Old Town State Historic Park - San Diego Ave -Twiggs St. includes historic mansions, a synagogue and the official haunted Whaley House.

 

Pictured are the restored Temple Beth Israel, San Diego's first synagogue and another restored house in Old Town's Heritage Park. This 7.8-acre park sits atop a hill and consists of seven colorful Victorian houses, moved here to escape demolition after World War II. One mansion serves as a bed and breakfast, another as a doll shop, another one houses a law office and yet another as an antique store.  All strive to preserve San Diego's Victorian architecture. The stage coach pictured is from the carriage collection.   

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park recreates life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872. Five original adobes are part of the complex, which includes shops, restaurants and a museum.  La Casa de Estudillo is a mansion built around a garden courtyard. La Casa de Machado y Stewart is full of artifacts that reflect ordinary life of the period. Other historic buildings include a schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, San Diego's first newspaper office, and a stable with a carriage collection. (San Diego became California's first Spanish settlement when a mission and fort were established in 1769.) The park is located on San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street in San Diego. 

 

20 reconstructed or restored buildings are set on 13 acres centered around a town square. There are costumed volunteers who give free tours at 2 p.m. daily. There are also working shops and restaurants on either side of the museums.

 

Reconstructed wood frame homes on the corner of San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street are shops, galleries and the Bazaar del Mundo. Mexican folk dancers perform here on weekends, and mariachi bands play as you sip margaritas in the courtyard. 

 

Be sure to see Thomas Whaley, an official haunted house. The Thomas Whaley family's Victorian mansion is Southern California's oldest brick building and, at one time, San Diego County's seat of government. This  historical museum is listed as one of 30 ghost houses by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and is one of only two in California. The ghosts are Thomas Whaley, his wife, children and daughter's friend.  Visiting parapsychologists have recorded sounds of footsteps, singing and giggling, and the odor from Thomas' cigar.

 

See California Ghost Hauntings