José Manuel Machado, a corporal in the soldados de cuera (leather-jacket soldiers) at the Presidio, built an adobe here around 1830. When it was originally built it consisted of two rooms. One of the rooms was a sala, or living room, while the other was for sleeping. He and his wife, María Serafina Valdez de Machado, raised eleven children in the house. Later, one of their daughters, Rosa Machado, married a New Englander named John "Jack" Collins Stewart and inherited the house.

Descendants of the Machados continued to live in the house until 1966 when the property was sold to California State Parks and restored to its approximate 1830s appearance. It was restored to its a two room adobe to show how many adobe buildings were originally built before they had additions put on them.