Boronda Adobe, Salinas Valley

The low, thick-walled adobe you can see from the road is one of the most intact Mexican-era ranch buildings left in California. José Eusebio Boronda built it between eighteen forty-four and eighteen forty-eight on his Mexican land grant. The building is an example of what historians call the Monterey Colonial style, a hybrid that blended New England construction methods with California adobe traditions during the years when American and Mexican cultures were beginning to mix.

Unlike most Mexican-era adobes, which were altered or demolished during the American period, the Boronda Adobe was left largely untouched. Boronda built it before the town of Salinas was laid out nearby, and it still stands virtually as he left it. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is California Historical Landmark number eight hundred seventy.