USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 39
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inhabitants of the city of San Diego a suitable park." On May 26 the trustees, acting on the report of the committee, adopted an ordi- nance setting the land selected aside "for a public park forever," as Morse in later years described it in a note to Horton. Marcus Schiller, Guadalupe Estudillo and Joshua Sloane were the trustees then.
Soon after the bill was introduced in the Legislature to have the land set aside for the city, friends of the park uncovered a plan by which the purpose of this grant would have been defeated. The park was saved, however, the voters of the city rallying to the side of the park in an impressive fashion. Development of the great tract amounted to little until August, 1902, when, at the suggestion of Julius Wangenheim, the Chamber of Commerce appointed a park im- provement committee consisting of Julius Wangenheim, chairman : U. S. Grant, Jr .. George W. Marston, William Clayton and D. E. Garrettson. A fund for immediate work was sub- scribed, and Samuel Parsons, Jr., & Company of New York were engaged to prepare plans for the improvement of the great tract. Samuel Parsons, George Parsons and George Cooke paid visits to San Diego to further the plan. the contour map for which was drawn by J. B. Lippincott of Los Angeles. The plan was completed in a few months and was approved in January. 1904. A year later the city charter was amended so as to provide an annual park appropria- tion, and in April, 1905. the first board of park commissioners was appointed. Lack of money prevented any extensive improvement for some time, but what was done was done on a well laid-out plan. The real beautification of the park came in preparation for the exposition of 1915 and 1916. It was in this period that the name Balboa was given to the park.
Except for Balboa Park, the Torrey Pines Park of 369 acres is the largest and probably the most important of the city parks. It was set aside to preserve the grove of Torrey pines, among the rarest of all trees, which had grown there. They were discovered in 1850 by Dr. J. L. Le Conte, the noted California naturalist. He and his fellow naturalist. Dr. C. C. Parry, conferred with regard to the discovery and decided to name the trees for their instructor. Dr. John Torrey of New York. Eminent scientists have traveled thousands of miles to see this grove, and its protection by the city is a work not only for San Diego but for all the world.
San Diego's parks are thus officially described in the records of the board of park commissioners :
Old Town Park, dedicated as Washington Square on the plat of Old Town, surveyed for the Ayuntamiento by Cave J. Couts, U. S. A .. 1849: 1.14 acres.
New Town Park, dedicated as Plaza de Pantoja on the map of New San Diego, surveyed by O. B. Gray, United States boundary commissioner, and T. D. Johns, U. S. A., made prior to 1870.
La Jolla Park, dedicated on the map of La Jolla Park. Botsford and Heald, proprietors, when the land was subdivided under the auspices of the Pacific Coast Land Bureau. The map was filed in the county recorder's office March 22. 1887_
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Balboa (City) Park, on May 26, 1868, the city trustees set aside as a park Pueblo Lots 1129, 1130, 1131, 1135, 1136, 1137, 1142, 1143 and that part of 1144 then vacant, and on February 4, 1870, the state legislature ratified and confirmed this action, and the lots were "de- clared to be held in trust forever by the municipal authorities and for no other or different purposes." The quotation is from the statutes of 1869 and 1870.
On November 1, 1910, the board of park commissioners offi- cially gave the name of Balboa Park to what had been known gen- erally as the "city" or "fourteen-hundred-acre," park. The legislature of 1911 confirmed this change of name.
Torrey Pines Park-The common council set aside the lands, 290 acres, on August 8, 1889. (Ordinance says "about 369 acres of land more or less.")
Mission Hills Park, five acres, formerly Protestant Cemetery, and dedicated for park use April 13, 1909.
Park on Point Loma, dedicated April 13, 1909, Pueblo Lot 206.
Mountain View Park, 10.29 acres east of 40th Street and north of T Street, dedicated September 24, 1914.
Cuyamaca View Park, 0.36 acre, Lots 14 to 22 inclusive, Block 133, Central Park, dedicated January 17, 1916.
Soledad Park, 118.9 acres, part of a Pueblo Lot, "the highest point in said city of San Diego, commanding a view of the ocean, mountains and the entire city."
Altadena Park, 0.107 acre in Thorn Street, between 33d and Felton streets.
Cabrillo Park, 0.215 acre, in Block A, Cabrillo Terrace.
Collier Park, 60 acres, part of Pueblo Lot 206.
