La Casa de Rodriguez -
Racine and Laramie

Location: 2737 San Diego Avenue
Old Town State Historic Park
Old Town San Diego, CA (map)
Phone: (619) 220-5422
More info: Website

Juan Rodriguez retired from the San Diego presidio and built a large one-story adobe home on this site in the 1830s. In 1857, Rodriguez’s grandson-in-law, George Tebbetts, converted the adobe into the Exchange Hotel.

In 1869, Alexis Racine, a Canadian merchant, opened “Racine and Laramie,” a general merchandise store specializing in cigars, tobacco, stationary, pipes, and cutlery in the remodeled adobe. Three years later it was gutted in the great fire of April 20, 1872.

The building was reconstructed by a concessionaire in 1974.