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San Juan Capistrano was established by the Spanish in 1776, when California was still a Spanish territory.Chock-full of charming Mission-era architecture and lush trees, the Los Rios Historic District is a feast for the eyes and steeped in history.
The Orange County neighborhood is nestled in San Juan Capistrano, a city established by the Spanish in 1776 as the seventh of the Spanish California missions.
“It just feels like a step back in time,” third-generation resident Damian Orozco told SFGATE. Orozco’s family operates a tea house on Los Rios Street in the historic city, but he says the neighborhood hasn’t always been tourist-friendly.
According to him, the area was rough in the 1980s and ’90s.
“The Los Rios District was nothing like what it’s like today,” he told the outlet. “Really, it was considered the wrong side of the tracks. Both sides of my family are from San Juan Capistrano, and when my mom was riding horses back in the day, they would always tell her not to go through the Los Rios District because it wasn’t a great neighborhood.”
But now, the historic strip is dotted with charming homes and quaint small businesses. There are also tourist hubs like a petting zoo and the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, which features a museum detailing the city’s path from a tiny Catholic parish to a thriving West Coast destination. The historic district is also located right along Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner route, which takes visitors along the golden coast from San Luis Obispo to San Diego.
Orozco says the neighborhood began to change after the opening of the Ramos House Cafe in the ’90s.
“They were the first restaurant on the street, or the first shop on the street, that reopened its doors and started the revitalization process,” Orozco said.
The neighborhood also boasts what is believed to be the oldest home in California, the Pablo Pryer Adobe-Hyde House built in 1790 — and the centuries-old Mission San Juan Capistrano, which welcomes some 300,000 visitors per year.
“That’s one of my favorite things to hear from our guests, that it’s not like anywhere else that they’ve visited in California,” Orozco said. “Especially being in Orange County where it’s a little bit more cookie-cutter. It’s nice to have something that feels like old-world charm.”
Despite its vintage history, the town is still expanding. In 2024, the River Street Marketplace opened. The new complex is a meeting place for the community and includes a vintage clothing store and a surf shop.
The marketplace maintains the town’s old-world feel, with a rustic wooden water tower and farmhouse-style buildings.
“The timing of it was absolutely perfect for what people wanted,” Harrison Taylor, a native of the town and the developer of the River Street Marketplace, told SFGATE.
The picturesque town even has an Old Hollywood connection.
“There’s a little section in the backside of Los Rios, kind of close to where I live, that is nicknamed Little Hollywood. During the Prohibition era, it was where people would gamble and drink,” Taylor said.
“The Hollywood elite would take the train down to San Juan, and it was walking distance from the train station, and they could gamble and drink and get away with it.”
Like America itself, San Juan Capistrano celebrated its 250th anniversary this year, with events marking the milestone scheduled through the year.
“It just has such an authentic small town feel, even in this busy Orange County life that we all have,” Taylor said.
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