Encanto Park, 1.24 acres, in Encanto Park Addition.
Franklin Avenue Park, 0.34 acre, all of Block 314, Land & Town Addition.
Morena Park, 2.17 acres, all of Block 54, Morena.
Ocean Beach Park, 1.58 acres.
Olive Park, 0.367 acre, Olive Street closed between Second and Third streets.
Plaza, 0.37 acre, between Third and Fourth streets south of Broadway.
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Southlook Park, 0.005 acre, at Olivewood Terrace and S Street.
University Heights Park or Mission Gardens Extension, 9.44 acres.
Spaulding Park, 12.4 acres. Part of Pueblo Lot 192.
The list of park commissioners from 1905 to 1921 is as follows: Ernest E. White-April 15, 1905. four years
George W. Marston-April 15, 1905 three years A. Moran-April 15, 1905. _two years L. A. Wright-May 9, 1907 Vice .A. Moran, expired
U. S. Grant, Jr.,-May 23, 1907 Vice E. E. White, resigned Laurence P. Swayne-June 18, 1908 __ Vice U. S. Grant, Jr., resigned George W. Marston-June 18, 1908. Vice self, term expired Thomas O'Hallaran-July 23, 1909-Vice L. P. Swayne, term expired M. A. Luce-July 23, 1909. Vice G. W. Marston, resigned
Clark Braley-May 3, 1911 Vice L. A. Wright. term expired
Patrick Martin-May 8, 1911
Vice T. ()'Hallaran, resigned F. W. Vogt-May 29, 1911
Vice P. Martin, resigned
John F. Forward, Jr .- June 28, 1911 Vice G. R. Harrison, resigned
F. J. Belcher, Jr .- July 31, 1911
Vice F. W. Vogt, resigned
S. T. Black-June 3, 1912
Vice F. J. Belcher, Jr., term expired
Carl Ferris-May 5, 1913.
Vice S. T. Black, resigned
John F. Forward, Jr .- May 5, 1913 Vice self, term expired Charles T. Chandler-May 5, 1913 __ Vice J. Wangenheim, resigned T. ()'Hallaran-August 24, 1916 __ Vice C. T. Chandler, term expired Arthur Cosgrove-October 25, 1916 ____ Vice Carl Ferris, term expired George W. Marston -- October 25, 1916 __ Vice J. Forward, Jr., resigned Henry C. Ryan-April 18, 1917 Vice T. ()'Hallaran, term expired
F. F. Grant-May 22, 1917. Vice G. W. Marston, term expired
Henry C. Ryan-May 12, 1919 Vice self, term expired
John F. Forward, Jr .- May 12, 1919. Vice A. Cosgrove, resigned
John F. Forward, Jr .- April 12, 1920 Vice self, term expired
Hugo Klauber-May 23, 1921 Vice F. F. Grant, term expired
A fine example of civic conception and achievement is the San Diego Stadium, a magnificent structure which stands east of the high school, with its main entrance, itself an imposing structure, at Fifteenth Street.
The plan for this magnificent amphitheatre was first considered in 1912. Meeting favor at once, the project was put before the voters in the form of a bond issue of $150,000. The construction work was started in July, 1914, and the completed stadium was dedicated with impressive ceremonies on May 31. 1915, in the presence of a throng estimated to number about 40,000 persons.
The stadium itself seats about 30,000 persons, 25 tiers of solid concrete running around the great field within. Built principally, of course, for the display of athletic prowess, it has served as a gathering place for many other kinds of affairs. The most notable of these
George R. Harrison-May 24, 1911
Vice M. A. Luce, resigned Julius Wangenheim-June 28, 1911 Vice Clark Braley, resigned
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up to the time of this writing was on the occasion of President Wood- row Wilson to San Diego on September 19, 1919. On that occasion, aided by a mechanical device for carrying the sound of his voice from the speaker's stand near the colonnade, the President spoke to a throng which taxed the seating capacity of the huge structure. In addition, many auditors sat near him, extra seats having been installed for the occasion on the athletic field. The crowd was at the time said to be the largest which ever listened to a President.
By placing the stadium in a canyon the cost of excavation was kept low. The site, however, could hardly be surpassed, a magnificent view of bay, ocean and mountains being afforded from its seats. The
SCENE AT GREAT CITY STADIUM Built of concrete and seating 40,000.
concrete tiers were built in the shape of an inverted "u." as one enters at the southern end, where behind the colonade, were installed offices, dressing and locker rooms and baths for participants in athletic contests. The seats surround a cinder running track which is a quarter of a mile long, and inside of that track room was provided for a baseball diamond and a football field, both of which have been ex- tensively used since the stadium was opened.
