On the site of a 1786 mission outpost, Don Francisco Sanchez, former Commandante of the San Francisco Presidio and Alcalde of San Francisco, began construction of this adobe residence in 1842. Located between a sheltered inland valley and the ocean estuary of San Pedro Creek, the adobe is near the center of the 8,926-acre Rancho San Pedro, which was granted to Sanchez in 1839.

Earlier, the Franciscan padres from Mission Dolores had built a farm outpost here at the Ohlone Village called Pruristac. For a time, the irrigated fields and grazing lands provided much of the food for the San Francisco mission. The padres originally intended to draw on the coastside Indian population for continued missionary work, but Indian removal to San Francisco and introduction of European diseases contributed to the decline of the natives and probably an epidemic forced the abandonment of the outpost about 1793.

Predating the mission outpost, this site was also a Native American Ohlone Village called Pruristac.

In subsequent years, the owners of the Adobe used it for a residence, roadhouse and artichoke packing shed. Eventually it fell into disrepair until it was purchased by the County of San Mateo and funds were allocated for restoration.