Art at the Casa, fourth-grade students came on field trips to learn about Spanish California, SLED held fundraisers in the beautiful courtyard. Volunteers opened the home to visitors on weekends.
But events, field trips, and inside visits are now on hold until safety issues can be addressed. Please help us raise the funds desperately needed for restoration and repairs, so this beautiful home and garden continue to connect us to the stories of our past—the first Mexican migration of Mexican families seeking a better life in California, land grants and life in Spanish California, how one land grant family made the transition to American life, and the 1920s revival of Spanish style architecture. It is our heritage and a historic legacy that must be saved.
Herminia didn’t have long to enjoy her beautiful Spanish-style home. She died in December 1929. The Oakland Tribune, already half-owned by her long-time friend William Knowland, would become entirely his after lengthy legal maneuvers and court proceedings. Half of her estate, including the Casa Peralta, went to Antonio Martin, who moved into the main house.
Herminia’s sister contested the will, and after a long, complicated court battle the Casa went to Herminia’s sister in 1938. She immediately sold it. The Casa became a rest home, and later an alcohol rehab hospital. When the property came up for sale in 1969 and was in danger of being torn down for development, John and Barbara Mathews Brooks bought the property and donated it to the City of San Leandro.
Now it shares a beautiful lot with the Historical Society’s Little Brown Church and the San Leandro History Museum. The City maintains the old house as a historic house museum. Many events have taken place here--the San Leandro Art Association held their Annual Festival of Art at the Casa, fourth-grade students came on field trips to learn about Spanish California, SLED held fundraisers in the beautiful courtyard. Volunteers opened the home to visitors on weekends.
But events, field trips, and inside visits are now on hold until safety issues can be addressed. Please help us raise the funds desperately needed for restoration and repairs, so this beautiful home and garden continue to connect us to the stories of our past—the first Mexican migration of Mexican families seeking a better life in California, land grants and life in Spanish California, how one land grant family made the transition to American life, and the 1920s revival of Spanish style architecture. It is our heritage and a historic legacy that must be saved.