Chula Vista Centennial: A Century of People and Progress, 1911-2011 [First ed.] 9780916251154

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CENTENNIAL

A CENTURY OF PEOPLE AND PROGRESS Steven Schoenherr

�hula Vista Centennial: A Century of People and Progress, author and acclaimed historian Steven Schoenherr provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of Chula Vista's people-their struggles, ideals, and achievements, and the bountiful land they call home. Decade by decade, layers of industry, politics, culture, and community shape the legacy of America's "Coolest City:'

Chula Vista Centennial will delight history buffs, developers, historic preservationists, teachers, parents, and students alike. Professional historian Dr. Steven Schoenherr brings the city's colorful and complex history to life. His meticulous research matched with the city's extensive photo archive and maps have created 240 pages of exceptionally rich detail that will remain the definitive history of Chula Vista's first 100 years. Easy to read, beautiful to look at, Chula Vista Centennial will intrigue and entertain you and your friends as you learn about -Iris Engstrand, Professor of History, University of San Diego the community that inspired it. One copy will not be enough. Chula Vista's history reads like a slice of Americana: a community founded by farmers, built by visionaries and lived by an increasingly diverse, ambitious and proud citizenry. There are surprises to learn about the city's past and individual stories about people who made a difference and overcame the odds. How grand it would if every community in San Diego County had this "facebook" to share with residents and visitors alike. -Roger Shawley, Staff Writer, The San Diego Union-Tribune If you have ever lived in Chula Vista or visited it, you'll never look at this city the same way again after reading Chula Vista Centennial. From Officer Kelly and the dogcatcher, to the Rohr silver dollars and the world champion Little League Blue Bombers, you'll be transformed by the people and inspired by the progress this city has made in its first 100 years. Congratulations Chula Vista! -Ken Kramer, About San Diego, KPBS-TV From the City's early beginnings of triumphing over fires, freezes and the Big Flood, to overcoming current economic challenges both nationally and locally, this book is testimony to the power of a community working together. -Loren Nancarrow, Author and TV Journalist Chula Vista Centennial is part history and part adventure story, with exciting events and diverse "characters" from local life and international events, decade by decade, covering a unique Southern California town as it grows over 100 years into the city it is today. Buy this wonderful book for its excellent, abundant photos, beautiful layout, and interesting sidebars. Read it in detail for the well-researched history and clear writing. Bravo, history comes alive! -Louise Torio, Friends of the Villa Montezuma, Inc.

About the City of Chula Vista The City of Chula Vista, San Diego County's second largest municipality, celebrates its Centennial in 2011. With approximately 245,000 residents, the city is located just south of downtown San Diego. Chula Vista's 55 square miles traverse the Pacific coast to the west and the San Miguel Mountains to the east. Established neighborhoods with tree-lined avenues, pristine contemporary communities, world class entertainment venues, the nation's only warm weather Olympic Training Center, a historic downtown, and good job opportunities, all contribute to Chula Vista's wide appeal as an enterprising city with hometown charm.

Yam

lemon orchards to clean businesses,

Chula Vista's past comes alive in this engaging narrative of its first 100 years. Chula Vista

Centennial: A Century of People and Progress is a time capsule of milestones and memories, a treasure trove of facts and anecdotes. The story unfolds within the context of America's social history as major events, economic trends, and social movements set the stage for the City's growth. Author and acclaimed historian Steven Schoenherr unveils the layers of history and the memorable stories of Chula Vista's land and people, their struggles and ideals. Chula Vista Centennial chronicles this city's growth by decade with these human stories, both intimate and grand. Vintage photos, many published for the first time, capture real portraits of individuals and lend authenticity to the events unfolding in the narrative. Readers are treated to an insider's view of a century of people and progress in America's "Coolest City." When Chula Vista turned 50 in 1961, civic and business leaders dreamed of a futuristic hub of skyscrapers and monorails with a major industrial center on the bayfront. Twenty�five years later, the 75�year�old City celebrated its anniversary in 1986 by looking back to its nostalgic agricultural roots while experiencing rapid growth on its eastern edge. Schoenherr's story culminates in the 21st century. Celebrating its lO0�year anniversary, Chula Vista is a mature city, one that values its diversity and uniqueness, preserves the environment, and aspires to build a balanced and sustainable future.

- - 1911-2011- ­

CHULA VISTA

CENTENNIAL

Contents FOREWORD

Vll

♦

PROLOGUE: Chula Vista Prior to CHAPTER

The Flood

+

CHAPTER

The Chief

•

CHAPTER

1: 1911-1919 .

The Realtors CHAPTER

The Farmers

3

2: 1920-1929 . 23 39

3: 1930-1939 . 43 49

+

4: 1940-1949 . 63

Performing Arts CHAPTER

78

+

5: 1950-1959 • 87 109

+

6: 1960-1969 . 111 124

+

CHAPTER 7:

1970-1979 • 135

Animal Stories

•

CHAPTER

154

8: 1980-1989 . 157

Street Walkers and Preservationists CHAPTER 9:

+

172

1990-1999 • 177

Chula Vista Immigrant Families CHAPTER

+ ix

15

Early Art Scene in Chula Vista CHAPTER

1911

10: 2000-2010

Green and Clean

+

190

+ +

195

202

SOURCES AND SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY + ABOUT THE AUTHOR + ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS +

218 219

A LooK FoRWARD FROM OuR SPONSORS • INDEX +

223

216

220

Early Victorian house, now demolished, attributed to Chula Vista Pioneer Rancher Seaman Haines. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.

