Fading History -- Vandals Pillage Don Joaquin's Adobe

History lovers and Friends of the Joaquin Moraga Adobe Kent Long and Bobbie Landers visited the historic home of Lamorinda's pioneer settler recently and were shocked by what they found.

The placed by the state and city of Orinda are all long gone, probably sold for scrap and thrown into the smelter. Vandals have moved inside and embarked on a campaign of steady destruction -- removing doors and windows and tagging the walls with graffiti proclaiming the new, intended purpose of the 160-year-old structure: party house.

More disturbing to Long and Landers -- and possibly to anyone else who loves local history -- the barbarians have cut into the surface wood set in place to protect the original mud bricks of the adobe and started to chip into the walls themselves.

Why? Who knows. Apparently the last round of partiers to visit the site were heard by a local resident and reported (big Patch "thumbs up" to the homeowner). Their party, at least, was brought to a screeching halt. But there have been others, as the photos plainly show.