Vallejo’s family lived at La Casa Grande until 1852, when their new residence, Lachryma Montis, was completed. Vallejo, however, maintained an office at La Casa Grande, where in the 1860s he worked on his history of California. Vallejo also leased rooms to other residents and army officers. In 1853, a Dr. John Van Mehr established his boarding school, St. Mary’s Hall for Young Ladies, in La Casa Grande, expanding into the Servants’ Quarters building the following year. Unfortunately, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in the late summer of 1856 killing four of Van Mehr’s students and resulting in the permanent closure of the school in December.