Buildings around the old Spanish plaza opposite the mission anchor this small historical park. Cavernous stables hint at San Juan Bautista in its 1860s heyday as a stagecoach stop. The 1859 Plaza Hotel , which started life as a single-story adobe building, now houses a little historical museum. Next door to the hotel, the Castro-Breen Adobe once belonged to Mexican general and governor José Castro. In 1848 it was bought by the Breen family, survivors of the Donner Party disaster.
