Angeles Asistencia (church) across the plaza. The Avila Adobe was considered gracious in its day. It had a number of spacious rooms with an ample number of windows. It served many a social gathering with the Avilas hosting these events in the large sala (parlour). Francisco Avila would trade hides and tallow (a main ingredient in candles and soap) to acquire finer imported things from Mexico and beyond to furnish the house. French doors and window frames were ordered from Boston. These imports were brought to post-independence Mexican Alta California by ship over thousands of miles around the southern Cape Horn of South America. Avila wealth and goods to trade allowed the purchase of fine furnishings and goods from Mexico and New England, and Asia and Europe. Avila would also trade for household goods, from on merchant ships anchored in San Pedro Bay or San Diego pueblo's Mission Bay, which were carted inland by an ox-drawn carreta, a wooden bullock cart of the era. The adobe was always ready to receive friends, family, and travelers, including the famous trailblazer, Jedediah Smith. Smith had led a group of fur trappers overland and across the Mojave Desert to southern California, and stayed at the adobe for a few days during January 1827. These were the first U.S. citizens to reach Alta California from the east via an overland route. Smith later recorded: "A few families are rich in cattle and horses and mules and among these Señor [Francisco Avila] and his brother [Ygnacio Avila] are perhaps the richest." Francisco Avila died on April 5, 1832. His widow, Encarnacion Avila, remained at the adobe until her death in 1855, though sometime after Francisco's death she did remarry. During the Mexican–American War On May 18, 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, the Mexican–American War, at which time the U.S. took interest in Alta California. U.S. Navy Commodore Robert F. Stockton arrived in Monterey on July 14 and declared California won over. He then proceeded to march toward Los Angeles which he took without so much as a shot being fired. But the Pueblo de Los Angeles had not capitulated so easily and revolted against the garrison of men left to police the pueblo, winning the Siege of Los Angeles. Stockton was forced to return in October via San Diego. After the Battle of San Pasqual just north of San Diego in December,