Cemetery Restoration (under construction)
Von Pfister Adobe History
This adobe was the third building erected in Benicia, constructed by Wm MacDonald
for Robert Semple in 1847. Before it was completed it was rented to Captain
E.H. Von Pfister for use as a store.
This adobe is representative of an important link in the transitional phase
of culture and architecture as Spanish California gave way to America?s California.
With limited building materials and without the machinery to produce building
utensils, the early Californian adopted a form of building type with which
they were not wholly familiar. The result was a hybrid form of construction
combining southwest and east coast American architecture.
Spanish and Native American adobes were normally built with no foundation,
or else on a base of natural stone rubble which was then plastered over. The
Von Pfister adobe has a foundation of quarried cut stone laid as a foundation
beneath its adobe mud walls, as though for a wood frame or masonry building.
Similar buildings exist at the American government built Fort Union in New
Mexico. The adobe walls are constructed with mud mixed with straw as a binder,
shaped into bricks and sun-dried. In 1847 Von Pfister added a wood frame one
story addition to the unfinished adobe, and constructed an enclosed loft space
above the adobe. At some point the
The Von Pfister adobe's construction lasted well over 100 years. The wood
sheathing that protected the adobe from rain also sheltered it from observation
and the constant replastering required to keep adobe intact and pest free.
In 1986 the State of California designated the crumbling adobe an archaeological
site and in 1992 a shelter was installed to help protect the structure from
the strong Carquinez strait winds.