Robinson-Rose House

James W. Robinson arrived in San Diego from Texas in the spring of 1850 with his wife Sarah. A trained attorney familiar with both American and Mexican law, Robinson rapidly became a fixture of the new American-era civic establishment, serving variously as judge, school-board trustee, civic promoter, and active investor in early Old Town businesses.

In 1853 Robinson built a combined home and law office on the south side of the Old Town plaza. The structure was unusually styled: the first floor was adobe, the second floor wood-framed, and — in a documented quirk noted by California State Parks — the adobe floor was painted to look like wood siding while the wood floor was painted to look like adobe.

Robinson died in 1857. His widow Sarah rented rooms to boarders and businesses before selling the property to Louis Rose, the namesake of San Diego's Roseville neighborhood. Across the next sixty years the building cycled through uses as a newspaper office, the San Diego, Cuyamaca, and Pacific Railroad's headquarters, a county clerk's office, schoolrooms, residential apartments, and a jail cell, eventually falling into disrepair when Old Town's commercial center moved south to New Town in the 1860s.

The present Robinson-Rose House is a state-park reconstruction completed during the development of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, opened in 1968. The reconstructed building now serves as the park's main visitor center and park headquarters, including a scale model of Old Town as it appeared until 1872, interpretive exhibits, a small store, and elevator access between floors.