San Diego Memories A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE 1800S THROUGH THE 1930S
Foreword
W
On the cover: An unidentified woman drives an automobile across the
Cabrillo Bridge with the California Tower in the background, 1931. In those days motorists could drive from 6th Avenue, cross the bridge, continue east on El Prado, and reach Park Boulevard. The connection continued until the 1970s. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#2418-1)
Copyright © 2018 by The San Diego Union-Tribune All Rights Reserved ISBN: 978-1-59725-812-8 Individual images in this book are copyright of The San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego History Center, and other contributors. Used with permission. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher. Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com Printed in the United States of America 2 SAN DIEGO MEMORIES
elcome to San Diego Memories: A Photographic History of the 1800s through the 1930s. It is being released in 2018 in a partnership between The San Diego Union-Tribune on its 150th anniversary and the San Diego History Center on its 90th. The San Diego History Center is the region’s repository of memories, written, collected, and recorded, from the county’s earliest residents as well as immigrants from other states and nations. One of the History Center’s crown jewels is the collection of negatives, prints, and films—more than 2.5 million images, many taken by Union-Tribune photographers for more than 100 years—safely preserved and curated in the basement of the Casa de Balboa in Balboa Park. The History Center’s archives are open to the public and visitors can while away the hours examining photos and other records of their neighborhoods, businesses, and landscapes. The oldest photograph dates from about 1869, coincidentally the very moment the city and region were entering the modern era. As Richard Henry Dana said in his 1840 account of his visit to San Diego, Two Years Before the Mast, “In the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be.” San Diego had three great attributes: As Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo declared in his log in 1542, San Diego’s bay was “cerrado y muy bueno” (closed and very good). Next came the climate, never too hot or too cold for long, where virtually anything would grow if you planted it and added water. The third was the border. San Diego’s location at the southwest corner of the United States placed it at the strategic nexus of North America and the Pacific Rim—the U.S. gateway to Latin America and Asia.
Progress, however, wasn’t inevitable. Transportation was difficult over the mountains and deserts. Water was as scarce then as it is today—an average of only 10 inches of rain per year. San Diego lacked natural resources necessary for major industrial production. Somehow San Diegans overcame these impediments by building their own railroad and planning a freeway system; erecting dams and aqueducts; courting the Navy and developing tourist attractions with the hope that sailors and sightseers would come, stay, and prosper. This collection of photographs and newspaper front pages represents the formative period of San Diego. Many of its major institutions, development patterns, industries, and demographic DNA were set by the outset of World War II. But growth did not proceed on a straight line upward. There were booms and busts. Industries came and went. Los Angeles quickly outpaced San Diego in population and power. Local politics often revolved around “smokestacks (industry) versus geraniums (beauty)”—a phrase that grew out of a 1917 mayoral campaign. These black-and-white images tell the first chapter of San Diego’s modern era. Enjoy the formal clothing, trains, planes, and automobiles. But look into the eyes of the San Diegans pictured. You may see yourself in them—hopeful, thoughtful, responsible, and fun loving.
— Roger Showley A third-generation San Diegan who retired in 2018 after 44 years as a staff writer at The San Diego Union-Tribune
Table of Contents Views and Street Scenes................................. 7
Public Service.............................................. 51
Recreation and Celebration......................... 123
Education..................................................... 19
Transportation.............................................. 67
Community Memories................................. 161
Maritime...................................................... 29
Commerce and Industry................................ 87
Index......................................................... 171
Military........................................................ 39
Disasters................................................... 113
INTRODUCTION 3
San Diego County was settled by Native Americans for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 16th century. There are no written records of that period but archaeologists and anthropologists believe the first humans may have populated North America, starting about 20,000 years ago and perhaps much earlier than that. The first artifacts found in San Diego date to about 10,000 years ago. The Kumeyaays’ creation stories say they were here from the beginning of time. By 1542 the local population is estimated at as many as 30,000 people, spread among about 80 villages.
1542
Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrives and names the bay San Miguel.
San Diego Through the Years 1885
1868 1851
The first railroad link to the east sets off a two-year real estate boom.
City Park (Balboa Park) is set aside; The San Diego Union founded.
Antonio Garra leads last Native American revolt, in Warner’s Ranch, executed, 1852.
1887–1890
1870 San Diego Chamber of Commerce founded.
Coronado, Escondido, National City and Oceanside incorporated.
1602
Sebastian Vizcaíno, also from Spain, renames it San Diego.
1769
Father Junípero Serra founds the Mission San Diego de Alcalá; San Diego Presidio built.
1796
Fort Guijarros is built at Ballast Point on Point Loma.
1803
The Battle of San Diego between Spanish soldiers and the U.S. Navy vessel Lelia Byrd.
1822
San Diego formally comes under Mexican rule and soldiers begin settling in Old Town.
1833
Mexico secularizes the California missions.
1835
San Diego’s first elected mayor and others take office. Richard Henry Dana visits San Diego and describes it in Two Days Before the Mast.
