Archaeologists Unearth Four Corners of Casa Tejada

A small archaeological dig is underway between the and Park to unearth the four corners of Casa Tejada, an 18th-century adobe that was demolished in 1935.

With a $498,434 state grant, the city hired two archaeologists to excavate the remains of the Tejada's foundation. As the southerly wing of "La Hacienda Aguilar," it once stretched 75 feet long and 50 feet wide.

When standing, the Tejada—"tile"—shared a courtyard with what is now called the Blas Aguilar Adobe. The Blas Adobe is also set to get some TLC, thanks to the grant money.

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The archaeologists on site this week, Susan Walter and Stephen Van Wormer, are meticulously uncovering the Tejada footprint. The duo also worked in the area in the late 1980s, when the city commissioned reports on proposals for an underground parking structure and three-story mall.

In the coming weeks, Walter and Van Wormer will map out what they've uncovered. The results will help city staffers and resident preservationists such as David Belardes draw up a plan to replicate the courtyard—which could include exposing parts of the old adobe and tile patio and building an imitation well—and lay adobe bricks to outline where the  Tejada foundation once stood.

"We want to preserve and interpret. So the school kids know what was here," Belardes said, referring to the regular field trips made to the neighboring mission.

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Casa Tejada was one of 40 adobe homes built in the mid-1790s in San Juan Capistrano to house local Native Americans and soldiers who worked at . In 1845, local alcalde Don Blas Aguilar purchased the casa and the Blas Aguilar Adobe immediately to the north, naming the complex "La Hacienda Aguilar."

Aguilar's son and bell toller at the mission, Don Jesus Aguilar, died at the Aguilar complex, where he had lived since birth, according to published reports. After his death, the hacienda was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

In the 1930s, the dilapidated-looking Tejada was torn down. Although other adobes were topped with shingle roofs during the American Period (which began in 1848), tile remained at the Tejada, as did exposed adobe that had gone without whitewashing, said Belardes, who runs the nonprofit Blas Aguilar Adobe Foundation.