At San Juan Bautista State Historic Park, you can visualize in one compact area, several successive phases of California History. The buildings that surround the Plaza and the artifacts within them help to tell the stories of the Native Americans, the Spanish Missionaries, the Mexican Californios and the early American Settlers that have left a lasting influence on San Juan Bautista's rich and colorful culture.

Mission San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797 and was completed around 1812. This was a prime site because of the area’s good food and water supply, its proximity to building materials, and its already established Native American population, the Mutsun people. The mission is still owned and operated by the Catholic Church.

The Plaza Hotel was originally a one-story adobe structure with a guard tower on the east end, and housed the Spanish soldiers as early as 1813-1814. In 1858, Angelo Aznetta bought and remodeled the structure into the Plaza Hotel and established a lucrative business serving the travelers in this “crossroads” town. Today, the hotel has been restored to it’s 1860’s era glory.

The Castro Breen Adobe was build between 1838 and 1841 to serve as a Mexican government building for Alta California. In 1848 the Breen family, members of the ill-fated Donner Party, purchased the adobe from General Castro to be used as a family residence. The building was occupied by succeeding generations of the Breen Family until it became part of the State Historic Park in 1933.

The Plaza Hall or Zanetta House was originally an 1830’s adobe structure which served as a dormitory for unwed mission Indian women. Angelo Zanetta and his business partner, John Comfort, bought the property in the early 1870’s and turned the structure into what they hoped would be the county courthouse of the newly established San Benito County. After Hollister was chosen as the county seat, the first floor of the building was modified to serve as a residence for the Zanetta family. The second floor was used for public meetings and celebrations.

The Plaza Stable was built about 1861 to handle the extensive stage and wagon traffic passing through San Juan Bautista. San Juan was a natural crossroads for people traveling in California. At the Stable, horses were fed and watered, and carriages could be rented while travelers could get a night’s rest and a gourmet meal at the Plaza Hotel.

This write up provided by California State Parks