1846
The U.S. declares war on Mexico; seizes California as well as San Diego; Battle of San Pasqual. The Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 sets the boundary one marine league (3.4 miles) south of the southernmost point of San Diego Bay. 4 SAN DIEGO MEMORIES
1867
1888
Alonzo Horton buys 800 Hotel del Coronado acres east of the Davis tract; opens. the county seat moves from Old Town to downtown in 1871. California becomes a state; Five Native American San Diego city and county reservations set aside in incorporated. William San Diego County, thirteen Heath Davis and partners others established by 1931, buy 160 acres in “New San making this the most for Spanish-American War Diego,” the land west of any county in the country. prompts construction Front Street downtown. of fortifications at Fort Rosecrans in Point Loma.
1850
1875
1898
1912
1908 San Diegans greet the “Great White Fleet” anchored off Coronado. John Nolen submits his San Diego: A Comprehensive Plan for Its Development.
1931
Naval air base opens on North Island.
1925
Industrial Workers of the World demonstrate against free-speech restrictions
Mission Beach Amusement Center (Belmont Park) opens.
Vice squad clears prostitution from Stingaree (today’s Gaslamp Quarter).
1903 Marine biological station (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) opens, joins University of California’s in 1912.
1911–1912 Chula Vista, El Cajon and La Mesa incorporated.
San Diego State College moves to Montezuma Mesa.
1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Civic Center (today’s County Administration Center) on Pacific Highway.
1928 1916
Rainmaker Charles Hatfield hired to end drought; disastrous floods ensue.
San Diego Historical Society (now San Diego History Center) founded.
1915 Panama-California Exposition opens in Balboa Park.
1905 USS Bennington blows up in San Diego Bay, killing sixty-six sailors.
1917 1910
U.S. Grant Hotel opens.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE AND SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER
1936
1927
“Smokestacks” candidate Louis Wilde beats “geraniums” candidate George W. Marston for mayor. U.S. enters World War I.
Charles Lindbergh flies his San Diego-built Spirit of St. Louis solo and nonstop across the Atlantic. Lindbergh Field is dedicated in 1928.
1935
Pacific Coast League Padres move from Los Angeles.
California Pacific International Exposition opens in Balboa Park. Reuben H. Fleet moves his Consolidated Aircraft from Buffalo. INTRODUCTION 5
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CHAPTER ONE
Views and Street Scenes
H
istorically, San Diego County was a rural place. The Native American population survived on a diet of fish, game, berries, and acorns. The Spanish and Mexican period featured ranches with thousands of cattle, whose hides were cured and exported to markets on the East Coast. Into the late nineteenth century, homesteaders planted citrus groves and farmed the backcountry. Newcomers tried their hand at raising grapes, collecting honey, mining for gold, drilling for oil, even bottling spring water as the “Water of Life.” San Diego’s Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1870, marketed San Diego through exhibits at world’s fairs. In an age of small business and local banks, it was tough to make a buck—except in real estate. Land speculation was a booming business and the newspapers were filled with advertisements of the next place to live—until the inevitable bust crushed get-rich schemes. San Diego County’s growth rate until 1940 was sporadic. The first census in 1850 counted only 798 residents, not counting the Native American population. It rose to 4,300 in 1860, 5,000 in 1870, and 8,600 in 1880. The railroad boom of the 1880s boosted it to 35,000, where it stayed for another 10 years. Growth resumed to take it to 61,700 in 1910, 112,000 in 1920, 209,700 in
1930, and 289,300 in 1940. Over that same period Los Angeles County rose from 3,530 in 1850 to 2.8 million in 1940. The state as a whole increased from 92,600 to 6.9 million. The city of San Diego has always been the county’s biggest municipality, comprising 70 percent of the county total in 1940. By 1900, there were four other incorporated cities: National City (1887), Escondido (1888), Oceanside (1888), and Coronado (1890). As of 1940, there were three more: Chula Vista (1911), El Cajon (1912), and La Mesa (1912). Architecturally, San Diego was not much to look at when it was incorporated in 1850. Alonzo Horton, who arrived in 1867, said he wouldn’t pay $5 for Old Town. Visitors complained of the dust and fleas. Residents made use of local resources and constructed buildings out of adobe brick. With the arrival of railroad service to the east in 1885, investors built lavish Victorian mansions and business blocks, best seen today in downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter and pockets of Queen Anne–style homes in Bankers Hill, Chula Vista, Escondido, and National City. A radical turn in design occurred in the aftermath of the PanamaCalifornia Exposition of 1915–16 in Balboa Park. New York architect Bertram Goodhue conceived of a “city in miniature,” in
the elaborate Spanish Colonial–style of eighteenth-century Mexico. The California Tower was one of San Diego’s first great civic buildings and remains an iconic structure more than a century later. This nostalgia for a mythical past led land developers and architects throughout Southern California to build homes in the Mission Revival–style— red tile roofs, stucco walls, and courtyards. This indoor-outdoor lifestyle is rediscovered by each generation of builders, including today’s developers of master-planned communities. One other feature of San Diego is a varied landform. River valleys, canyons, and mesas divide the county into distinctive neighborhoods that interrupt what would otherwise be an unbroken sprawl of suburbs fanning out from the center. San Diego County’s geography results in one of the most varied climates in America. It also has one of the longest lists of endangered species—thirty-three species of animals, thirty-three species of plants. The county is also very large. At 4,525 square miles, it is large enough to encompass both Delaware and Rhode Island. When it was created in 1850, it was even larger, 39,400 square miles, taking in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Imperial Counties.