The work was done under the supervision of the park commis- sioners, John Forward, Jr., Carl I. Ferris and CharlesT. Chandler. The designs were made by Quayle Brothers and Cressy, architects, and the work was under the direction of S. A. Rhodes, chief engineer. Teachers and students of the schools, led by Duncan Mackinnon, city superin- tendent, deserve much credit for the way in which they urged the passing of the bond issue. The students of all the schools, particularly
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the high schools, have used the stadium for many contests and exhibi- tions since it was opened. The high school, lacking a large auditorium, holds assemblies in the bowl.
A heritage of the Exposition of 1915 and 1916, is the San Diego Museum, which was opened to the public on January 1, 1917, when the Exposition ended. and as a permanent extension of the Exposition. The directors of the Exposition transferred to the museum association, in trust for the people, the excellent scientific collections that had been acquired with the aid of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. The Museum contains some of the finest collections ever made and have been not only an attraction for the casual visitor and tourist but a laboratory of great value to the student. These buildings formerly used by the Exposition. are now used by the Museum :
California State Building, housing the exhibits of ancient Amer- ican art. architecture and history.
Fine Arts Building, devoted to art exhibits and to the use of art associations.
Science of Man Building, containing fine collections telling the life story of man through the ages.
Indian Arts Building, devoted to the cultural history of man. especially of the American Indian.
In its buildings, collections, and other assets, the Museum repre- sents a foundation of about $800.000. It is sustained by membership fees and private contributions.
In the work of the museum, both in Exposition days and since, Dr. Edgar L. Hewett has been prominent at all times. Much of the work of establishing the collection was done under his supervision to which service he brought an expert knowledge.
The Natural History Museum is also in one of the large Exposi- tion buildings. It is in charge of the San Diego Society of Natural History, which was founded in 1874, and which in all the years since that time has done a good work in promoting and sustaining interest in the branch of knowledge to which it is dedicated.
The Museum contains exhibits of all branches of a modern natural history museum including mammals, birds, insects, fossils, mol- lusks, plants, minerals, etc. Its educational exhibits and collections are lent to the public schools.
For some time the society has maintained a research museum for advanced students, containing the finest collections of bird and mammal skins and shells in Southern California.
CHAPTER XXXI
SOME REMINISCENCES
Mrs. Lydia M. Horton, widow of "Father" Horton, founder of San Diego, came here in September, 1869. She was the wife of a retired naval officer, Captain William Knapp. They with their two young sons, one an infant, had decided to make their home here. They were natives of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and came to this coast by steamer in 1868.
When they arrived, the only available house to be had was at Roseville. It had been built by Louis Rose for a hotel, but it was never used for that purpose. The house is still standing near the entrance to the canyon leading up to the Theosophical Homestead.
The only people living on that side of the bay at that time were a colony of New Bedford whalers at Ballast Point, the lighthouse keeper at the old lighthouse on the crest of Point Loma, a Spanish family at La Playa and a group of Chinese fisherman on the shore of the bay. Mr. Rose was hoping to found a city and had established a lumber yard and built the house at Roseville. The next year Captain Knapp built a smaller house for his family, but in 1871, it was moved across the bay in tow of Chinese fishing boats. The house is still in a good state of preservation on Tenth Street
When Mrs. Horton came to San Diego the side walls of the old Custom House at La Playa had fallen in, but the roof was lying on the ground intact. Mr. Rose had built a wharf at La Playa just north of the present Quarantine station.
"When we landed here," said Mrs. Horton recently, "we had to walk up the long and rather narrow wharf. My husband, taking the baby in his arms, left me to follow slowly with our small boy. As we neared the middle of the wharf, we met a formidable looking man, of great size, roughly dressed, with dark skin and long black hair. I was quite sure he must be one of the wild natives of this unknown region, and trembled with fear as he approached. as there was no one else near. But he passed without even turning his eyes towards us. When I reached the shore, I met Mr. W. W. Stewart, who laughingly told me that the man was a quite civilized Gay Head Indian from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who belonged to the whaling camp at Ballast Point.
