Jose Joaquin Moraga, a member of the Juan Bautista de Anza 1776 expedition and founder and first Commandante of the Presidio of San Francisco, was the grandfather of Don Joaquin Moraga, who with his cousin Don Juan Bernal was awarded this grant in 1835 and called it Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados. In August 1941, Katharine Brown White Irvine of Oakland acquired the property and restored it. Later ownership was bequeathed to her grandson William Thornton White III. The Joaquin Moraga Adobe dates to 1841.