Casa de Machado

Name: Casa de Machado

Location: Park visitor center, Old Town San Diego SHP.

Access: Paved roads, 2wd vehicles OK.

Comments: Corporal Jose Manuel Machado, pioneer leatherjacket soldier of the Spanish Army, arrived at San Diego Presidio about 1782. He built this house, on the southwest side of the Old Town Plaza, facing San Diego Avenue, probably in 1832, for his daughter, Maria Antonia and her husband, Manuel de Silvas. It became Known as the Casa de la Bandera, or "House of the Flag," when the lady hid in it the Mexican flag cut away from the Plaza pole, when the Americans occupied San Diego. Albert Smith, who shinnied up the pole with the Stars and Stripes, married Maria Antonia's sister Guadalupe soon after. The old house is now in use as a Community Church for the Old Town area.