Birthplace of California A top attraction when exploring America’s Finest City is the beautiful, historic Old Town San Diego. Established in 1769, Old Town is considered the birthplace of California and the site of the first of twenty-one missions that made up The Mission Trail by Father Junipero Serra. It was here near the Presidio de San Diego that Fr. Serra held his first mass in California.  The Presidio, a fort that sits on eighteen acres on the top of ...