The Whaley House

San Diego is considered the birthplace of California. Father Junipero Serra established the mission of San Diego de Alcala on Presidio Hill on July 16, 1769. During the early 1820s, a small Mexican community was created that eventually became El Pueblo San Diego by 1835. Since it became the first permanent Spanish settlement in California, it is just as significant as Jamestown. The US flag was raised over San Diego in 1846.

San Diego is known for all of its haunts, but the most significant one is the Whaley House. It was built in 1857. As soon as the house was built, it became the center of government, social affairs, and business in San Diego. It is the oldest brick house in southern California. Over its lifetime, the Whaley House has served as a courthouse, theater, and boarding house. It was also the home of Thomas and Anna Whaley and their children. Now, the Whaley House is own and operated by the San Diego Historical Society.

Thomas Whaley was a businessman, the seventh of ten children of Scots-Irish immigrants born in New York on October 5, 1823. He moved to San Francisco during the gold rush and then traveled to San Diego in September 1851. Two years later, he moved back to New York and married Anna Delaunay on August 14, 1853. They moved back to San Diego on December 7, 1853, and moved into what became the Whaley House on August 22, 1857. They had six children together, Francis…