Rancho Santa Rita (Pacheco)
Rancho Santa Rita was a 8,894-acre (35.99 km2) Mexican land grant in the western Livermore Valley, in present day Alameda County, California.
It was given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose Dolores Pacheco.
The rancho included present day Pleasanton, Asco, and Dougherty.
Rancho Santa Rita was granted to Pueblo de San José alcalde Jose Dolores Pacheco. It extended east from present day Foothill Road, with the Rancho Las Positas adjacent in the eastern Livermore Valley, Rancho San Ramon on the north and the Rancho Valle de San Jose on the south, Pacheco was an absentee landowner, but had a small adobe built in 1844. In 1854, Francisco Alviso, the son Pacheco's majordomo (ranch manager), Francisco Solano Alviso, built the adobe ranch house that still stands on Foothill Road overlooking Livermore Valley.
A claim for Rancho Santa Rita was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to John Yountz, administrator of the estate of José Dolores Pacheco in 1865.
In 1853, Rancho Santa Rita was sold to Augustin Alviso, grantee of Rancho Potrero de los Cerritos, by the heirs of Jose Delores Pacheco, Juana Pacheco and Salvio Pacheco. In 1854, Samuel B. Martin and West J. Martin purchased Rancho Santa Rita. They sold the ranch in 1865, and moved to Oakland.
In 1865 William M. Mendenhall came to the valley, and in 1868 purchased 650 acres (2.6 km2) of the Rancho Santa Rita grant. During the period of the railroad boom in the late 1860s, Rancho Santa Rita was sub divided into fifteen farms. The farms were "small" tracts of about 300 acres (1.2 km2) to 3,750 acres (15.2 km2). The larger land owners consisted of J.W. Dougherty, 750 acres (3.0 km2); Abdijah Baker, 2,078 acres (8.4 km2); and William Knox, 360 acres (1.5 km2).
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