Juana Briones

Most of the names on Palo Alto's early maps belong to men: Peña, Robles, Stanford, Hopkins. Juana Briones is the exception. Born in Spanish California, she separated from an abusive husband, built a business in the village that became San Francisco and bought a rancho in the hills above today's Palo Alto. When the United States took over, she defended her land in American courts and won. She could neither read nor write.

Her house on Old Adobe Road survived into the 21st century, then became the subject of one of the city's longest preservation fights. This page covers her life, her rancho and what happened to the house. For the wider rancho era, start with our page on the Spanish and Mexican era.

A soldier's daughter

Juana Briones was born around 1802 at Villa Branciforte, the Spanish settlement near Mission Santa Cruz. Her father was Marcos Briones, a soldier. Her mother was María Ysidora Tapia. Their families had come north with the Portolá and Anza expeditions that opened Alta California to Spanish settlement.

In 1820 she married Apolinario Miranda, also a soldier. Between 1821 and 1841 she gave birth to 11 children. Seven survived to adulthood: Presentación, Tomás, Narcisa, Refugio, José de Jesús, Manuela and José Dolores. The family also adopted an orphaned Native girl.

Building a life at Yerba Buena

The family lived near the Presidio of San Francisco, where Briones farmed at El Polín spring. She later bought land and built a house in Yerba Buena, the small trading village on the bay that grew into San Francisco. Her home stood in what is now North Beach. Early maps of the cove label a stretch of shore "Playa de Juana Briones."

She ran a real business. She sold milk, vegetables and other produce to the crews of whaling ships and of vessels in the hide and tallow trade. She also became known as a healer and midwife who used herbal medicine. She trained her nephew Pablo Briones, later known as the Doctor of Bolinas. Visitors remembered her hospitality. San Francisco now honors her with a plaque in Washington Square and some writers call her a founding mother of the city.

Leaving her husband

Her marriage was violent. Records describe Apolinario Miranda as an alcoholic who abused her. The state's landmark listing notes that in 1843 he was sent before the subprefect, the local official. In 1844 she obtained a clerical separation from the church. She stopped using his surname in her own affairs, though the name Miranda stayed attached to her family and later to a Palo Alto street.

Rancho La Purísima Concepción

The same year, 1844, Briones bought Rancho La Purísima Concepción in what is now Santa Clara County. The sellers were José Gorgonio and his son José Ramón, Native Californians associated with Mission Santa Clara. Sources give its size as about 4,400 acres. Our Spanish and Mexican era page uses 4,439. It reached from the foothills of today's Palo Alto into Los Altos Hills. Palo Alto Online has reported that she paid $300, a figure local histories repeat but that we could not check against the deed.

She moved south with her children and built a home on the rancho. The house used an unusual method: redwood board cribs filled with packed earth set on adobe brick. The wooden frame protected the adobe from rain and earthquakes. That technique later made the surviving walls valuable to historians.

The rancho lay along foothill creeks that the Ohlone had used for centuries. Our page on the Ohlone covers that earlier history.

Defending her land

California became part of the United States in 1848. The Land Act of 1851 required every Mexican-era landholder to prove title before a federal commission. Many Californios lost land to legal fees and squatters during the long process. Briones fought for her property in both San Francisco and Santa Clara counties from the late 1850s through the 1860s. With help from attorney Henry Wager Halleck, she kept her titles.

Over time she divided the rancho. She sold part of it to members of the Murphy family, who had crossed the Sierra with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party. She gave other sections to her children. Streets in the area later took her children's names.

Juana Briones died on December 3, 1889, aged about 87, near Mayfield, the farm town that later became part of Palo Alto. Our page on Mayfield tells its story. She is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park.

The house on Old Adobe Road

Her rancho house outlived her by more than a century. It was enlarged and remodeled many times, so most of what stood in the 2000s dated from the early 20th century. Two walls from the original construction remained inside. The state registered the site as California Historical Landmark No. 524, "Site of Juana Briones de Miranda Home on Rancho La Purísima Concepción," on November 1, 1954. A state plaque was placed on March 12, 2007. Our list of Palo Alto landmarks includes it.

The house was private property. Its owners sought to demolish it. Preservationists wanted it saved. The dispute lasted nearly 14 years and produced two lawsuits among the owners, the city and preservation advocates. In the end the house came down. In June 2011 contractor Jim Steinmetz carefully deconstructed the house.

Saving a piece of wall

Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, the local preservation group known as PAST, raised money to save a fragment. Its agreement with the owners was concluded on July 25, 2011. PAST paid $30,000 for an 8 by 8 foot section of original wall, with $25,000 in donations and a $5,000 donation credit to the owners. The wall and its timbers were wrapped in foam and plywood and moved to a secure city-owned site. Palo Alto Online reported that the leading idea was to show it in the planned Palo Alto History Museum in the Roth Building. That museum's opening was postponed in January 2026 after water leaks and has no new date.

A section of the original wall also traveled to San Francisco. In January 2014 the California Historical Society opened "Juana Briones y Su California: Pionera, Fundadora, Curandera," an exhibition on her life. Separately, Stanford classes studied Briones in 2006 and 2009, which led to a 2010 exhibit at Green Library and a Juana Briones archive.

Where she is remembered

• The landmark plaque on Old Adobe Road in the foothills, near Esther Clark Park.
• Juana Briones Park at 609 Maybell Avenue in Barron Park, a former apricot orchard. Our Barron Park walking tour stops there.
• Juana Briones Elementary School at 4100 Orme Street.
• Miranda Avenue and the Greater Miranda neighborhood, named for her family.
• Washington Square in San Francisco's North Beach, near her Yerba Buena home.

The plaque site is on a residential street, so park legally and keep your visit quiet. The house itself is gone.

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