Davis Horton House

Davis-Horton House, San Diego's oldest home, and visitors with Gaslamp Museum signage.
Photo: Visitor7 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Stop 02 of 10 · The city’s oldest home

Davis-Horton House

A saltbox house shipped around Cape Horn in 1850 — pre-cut in Maine and assembled here — is the oldest surviving structure in downtown San Diego.

The Story We Tell Here

Why Davis-Horton House Matters

A saltbox house shipped around Cape Horn in 1850 — pre-cut in Maine and assembled here — is the oldest surviving structure in downtown San Diego. William Heath Davis dreamed of building ‘New Town’ around it; the city ignored him for two decades.

Then Alonzo Horton arrived, bought 800 acres for about 33 cents each, and made Davis’s failed dream the downtown you’re standing in. The house survived both men, a stint as a hospital, and every boom since.

This is stop 02 of ten on our Free Walking Tour through downtown — English daily at 10 AM, Español at 10:30 AM, about two hours from the Gaslamp Arch to Seaport Village, always pay-what-you-wish.

See Davis-Horton House With a Local Guide

Meet at 222 Fifth Ave next to the Gaslamp Quarter Arch — look for the blue umbrella.