1854 to 1969: from rancho to dairy Built in 1854 by Francisco Alviso (1818- ), the adobe was on the lands of the
Rancho Santa Rita, given in 1839 as a Mexican land grant to Jose Dolores Pacheco. Rancho Santa Rita was surrounded on the north by
Rancho San Ramon (owned by Jose Maria Amador, Francisco Alviso's uncle) and on the east and south by
Rancho Valle de San Jose (owned by Juan and Augustin Bernal and their brother-in-law
Antonio Suñol). The
1906 San Francisco earthquake damaged the building, leaving large cracks in the walls and chimney. In 1919, it was purchased by Walter M. Briggs, who started the Meadowlark Dairy, the first certified dairy in California. He had the building renovated and used it as housing for his workers. The adobe continued to serve this purpose until 1969, when the dairy moved its operations to
Tracy. However, in a 2000 report issued in preparation for the city's renovation plan, historians discovered several errors in the original plaque. Firstly, the Alviso Adobe was confused with another adobe built ten years earlier by
José Dolores Pacheco that was to the north and no longer standing. Additionally, construction was wrongly credited to Francisco Alviso's father, Franciso Solano Alviso (1792- ). Lastly, there is no evidence that John C. Frémont ever used the building The 2000 Master Plan for the Alviso Adobe Community Park included a 39-foot replica of the white grain silo on the east side of the re-created Meadowlark Dairy. Objections from the local residents caused the planners and the city to revise the master plan and eliminate the silo from the park. ==References==