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This adobe was erected by Don Vicente J. Martinez, son of the San Francisco Presidio Commandante (1822-1931) (and later Alcalde of San Francisco [1837]), Don Ygnacio Martinez, c. 1849; in 1823, Don Ygnacio received a land grant from the Spanish authorities for 17,000 acres, calling it "Rancho Pinole;" it was on this land that the family erected several adobes, this one the remaining example; after his father's death in 1848, Vicente Martinez took possession of the Rancho, and built this dwelling; he lived here just four years, selling it 10/06/1853 to Edward Franklin; Franklin, in turn, lived on the land several years before selling it to an Australian, Thomas Redfern; it was from Redfern that John T. Strentzel, father-in-law of the naturalist, John Muir purchased the Martinez House c. 1874; John Muir's daughter, Wanda, lived in the house with her husband, Thomas Hanna, and their children c. 1900;

The house rested on masonry foundations on which adobe bricks, from twenty-four to thirty inches thick, comprised the walls; the two-story porches and shallowly-pitched hipped roof gives the house a Monterey Colonial Style appearance; the National Park Service bought the property in either 1964 or 1966; an historical plaque was placed on the property by the Contra Costa County Historical Society, 04/17/1955;