Casa de Machado y Silvas, Historic site in San Diego, United States
Casa de Machado y Silvas is a small adobe building in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Its rectangular form faces the plaza, with four rooms and three doors opening onto the main square, while a former rear garden once supplied food and herbs.
José Manuel Machado, a soldier from the Presidio, built this house around 1843 as a gift for his daughter María Antonia and her husband José Antonio Nicasio Silvas. During the American takeover in 1846, María Antonia ran from here to pull down the Mexican flag and hid it inside her home.
Inside, the main room is set up to recall the old Commercial Restaurant, with tables and everyday objects that Maria Antonia used when she fed locals in the 1850s. A small corner near the entrance shows old photographs of people gathering by the plaza, giving a feel for daily social life.
You can walk around the outside to see the adobe walls and the doors facing the plaza before heading inside. The rooms are small, so it helps to visit when the park is less crowded and to take your time moving through the doorways.
A close look at the wall facing the plaza shows traces of the three original doorways, each leading to a separate room rather than a central hall. This means people often entered directly from the square, and private family space was limited to the back room with the garden door.
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