Hilltop museum built on the site of California's first European settlement, where 60+ Spanish soldiers are buried and overnight paranormal investigations are offered.
2727 Presidio Drive, San Diego, CA 92103
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Suggested donation of $10 for museum admission. Overnight paranormal investigations are separately ticketed; see San Diego History Center website for pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Hilltop location with paved paths to museum. Park trails are unpaved and hilly.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1929 · Site of California's First European Settlement (1769) · El Presidio Real de San Diego · National Historic Landmark · Spanish Colonial History
The hill now called Presidio Park was, from 1769 through the early 19th century, the center of Spanish colonial California. El Presidio Real de San Diego — the Royal Presidio of San Diego — was founded here on May 14, 1769, alongside the original Mission San Diego de Alcalá before the mission relocated east to Mission Valley six years later.
The Presidio served as the military and administrative headquarters for the region through the Spanish and Mexican periods. More than 60 Spanish soldiers are interred on the hill, their graves unmarked and their locations approximate. The complex was abandoned after Mexican independence, and by the mid-19th century the adobe structures had eroded into mounds that locals called Squash Patch Hill.
San Diego businessman George Marston purchased the property in 1907 with the specific intention of preserving it as public parkland. He commissioned landscape architect John Nolan to design the park in 1914 and hired architect William Templeton Johnson — who would go on to design the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego — to design the museum building. The Serra Museum opened in 1929 as the home of the San Diego Historical Society, now the San Diego History Center.
The Witches Tower — formally the Pattie Memorial — sits at the base of the hill near the park entrance. Built in the early 20th century over the site of a former Spanish guardhouse and jail, the structure features a brick pentagram set into its cobblestone landing. The origin of the pentagram is not definitively documented; paranormal groups have found evidence of regular visitation to the tower since at least the 1990s.
The back trails of Presidio Park were the location of a documented 1990s murder-suicide involving an active police officer. The specifics of that incident have been incorporated into local paranormal lore, though the event itself is a matter of public record rather than legend.
Sources
The San Diego Paranormal Research Society has investigated Presidio Park and the Serra Museum since at least 2011, working with the San Diego History Center rather than conducting unauthorized investigations. Their field reports describe cloaked, monk-like figures that walk the perimeter of the grounds and then vanish; a boy apparition observed atop the museum's bell tower; and a presence in the museum interior that investigators have attributed to Father Serra.
At the Witches Tower — a small cobblestone structure near the park's entrance, built over the site of the original Spanish guardhouse and jail — investigators and casual visitors have documented melted candle wax on the cobblestone landing, where a brick pentagram is embedded. The tower is named informally by locals; its official name memorializes the Pattie family. The pentagram's installation has no documented history. Multiple paranormal teams have reported feelings of paranoia and disorientation specifically at the tower site.
The museum building itself draws the most specific accounts. A visitor to the museum reported a necklace lifting from her neck and settling at her feet — an event she described as feeling deliberate. The museum houses artifacts from the 1769 Presidio, including items recovered from the original structures, and sits directly over the unmarked burial ground of the Spanish garrison.
The San Diego History Center makes the overnight investigations available as a ticketed program, distinguishing this from purely folk-tradition haunted sites. The museum acknowledges the paranormal investigation program on its own programming pages.
Notable Entities
Walk the 40-acre hilltop park that marks where California began. The museum, designed by architect William Templeton Johnson and opened in 1929, houses artifacts from the 1769 El Presidio Real de San Diego. The park includes the Witches Tower — the Pattie Memorial — a cobblestone structure with a brick pentagram on its landing that has drawn paranormal investigators since the 1990s.
The San Diego History Center partners with the San Diego Paranormal Research Society for ticketed overnight investigations of the Serra Museum. Past sessions have recorded reports of cloaked figures walking the perimeter, a child apparition observed atop the bell tower, and contact described by investigators as Father Serra's presence. Sessions include access to the museum after hours with equipment.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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