San Diego is not only California’s birthplace ¾ it is also the state’s historic soul. Travelers can forego the history books and instead visit San Diego for a thorough lesson on California’s rich and colorful beginnings. 

From the state’s first mission to seedy Wild West gambling halls to colorful artwork celebrating Mexican heritage, below are San Diego’s notable historic landmarks and areas that paint a stunning portrait of California’s unique past.   

Cabrillo National Monument

In 1542, explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay under the Spanish flag and was the first European to discover California. Perched high atop the cliffs of picturesque Point Loma peninsula, Cabrillo National Monument commemorates Cabrillo’s historic landing and is one of San Diego’s most notable landmarks. Guests can visit an exhibit hall and visitors center to learn more about Cabrillo and watch a film that follows his incredible journey. Also located at the monument is the historic Point Loma Lighthouse, which stood watch over the entrance to San Diego Bay during the late 1800s. 

Part of the U.S. National Park Service, Cabrillo National Monument also provides visitors spectacular panoramic views of the city, San Diego Bay, Pacific Ocean and the majestic Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego’s East County. On a clear day, visitors can also see neighboring Mexico.

Mission San Diego de Alcala and Mission San Luis Rey

Spanish colonization during the 1700s brought dramatically beautiful and active missions to San Diego, which were established as the first permanent settlements in California to spread the message of Christianity. Out of the 21 missions established in California by Father Junipero Serra of Spain, the first and largest can be found in San Diego.

Mission San Diego de Alcala, originally located in Old Town San Diego, was Father Serra’s first California mission, founded in 1769; it was relocated in 1774 to its present site in San Diego’s Mission Valley neighborhood near the San Diego River. History buffs can make reservations for a tour, attend mass in the original chapel, visit the mission’s museum and stroll among the mission grounds where the oldest known cemetery in California is located. 

Located in Oceanside in San Diego’s North County region, Mission San Luis Rey is California’s largest mission, founded in 1798. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of the mission grounds, including its museum featuring mission and Native American artifacts.  Guests can also take behind-the-scenes tours on most weekends and reserve a private retreat on the mission grounds.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park

Visitors can witness the living legacy of California’s birthplace at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, San Diego’s first “downtown.” Old Town marks the site of the first Spanish settlement on the U.S. West Coast and also represents San Diego’s Hispanic heritage from 1821 to 1872, when Mexico gained independence from Spain and took over the region.

The six-block park features 12 acres of Mexican lore and historical sites presented in popular shops, restaurants, museums and several carefully preserved or restored adobe and wooden buildings. “Living History” demonstrations of activities that took place in the 1800s like quilting and blacksmithing occur every Wednesday and Saturday, and daily tours by the California State Parks guide visitors through the unique history of the park.  Highlights include San Diego’s first newspaper office, first public schoolhouse and the 1825-built Casa de Estudillo, a former home of a prominent San Diego family and one of the finest adobe haciendas in the state. 

Gaslamp Quarter

In 1869, real estate developer Alonzo Horton bought a parcel of land near San Diego’s waterfront with the intention of relocating the heart of the city away from Old Town. Known today as the Gaslamp Quarter,the area is one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in downtown and home to stunning Victorian buildings that now house popular restaurants, nightclubs, bars, trendy boutiques and retail shops. 

For visitors wanting to learn more about the colorful history of the Gaslamp Quarter during its heydays of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation offers tours that vividly re-create this unique period in San Diego’s and California’s past. Tours include tales from the Wild West days when the area fell into disrepair and a “red light” district flourished. Brothels, gambling halls and saloons filled the streets, and the famous gunslinger Wyatt Earp was a local resident who owned three gambling halls.

Julian

Located in the hills of San Diego’s rural East County, Julianis a historic mining town that grew during the Southern California gold rush of 1869. Today a scenic mountain community, the town still retains its charming Victorian architecture, century-old stores and other well-preserved landmarks as quaint reminders of its colorful past.
The Julian Chamber of Commerce provides maps for self-guided walking tours of Julian’s country charm and Victorian architecture that stretches from one end of town to the other. Main Street retains its false-front stores, country style restaurants and an old fashioned soda fountain at the Julian Drug Store. Visitors can also recreate the days of San Diego’s short-lived gold rush by touring the intricate path of tunnels at the Eagle and High Peak Mine, one of Julian’s first gold mines.

Balboa Park

The largest cultural complex west of the Mississippi and the largest urban cultural park in the United States, Balboa Park is not only a cultural icon home to 17 diverse museums and the world-famous San Diego Zoo but also an important historical landmark in San Diego and throughout California. Originally built for the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-1916, the buildings along the Prado in Balboa Park are considered attractions in themselves with their stunning Spanish-Colonial Revival-style architecture. Balboa Park also hosted the Panama-California Exposition of 1935-1936, which brought in architectural styles of the Aztecs, Southwest and Mexican pueblos to the park’s buildings as well.  

Balboa Park’s lush landscaping and beautiful horticultural and gardens are also historically significant. Many trees planted in the beginning of the 20th century by Kate Sessions, considered “the Mother of Balboa Park,” still stand today. Sessions was the early designer of the park’s lush landscaping and a vital force for the park’s horticulture. Visitors can learn more about the park and its rich history, stunning architecture and botanical treasures in a variety of self-guided audio and ranger-led tours available through the Balboa Park Visitors Center.

Chicano Park

With roots dating back to 1970, Chicano Park is a 7.9-acre park located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, a predominantly Mexican-American and Mexican-immigrant community in central San Diego. Listed on the California Register of Historical Resources in 1997 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, Chicano Park is home to the world’s largest conglomeration of outdoor murals as well as various sculptures, earthworks and an architectural piece dedicated to the cultural heritage of San Diego’s Mexican-American community and its fight to keep the park a sacred place for Hispanic families and guests. 

This colorful historical and cultural treasure is distinguished by approximately 40 prominent murals painted on the bridge’s concrete pillars and abutments sited throughout the park. The murals and their iconography depict diverse imagery including Mexican pre-Columbian gods; Chicano achievements; Mexican and Chicano cultural heroes and heroines like Cesar Chavez, Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata, and scenes based on contemporary Chicano civil rights history. Chicano Park’s history is celebrated every April during Chicano Park Day with traditional music and dance, foods and a lowrider car show.