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Welcome to the Racine & Laramie Historic Museum:
In 1868, Racine & Laramie became San Diego's first cigar store. Having emigrated from Quebec Province following the Canadian Confederation, Messrs. Racine and Laramee sold cigars, tobacco, stationary, pipes, cutlery, and gentlemen's furnishings.
The adobe they rented, when built in the 1820s, was one of the first six structures in this isolated pueblo, population 500. The adobe and surrounding city block were the retirement home for leather-jacket soldier, Juan Rodriguez of the Royal Presidio.
The Rodriguez family had success in proving their Mexican ownership to the U.S. Land Commission. They owned it through depressions and Gold Rush booms. Many Californio property owners were not as fortunate. Their son, Ramon, was elected to the City Council. The widow Rodriguez, in 1867, remodeled the home into stores and rented to the Back Exchange, a proper saloon, and Racine & Laramie. All was lost in the fire on 1872.
This prize-winning historic reconstruction is based on photographs, research, and archeology. The interior is furnished with an outstanding collection of antique, c. 1870, shop fixtures and stocked with goods, similar to those sold on this very spot, in that long ago frontier Pacific port. The clerks will be pleased to answer your questions.
This museum was privately reconstructed, furnished, and operated. Not one ... |