Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: May 31, 2015
Caption: Have a pleasant Journey
Additional Description: In 1868 Racine & Laramie became San Diego's first cigar store. Having come from eastern Canada in the prosperity following the War Between the States, Messrs. Racine and Laramie sold cigars, tobacco, stationary, pipes, cutlery and gentlemen's furnishings.

The adobe they rented was built in the 1820's as the retirement home for leather-jacket soldier, Juan Rodriguez of the Royal Presidio. It was one of the first six buildings in the small pueblo, population 500.

The Rodriguez family held ownership through periods of depression and Gold Rush boom, and their son, Ramon, was on the City Council. The widow Rodriguez had the building remodeled in 1867 and rented to Racine & Laramie and the Bank Exchange saloon. All was lost in the fire of 1872.

Using archeology, historic research and photographs this building has been reconstructed with the interior furnished and stocked as it may have been in that remote, frontier Pacific port.

Have a pleasant Journey
Alexi Racine
Submitted: July 30, 2019, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p485941
File Size: 1.641 Megabytes

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