Rosa Butron de Canet Adobe

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The Rosa Butrón de Canet de Simmler Adobe is a historic residence in San Luis Obispo, owned by the City of San Luis Obispo.

The adobe is located at what is now 466 Dana Street. It was built circa 1845.

Rosa Butrón (1809-1890) married Vincente Canet in 1828. After Canet died in 1858, she married John Jacob Simmler, a San Luis Obispo postmaster and justice of the peace, in 1859. They moved to the Dana Street adobe in about 1865.³

Owners of the adobe included Mildred Waterman and Mary Gail Black, who lived together in the adobe from approximately the 1920s until they passed away in 1969 and 1989 respectively.

Mildred Waterman was born in San Luis Obispo November 7, 1881 and attended schools in Los Berros, Arroyo Grande, and Palo Alto. She was the office manager of the Daily Telegram (c. 1912-1923), and employed at the Porterville Recorder and the Santa Paula Chronicle. She was deputy registrar of deaths and births for the San Luis Obispo County Health Department from 1933 until she retired in 1958. She passed away 18 May, 1969.²

San Luis Obispo city acquired the property in 1989 as a life estate gift from Mary Gail Black. In the Grand Deed, provisions are included "For the adobe and two adjoining wings that make up the old house, and the trees on the property be maintained by the city for park or recreational purposes, and that Mildred Waterman's name be included in any name that the city give this park area," and the city "assumes certain maintenance responsibility for the grounds and premises."¹

In 2022, plans were proposed for a tiny-home community known as Waterman Village.