Event

Silent Movie Sundays - Two Showings of Ramona (1910)

Nestle up with your Valentine in a historic setting and watch as one of the most romantic 19th-Century love stories unfolds, Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.

Released in 1910, the silent film was directed by D.W. Griffith, and stars Mary Pickford as Ramona and Henry B. Walthall as Alessandro.

Set in a post-Mexican-American War Southern California, racial and class tensions prove penetrable by the undeniable love between Alessandro, son of a tribal chief, and the beautiful, mixed-race foster child, Ramona. The story's sentimental portrayal of Mexican colonial life contributed to establishing the unique cultural identity of the region; its influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Coinciding with the arrival of major railroad lines to the region, tourists wanted to see the locations depicted in the national best selling novel. Old Town San Diego leaped at the opportunity to exploit the story and help bring prosperity back to the community and Old Town has been a tourist Mecca ever since. While John D. Spreckels dubbed Old Town's Estudillo House, which he owned, as Ramona's Marriage Place at the time, it was actually the nearby Adobe Chapel that Jackson described in her book as the setting for the wedding.

Live musical accompaniment by Los Californios, a San Diego-based group that specializes in the secular music of 19th Century California.

Couples and singles alike are invited to come fall in love with Ramona this Valentines Day Weekend.