Jose Maria Amador built several adobe homes and many small buildings that were used as shops where his Indian workers made soap, blankets, shoes, farm tools, etc., for use on his rancho. He had been paid in land for his years of service as a Mexican soldier attatched to the San Francisco Presidio and as administrator of Mission San Jose after the mission were secularized. His grant was a big one - 16,517 acres. He later requested and recieved 2,000 additional acres of land so that he could have Alamilla Spring on his property. This is the spring located at the corner of Dublin Blvd. and San Ramon Road. His rancho extended from Pita Navaga, the promontory near Silvergate and Briarhill, to the top of the first range at the eastern edge of the valley, and from Danville on the north to Gold Creek on the south. He was a comtemporary of Robert Livermore who owned the Rancho del Valle de San Jose.