OPPOSITE: Broadway looking east from 3rd Avenue in downtown San Diego in 1928. It was San Diego’s ceremonial street for parades, civic
celebrations, and other big events. The U.S. Grant Hotel, the Holzwasser department store (later Walker Scott), and San Diego Trust and Savings Bank are seen in the left side of the frame. Horton Plaza is pictured at right. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#2224) VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 7
ABOVE: An early view of San Diego looking southwest from 7th Avenue and A Street toward Point Loma in 1873. “New Town” had only recently taken over Old Town as the county seat. S AN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#10534) RIGHT: A crowd gathers around the bandstand at Horton Plaza in 1885. The Horton House hotel, replaced by the U.S. Grant Hotel in 1910, is pictured at left. The Plaza Stove Store can be seen behind the bandstand in the right center of the image. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#1447)
8 SAN DIEGO MEMORIES
ABOVE: Real estate agent B. L. Muir promotes lots for
sale in Coronado in 1888. Lot sales helped finance the Hotel del Coronado that had opened earlier that year. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#1583) LEFT: Real estate signs fill a vacant lot near the Florence Hotel on the north side of Elm Street between 4th and 5th Avenues in 1887. The railroad boom of 1885–86 had gone bust and speculators rushed to cash out when they could. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#1607-A)
VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 9
10  SAN DIEGO MEMORIES
ABOVE: California’s first mission was established on Presidio Hill. The cross, made from bricks from the original Presidio
walls, was erected in 1913. P HILIP AND ANNETTE JONES TOP: A bustling scene along 5th Avenue, circa 1885. Marston’s department, pictured at right. 5th would become the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter a century later. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#10240) LEFT: E scondido looking west from High School Hill at 3rd and Hickory Streets in the 1890s. S AN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#79:244)
VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 11
ABOVE: Tent City with Hotel del Coronado in the distance, circa 1904. It featured a grocery store, soda fountain, theater, police department, and a daily newspaper. The Coronado Shores condo towers occupy the site today. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#858) OPPOSITE: Aerial view looking over downtown San Diego, the harbor, and North Island in 1911, the year voters approved bonds to develop the waterfront. S AN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#83:14740-34) RIGHT: A horse-drawn buggy passing the first U.S. lighthouse at Point Loma in the 1910s. Opened in 1855, it was supplanted in 1891 by the present lighthouse to avoid frequent fogs that obscured signals to ships. The lighthouse is part of the Cabrillo National Monument, which was set aside in 1913 and where a statue to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, similar to the Statue of Liberty, was originally proposed. S AN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#23164)
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VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 13
ABOVE: A man on his horse in the Anza-Borrego Desert area of San Diego County, circa 1918.
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, established in 1933, spans 600,000 acres and comprises one-fifth of San Diego County. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#2831-19) OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: S treetcars on Broadway, looking east from 1st Avenue, 1926. Spreckels
Theatre and the Union Building are visible in the background at right. UNION-TRIBUNE OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT: A composite photograph and rendering of Pacific Beach with the Crystal
Pier under construction in the foreground, circa 1926. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#1724-B) OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Looking east on University Avenue from the Georgia Street Bridge, circa
1920. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#20991) RIGHT: Sunset Cliffs, pictured circa 1910, was a popular site to look out to sea, and later, to
surf. In 1983, 68 acres were set aside as a city park of intricately carved coastal bluffs, arches, and sea caves. From the cliffs, California gray whales can be seen migrating between Alaska and Baja California. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#91:18564-2244)
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VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 15
ABOVE: Aerial view looking west from Mount Helix to
San Diego and Point Loma, circa 1934. The amphitheater and 35-foot-tall cross were completed in time for Easter sunrise services in 1925. The project was undertaken by Mary Yawkey White and her family at a cost of more than $100,000. They were intended as a memorial to White’s mother, Mary Carpenter Yawkey. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#90:18059-35) OPPOSITE: Looking east on Broadway at 2nd Avenue.
U.S. Grant Hotel is pictured in the center of the frame. SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER (#SENSOR 8-240) RIGHT: Cars parked in National City, circa 1928.
S AN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER, UNION-TRIBUNE COLLECTION (#UT5481)
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VIEWS AND STREET SCENES 17