24-Hours in San Diego's Historic District

If you are looking to capture the old flavor of San Diego, visit Heritage Park and Old Town to see historic San Diego. See where the original city began. We had Uber drop us off in front of the Whaley House and then walked throughout the area.

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Historic San Diego: The Whaley House

The Whaley house is said to be the most haunted house in the US, according to the Travel Channel. Historically the Whaley house is important to San Diego because it was the County Court house, San Diego’s first commercial theater, a general store, a ballroom, a billiard hall, school, and polling place, as well as the Whaley’s personal residence.

The original home site was built on San Diego’s public hanging grounds. The house is said to be haunted because of this. In addition, Mr. Whaley’s daughter committed suicide and died in the house. We visited at night because maybe you have a better chance of seeing ghosts?

We found the docents on this self-guided tour to be very friendly and if you ask for more information they are more than happy to give you some background information-less reading for me. Haunted or not, I enjoy visiting old houses.

From the Whaley House we walked down Harney Street to where it intersects with Juan Street. From here you’ll see the Victorian village at Heritage County Park ahead on your right.

Victorian Village at Heritage County Park

San Diego’s Heritage County Park has preserved the Victorian architecture found in San Diego in the 1890’s. To create this neighborhood, six houses and one temple were relocated. The first small house, Senlis Cottage, is a museum and you can go inside this house.

heritage park historic san diego — Sherman Gilbert House

You can stroll around this recreated neighborhood and view the different Victorian styles. Great place to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful San Diego weather.

From Heritage Park Row walk down Juan Street towards the Mormon Battolion Historic Site.

Old Town

Continue down Juan Street towards Old Town. If you’re walking just walk past the parking lot and turn left on Twiggs street. Old Town is on your right.

Once you turn into Old Town you will see the Old Town Market Square will be on your left. This is a great place to grab a drink or to browse at the little shops. The Cygnet Theatre is on your right and next to the theatre is Seely Stable.

Choose from over 60 different kinds of root beer and over 100 kinds of jerky at this cute little store in Old Town. I didn’t even know there were that many choices in root beer.