"We spent our first night in San Diego at Captain Dunnells' Hotel and took the stage for Old Town the next day, staying at the Franklin House until our furniture arrived from San Francisco. It came to us finally in rather poor condition, as in unloading they had dropped some of it overboard into the bay, where it stayed for three or four days before it was recovered."
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In conversation and correspondence with the writer Mrs. Horton made reference to several interesting points in Mr. Horton's work of building up the new town of San Diego. "The site of the Gray-Davis town," said Mrs. Horton, "had no part in Mr. Horton's plan. The only building in that section which was called 'New Town' when Mr. Horton came was the barrack, built by the United States Government and intermittently occupied by soldiers in transit. Mr. Davis left three houses here which Mr. Horton bought from him. One of them he occupied as a residence until he could build one : another was opened by Capt. S. S. Dunnells as a hotel, and he afterwards purchased the building from Mr. Horton ; that building is still standing. Mr. Hor- ton's site for the new town was from what is now Upas Street to the bay and from First to Sixth Street from Upas and from First to Fifteenth from A Street to the bay. The Gray-Davis site was added later. Mr. Horton built his wharf on his own addition, at the foot of Fifth Street.
"When Mr. Horton reached San Diego in 1867, the wharf which had been built by Mr. Davis in 1851 was gone. The piles had been eaten by teredos, and the planks had been used for firewood by the soldiers at the barracks. Mr. Horton came ashore on the back of an Indian.
"At the time there was no one living in what is now known as San Diego. Mr. Matthew Sherman had a sheep ranch on the hills now known as Sherman's addition and herded his sheep from there to the country to the east."
Mr. and Mrs. Knapp moved over to San Diego in 1871. Captain Knapp as a navy officer had served in the Civil war and later as a lieutenant on the U. S. S. Ashuelot, which made a notable cruise to China. Mrs. Horton was strikingly beautiful as a girl and young woman and has approached advanced age with a grace as charming as her youthful beauty. She has long been a leader in club work, being especially prominent in the Wednesday Club, of which she was a founder, and also has been active in the work of the public library and in many other civic enterprises.
The San Diego of what may now be called the old days is strik- ingly linked with the present in the life of Capt. Samuel Warren Hackett, who landed here December 22. 1859, and who, until his death, late in 1920, took an active interest in affairs. Sixty years of resi- dence in one city are not given to many in this busy, restless age, and especially in the new West, yet that is the record of this sturdy. hon- ored citizen.
To San Diego Captain Hackett came when the settlement at Old Town was still of importance, ranking, in fact, above "New San Diego," started several years before but to a large degree abandoned for the older place. Coronado then, of course, was bare of residences ; North Island, now the home of two great government aviation bases. was, it is recorded, without a single building except a small cabin ; from the new town. "Davis' Folly." there ran the "long wharf" which William Heath Davis had built. Rabbits were running about thickly in the brush perhaps within a few yards of the spot where the U. S. Grant Hotel now stands in the centre of a busy city. Over on Ballast Point, it is also recorded, a single hide house was standing, the sole
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relic of the days when the hide industry flourished on the shores of San Diego Bay. One and only one Kanaka of the many who had come to San Diego in the days of R. H. Dana, Jr., writer of "Two Years Before the Mast," principally as sailors, remained. This Kanaka, known as "Bill," was on a whaling expedition with him. At La Playa, over on the Point Loma shore, there was a little settlement, doubtless principally, of folk engaged in fishing, as obtains to a large degree even to this day, in which a considerable colony of former Portuguese lives there.
Captain Hackett was a "down-east Yankee," born in Middleboro, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, December 27, 1836, of a family prominent in New England since the early days of the Plymouth colony. His father was also named Samuel Warren Hackett, and his mother was Augusta Alden Cole, a direct descendant of John Alden of Mayflower fame.
Captain Hackett was one of a family of eight children, who were left without their mother by her death when he was only six years old. He went to work when a child, got his schooling education under difficulties, and at the age of sixteen, like many New England boys of that time, especially those boys who lived on or near old Cape Cod, went to sea. That brought him to California in 1858. He landed at San Francisco, worked in the northern part of the state as a stage- driver, at hydraulic mining and on a ranch. To San Diego he came with a whaling company, carrying an outfit and men for a station at San Diego.
