Old Town San Diego

Prior to the arrival of explorers, Native people live along the coast, hills and mountains, moving seasonally as food and water supplies change.

Seeking a more direct way to the Orient and the "Northwest Passage," Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sails along the west coast of North America, landing at what he names "San Miguel," and claims the area for the King of Spain.

Sebastian Vizcaino seeking sites described in Cabrillo's logbooks, fails to recognize “San Miguel,” and coming ashore in the shallow bay, renames the area San Diego.

Fearing colonization by the Russians and the English, San Diego becomes “Birthplace of California” when the King of Spain sends men to establish a fort and a mission on the hill above present-day Old Town. The settlement is the first permanent European presence on the west coast of the United States. Mission San Diego de Alcalá, is founded by Father Junerpero Serra.

Uncertain water supplies and a lack of fertile ground cause the relocation of Mission San Diego de Acalá to its current site, six miles east of Old Town alongside the San Diego River.

Word finally reaches San Diego that, following years of skirmishes and disputes, Spain has ceded its control of Alta California to Mexico. This change means little to the tiny settlement on the hillside, the beginnings of Old Town

A handful of foreigners from France, Russia, England and the United States arrive by sea, joining Mexican ranchers arriving from the south to establish trading ventures. Don José Antonio Aquirre, builder of Casa de Aquirre on this site, is one of these traders.

New England author Richard Henry Dana, arriving on a sailing ship involved in the cowhide and tallow trade, finds a rough town where buildings made of mud cluster around an ill-defined central plaza, a settlement that would become Old Town.

Convinced of its “Divine Right” to control the lands west and south of its borders, the United States begins a war with Mexico that causes divided loyalties in San Diego. A heated battle between “Californios,” those loyal to Mexico, and the “Americans,” sends young scout Kit Carson on foot to Old Town, seeking reinforcement for the defeated American Troops.

1847

United States Congress decrees that San Diego will be one of the scheduled stops for steamboat service by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company from San Francisco. The first ship arrives two years later.

1848

California becomes a United States territory, and an international border is created between Mexico and the United States

1850

California is admitted us the 31st state of the United States. The population of the little town of San Diego is recorded at 650, but this does not include Native-Americans living in the surrounding area.


1851

Following the failure of New Town, a short-lived settlement on the Bay, the only printing press is moved to Old Town and the first San Diego newspaper, the San Diego Herald, begins weekly publication.

Recognizing the business opportunity offered by San Diego, entrepreneur Alonzo Horton buys land on the Bay and lays out a new city closer to where the merchant ships bring people and goods.

San Diego's own gold rush is started in the backcountry near Julian when rancher Fred Coleman finds gold in a local stream. Hundreds of miners descend on the valleys nearby . Over $2 million in gold is taken from one mine alone.

Struggles for control between Old Town and New San Diego are finally put to rest when a fire in Old Town in 1872 destroys several buildings on the main plaza, putting an end to Old Town's attempts to hold on to political power.

Hoping to draw attention to the plight of Indians, Helen Hunt Jackson publishes her novel Ramona. Much of her research is conducted in San Diego County, and the fictional parish priest is based on local pastor Father Antonio Ubach. The powerful book heightens sympathy for the American Indian just as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin raised awareness of the injustices of slavery thirty years before.

The arrival of California Southern's railroad fuels land speculation in San Diego that comes to be known as the “Great Boom of the Eighties.” The 1880 population of 2,637 swells to 40,000 in 1885.

On this site, parish priest Father Antonio Ubach converts the Casa de Aquirre for use as St. Anthony's Indian School. The school opens with 50 children, and teachers arrive daily by horse drawn buggy from the Academy of Our Lady of Peace in New Town.

A network of wooden flumes is constructed to carry water from distant sources. California's Governor Robert Waterman and other dignitaries ride in small boats down the man-made channel during the opening ceremonies.

San Diego's ideal harbor stimulates the building of military bases in San Diego. The Navy develops a coaling station and a radio station on the Bay.

Transplanted San Franciscan John D. Spreckels restores the Casa de Estudillo in Old Town. Capitalizing on the enormous popularity of the Ramona novel, Spreckels advertises the restored adobe as “Ramona's Marriage Place” and visitors flock to the site of this fictitious event.

Many of Old Town's early buildings are in poor condition. The Casa de Aquirre is demolished, and the lot sits empty for 26 years.

A plan to replicate an old Mexican town around Old Town plaza is presented to the City Council by a group led by architect Richard S. Requa. Terms like “historic” and “romantic” are used to describe future plans for developing Old Town as a tourist destination.

The California State Legislature passes a bill to create Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.