On October 4, 1821 a land grant of 4,394 acres was issued by Pablo
Vincente de Sola, the last Spanish governor of California, to Josè
Higuera. Higuera named his land, Rancho Los Tularcitos ("place of
the little tules"). South of Rancho Los Tularcitos was the land of
Pueblo de San José. In 1828, Higuera built an adobe house near
Arroyo Calera and a few years later built another nearly 200 feet
south along the creek. Around the rancho's central compound,
prickly pear cactus was planted to form a hedge. Part of this
original hedge may be seen today by looking east from the adobe.
The pepper, fig, and olive trees surrounding the present park are
historic, believed to have been planted by Josè Higuera in the
1830s.
Don José sold his portion of the Rancho lands to Clemente
Columbet for the princely sum of $3,000. Columbet sold his interest
in the property to Henry Curtner, a native of Vermont who had come
overland to settle in Milpitas. The adobe of Don José became a
bunkhouse for workers on the Curtner ranch.
The building you see today is a shell built by Marion Weller,
Curtner's granddaughter, in the early 1960s to preserve and protect
the ruins of the old adobe. In the 1970s Mrs. Weller gave the
adobe, the nearby wooden building known as the "Casino" and the
adjoining acreage to the city of Milpitas.