José Manuel Gonzales, an Apache Indian who came to California with the Anza party and was one of the pueblo’s founders, built the adobe in 1797. Luís María Peralta, the pueblo’s commissioner, took it over in 1808 and lived there until he died in 1851.
The city bought the adobe in 1966 and restored it. It is San Jose Historic Landmark No. 1, California Historical Landmark No. 866, and the first site certified on the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.