The Peralta Home, at 561 Lafayette Avenue in

San Leandro San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the sout ...

was the first

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

house built in

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and List ...

. It was constructed in the Spanish Colonial style in 1860 for

Ignacio Peralta Hermenegildo Ignacio Peralta (April 3, 1791 – May 9, 1874) was a Spanish settler in California, the eldest son of Luís María Peralta. Biography Ignacio Peralta was the owner of the Peralta Home in San Leandro, California, which was built on t ...

, early San Leandro

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

settler, by W.P. Toler (Peralta's son-in-law). A.C. Peachey purchased the house from Rafaela Sanchez Peralta (Igancio's widow) on May 18, 1875. Immediately thereafter Peachey added a large wood extension at the back of the brick house. Technically a -story building, the old Peralta house had its main reception rooms on the second story. Peachey continued this emphasis on the second story in his additions, treating the ground floor as a

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

. The house remained in the Peachey family for thirty-four years. Between 1909 and 1926, it went to Daniel and C.L. Best. Eventually in November 1926, it was purchased by the Alta Mira Club, who are still the current owners. One of the more interesting of 19th-century houses in San Leandro, it has additional historic associations with the large and land-rich Peralta family, who were pioneers of the area. Peralta's father,

Luís María Peralta Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, received the Rancho San Antonio land grant from Spanish Governor Don

Pablo Vicente de Solá Pablo Vicente de Solá (1761–1826) was a Spanish officer and the twelfth and last Spanish colonial governor of Alta California (1815-1822). He was born in Mondragón, Gipuzkoa, Spain. Land grants Solá granted in 1821 the Rancho Rincon de los B ...

on October 20, 1820. The house is a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(NPS-78000654).

References

External links

Alta Mira Club - Historic Peralta Home
official website {{National Register of Historic Places in California San Leandro, California History of Alameda County, California California Historical Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Alameda County, California Houses completed in 1860 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Houses in Alameda County, California 1860 establishments in California