A black-and-white image of a street sign with the text 'Pico Adobe - 920 - Anacapa Street 1840' inside an oval shape.

Buenaventura Pico Adobe 

Black and white photo of a house with a sloped roof, surrounded by trees and plants, with outdoor chairs and a small porch. 
The Pico Adobe in the 1970s courtesy of the Presidio Research Center.

This 600-square-foot house once bustled with the noise of nine people. Buenaventura Pico and Ana (Anita) Cordero moved into this adobe residence sometime before 1852. They built their house outside of the Presidio defense wall, and Buenaventura and Ana were part of the story of Santa Barbara’s population growth during the mid-nineteenth century.  ​

Both Buenaventura and Ana were descendants of Presidio soldiers who had come north from present-day Mexico seeking opportunity by joining the Spanish military. The couple had thirteen children. One can imagine the sounds of the family, including music and dance, yelling children, clucking chickens, and the many other noises of a busy — and crowded — household.  

Descendants of the Pico family kept these sounds alive in the Pico Adobe through the nineteenth century, and it still looks similar to the way it did when Buenaventura, Ana and their children resided there. SBTHP added the exterior adobe wall and gate in 1977.  

​Today the historic Pico Adobe can be rented for meetings, gatherings, family occasions and more. 

SOURCES

​Days, Mary Louise. “The Buenaventura Pico Adobe.” La Campana (Summer, 1991): 3-9. 

Mason, William Marvin. The Census of 1790: A Demographic History of Colonial California. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press, 1998.