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Casa de Estudillo
The Casa de Estudillo has been
referred to as the Estudillo House, which is adobe and set in San
Diego, California, and built in 1827 by Jose Maria Estudillo and his
son, Jose Antonio. These men were some of the first settlers in the
region and the house is believed to be on f the best examples of
Spanish architecture in old Mexican California and did get national
attention because it is considered to be the house that was written
of in Helen Hunt Jackson's exciting novel from 1884, Ramona. The
house became the property of the state in 1968 and was added to the
National Historic Landmark's list in 1970. The big casa is U-shaped,
measuring 113 feet on the frontal side and 98 feet on each of the
wings. Constructed in the Spanish colonial style, this signifies
that the rooms are consecutively set, with the corridor on the
outside and covered; with 13 rooms. The central part has the main
entry, which faces west, with the chapel on the left and the right
side holds the schoolroom. The two rooms were smaller when
constructed, and bedrooms on the outer ends; which were enlarged in
1910, when the two rooms that held the schoolroom and chapel had
their walls taken down to do it. There are two bedrooms, a kitchen
and living room were located on the north wing with servants dining
room and the south contained three bedrooms and the family dining
room. On top of the house, a cupola has been built, which allowed
the residents and guests a marvelous view of the plaza next door,
where festivals and bullfights were held. Jose Estudillo passed on
in 1852, and his family continued to live there until 1887, and then
moved to Los Angeles, leaving a caretaker to look after the
property. Then in the novel Ramona, which had created a rather
romantic portrait of the life in California, a national
inquisitiveness began to grow; and after the opening of the Southern
Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads, encouraged many thousands to head
west to the enticing state. The appearance of two railroads caused a
price war to start, and the rail fair to Los Angeles from St. Louis,
Missouri went to a dollar, and that really helped populate the
state. Helen Jackson passed on in 1885, without ever having
specifically mentioning where the novel took place, which in turn
would cause some controversy as to where it happened, but
nevertheless, it was in California, and brought them here to see. In
the San Diego Union, in 1887, a front page article stated the
Estudillo home to be the actual marrying place in Ramona, even
though Helen had never been there. The novel had been fictional, but
still visitors came here thinking that it was the long adobe
building that had been mentioned in the novel, and one tourist had
written the name "Alessandro" on the side of the adobe building, and
the caretaker, eager to earn a little more money, sold off pieces of
the house for souvenirs; thus causing the building to become more
dilapidated. The San Diego Electric Railway bought the house in
1906, that was owned by John Spreckels, also the owner of the Union
newspaper, and he had dreamed about making the house the main part
of a tourist attraction that would be connected by his railroad.
That way, he would make money off the house and the railroad that
would bring the tourists there, as well as increasing the population
of the city. To further achieved this goal, he hired Hazel Wood
Waterman, an architect, to rejuvenate the home so that it would
resemble the adobe building that was written about in the book,
Ramona. This required the cupola and balcony to be removed, as well
as numerous doors and windows; so that the house would look like it
was written about. Hazel was as meticulous as possible, in having
the house look and feel like the house, but did add some modern
conveniences like indoor plumbing and electricity. It was finished
in 1910, and then marketed as the Ramona house, which would then
become a popular destination, actually bringing in 1632 people in
1940, in a single day. The owner, Spreckels then went on to hire a
theater showman called Tommy Getz, to run the property and he
enriched the idea that this was the Ramona house, labeling many
objects around the building as Ramona's marriage place, and involved
printing more postcards for this venue than any other about the
novel's location. This helped create a marriage location marketing
campaign, and soon there were weddings taking place there. Tommy
Getz would eventually buy the house and attraction from Spreckels in
1924. The novel had made the house so popular and important
that it was easy to make it a National Historic Landmark that was
titled "Casa Estudillo/Ramona's marriage place", and could have been
destroyed with other buildings in the area if not for the
designation. Getz passed on in 1934, and his daughter Margeurite
Weiss would stay to run the business for another 30 years; when she
sold it to the Title Insurance and Trust Company; who then sold it
to a local business man that donated it to the state in 1968.
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