Not long before his death, Captain Hackett's story, or the part of it relating to those early days, was told to Clark Alberti of San Diego, who has done valuable service in preserving many such his- torical bits. To his pen is due this interesting account :
Upon arrival, as heretofore mentioned, they built their houses near the present site of Fort Rosecrans, and the trying-out works about half way out on Ballast Point. They used boats about fifteen feet long to shoot the whales from, and a Brand "bum gun" made entirely of iron and weighing about thirty-eight pounds, including the bomb, and shot from the shoulder. . The captain says it had some push when it went off and frequently hurt the man who held the gun more than it did the whale, but they killed and tried out the blubber of about twenty-five whales, averaging twenty-two barrels of oil each. Most of the whales were killed as they passed along outside the kelp of Point Loma, opposite the old lighthouse. At that period hundreds of whales passed down the coast from December 10 to January 31 and back north until April 1, and then no more until December again.
They used in the work a regular five-oar whale boat with a har- poon gun set on a swivel in a loggerhead in the bow of the boat. This outfit was used to get fast to wounded whales which the small boats had shot, also to tow in to the try-works the dead whales. It took about twelve hours to cut up and render the oil from each whale. They were the California gray species, sometimes called the "mussel digger" and "devilfish" whale.
After the whales had all passed north most of the men went to San Francisco on the Senator, which also took the oil to that city, calling at San Diego every two weeks. Hackett did not go, but took
!
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employment on board the storeship Clarissa Andrews, belonging to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, anchored off La Playa, near where the government coaling station is now. This vessel, which figures largely in the literature of the early California, kept a supply of coal aboard for any of the vessels of the company which might run short of fuel on the trip from Panama to San Francisco. The coast steaniers also tied up to her and landed the freight for Old Town on the beach of La Playa by means of boats. They did not go up the bay of New Town unless the government had freight or supplies for the barracks, those usually being sent on a sail vessel which called here about once a month, and on which the whalers sometimes shipped oil to San Francisco, as they would carry it cheaper than the steamers.
In those pastoral days Old Town, of course, was the center of the business and social activities of the community, which consisted of but a few hundred persons. On the west side of the plaza the San Diego Herald, carrying the sub-head "Devoted to the Interests of Southern California and the Pacific Railroad," occupied a small adobe structure, having been moved over from New San Diego in 1853 by its founder, John Judson Ames, whose brother was postmaster. George A. Pendleton was county clerk and clerk of the district court, first judicial district. Daniel B. Kurtz was county judge, George Lyons was sheriff and William H. Noyes justice of the peace for San Diego Township. Captain Keating was keeper of the lighthouse. Landlord R. B. Tebbetts dispensed hospitality in his Franklin House, facing the plaza and as an instance of the amicable relations existing between members of the little settlement the following editorial item from the Herald of January 28, 1860, may be cited: "Our friend Tebbetts of the Franklin House received by the last steamer a large supply of that justly celebrated 'London Clubhouse Gin.' Also pure California wines." The Herald was moved to San Bernardino that same year.
In 1860 there was stationed at the barracks, near the foot of the present Market Street, the Sixth United States Infantry, under com - mand of Maj. Lewis A. Armistead and Lieut. Aaron B. Hardcastle, who had been transferred to San Diego from Mohave, where they had been engaged in "pacifying" the Indians. A young second lieutenant from West Point was sent out about this time, and it was gossiped that he caught the major rather short on tactics, so the major, to make good, began to exercise the men by marching them up to Old Town on what they called the "Shanghai drill"-in other words a trot -with five minutes rest and then back to New San Diego at the same gait, which did not prove very popular with the members of the company.
Along in the fall of 1860 the traditional political pot began to boil pretty strongly in this remote corner of the Union, but as there were but few Republicans in the county, the Democrats felt quite sure of getting everything they wanted. But when the news came in about two weeks after the November election that Abe Lincoln, the "black Republican" was elected President they could not be consoled and many of them left here the following spring to join the Southern army.
Captain Hackett well remembered the day when Major Armistead and Lieutenant Hardcastle came aboard the storeship to take the
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steamer, which was tied up there. The company had been left in command of the young second lieutenant, and Armistead and Hard- castle, with several others, went to Wilmington, Los Angeles County, to join Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, with whom they went south to join fortunes with the Confederacy. Major Armistead, who was a North Carolinian by birth, and who had received promotions for con- spicuous gallantry in the Mexican war, had often been a visitor aboard the storeship, and was quite a devoted fisherman. He was killed at the battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
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