Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo began purchasing acreage for the Vallejo Estate during November 1849. He named it Lachryma Montis (mountain tear) a rough Latin translation of Chiucuyem (crying mountain) - the Native American name for the free-flowing spring on the property. The estate was located at the foot of the hills half-a-mile west and north of Sonoma's central plaza. In 1849, after returning from Monterey and California's 1849 Constitutional Convention, Vallejo determined to move his growing family from La Casa Grande and the center of Sonoma. He remembered the location of the spring from an early trip surveying areas around Mission San Francisco Solano. The design of the house and its furnishings illustrate Vallejo's ongoing Americanization and his openness to new ideas. When the family