VI

)

Fore"W"ord Chula Vista Centennial, A Century of People and Progress is a time capsule of milestones and memories, a treasure trove of facts and anecdotes. The story unfolds within the context of America's social history as major events, economic trends, and social movements set the stage for the City's growth. In the early years Chula Vistans experienced floods, drought, depression, and war. Pioneers, heroes, entrepreneurs, and ordinary people built this town; through their stories, recounted in rich detail with colorful maps and images, we discover our com­ monality and embrace our diversity. Volunteering his time and talent, Dr. Steven Schoenherr, USO professor emeritus, graciously accepted the task of creating this literary commemoration of Chula Vista's 100-year legacy. Schoenherr documents Chula Vista's growth from a small rural village to the second largest city in San Diego County, a com­ munity of one quarter of a million people. Our story begins with Col. William Dickinson, who built towns for railroad barons and created more than 80 along the Santa Fe rail line. When Dickinson in 1886 encountered the fertile bayside land that became Chula Vista, he envi­ sioned a town of mansions and orchards, where landed gentry might lead idyllic lives. Soon, the railroad brought wealthy entrepreneurs and pioneer settlers from faraway cities. Some purchased large estates and built stately homes. Others began farming the land. Volunteers formed the Chula Vista Village Improve­ ment Society to address the town's growing needs. In 1911 there were a few stores, dirt streets with no sidewalks, no parks and no street lights. There were vast acres of lemon orchards, elegant two-story homes, the Woman's Club, a Yacht Club, a Carnegie Library and F Street Grammar School. Fredericka Manor, founded by suffragist Emma Saylor, included a hospital. City Trustees held meetings in the newly opened bank. Days before Chula Vista officially became a city, women won the right to vote in California. They were surely among the 209 residents who voted for Chula Vista's incorporation 121 to 88. The founders wrote a charter which has been modified very few times. Before they called themselves a City Council, five elected trustees set policy for the new City. One of the five was chosen by their colleagues to serve as mayor. While facing the hardships of flood and drought, some doubted the wisdom of incorpo­ ration. But the will and determination of the majority prevailed, and the young struggling town evolved into one of California's largest cities. That evolution took us from a thriving agricultural economy to an indus­ trial one, supplying our nation's war and transportation needs. When Chula Vista reached the milestone of its 50-year anniversary in 1961, civic and business Vll

Foreword leaders dreamed of a futuristic hub of skyscrapers and monorails with a major industrial center on the bayfront. In stark contrast, 25 years later, the 75-year old City celebrated its anniversary in 1986 by fondly looking back to its nostalgic agricultural roots. The idyllic suburban model with bedroom communities away from the centers of commerce had become the norm. As we celebrate our Centennial anniversary, we envision a promising future, one that builds on lessons learned from a century of progress. Chula Vista is a mature city with a strong mix of housing, small businesses, a community college, the nation's largest high school district, and California's largest award-winning elementary school district. Our goals have evolved to include environmental and economic sustainability, high quality education, employment pathways to careers, and good jobs where people live. The City's aspirations include a University Park and Research Center on 370 acres,· meeting the need for workers educated in clean technology, engineering, healthcare and research in cross-border infrastructure. Without a doubt, the University Park will become an international economic and educational hub. The building of a world-class bayfront will be an economic catalyst. The table is set for the waterfront that Chula Vistans have heard about since the early 1970s. Demolishing the South Bay Power Plant will open a view of the Bay not seen for 50 years. Restoring its unique marshlands and wildlife preserves will advance our City as an eco-tourism destination. A lot of people have worked to make this community a better place. Together, we are responsible for being the best stewards of the environment, our businesses, schools, parks, libraries and neighborhoods. We all have equal shares in our City's successes or failures. With our first hundred years behind us, now is the time to work together to set the stage for the next century. Writing a city's history assures a record of the past, recalling facts we learn from as we plan the future. The story can inform and inspire us. We hope that reading this book will make people want to record their stories and add to the information the author collected. If readers find gaps in our story, we hope they will help fill in the blanks. Our Heritage Museum and libraries welcome and cherish documents, photos, and artifacts chat will help in writing the City's 125th and the 150th history. It has been said that the faintest ink is stronger than the strongest memory-that's just one reason why it's important to have a written record of our past. Lessons from the past can help prevent tomorrow's mistakes. As with build­ ing personal relationships, building and maintaining a City means continually working at it. Together. -CHERYL Cox, Mayor, and PAMELA BENSOUSSAN, Councilwoman

City of Chula Vista

Vitt

Prologue

Chula Vista Prior to 1911

CHULA

VISTA HAS A LONG AND RICH HISTORY. Before it was a city, it was

part of Rancho de la Nacion. Before the rancho period it was home to the Kumeyaay. And before chat, it was under water. Until the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, which shaped the coastline of Southern California, pri­ mordial ocean waters ebbed and flowed over Chula Vista for millions of years. The oldest fossil from Chula Vista is a squid-like belemnite from the Jurassic age (140 million years ago), found in Proctor Valley in the metasediments at the base of Mocher Miguel; San Miguel Mountain (2,565 ft.) and Ocay Mountain (3,569 ft.) are now part of the Peninsular Range. The same tectonic forces that produced mountains also left behind La Nacion fault line chat crosses modern-day Chula Vista from Glen Abbey to Brandywine Avenue. Locals recount a Big Foot-style popular legend that a hairy "monster" measuring 7 feet tall with 18-inch footprints, once walked Proctor Valley at night, leaving behind a trail of animal carcasses.

Toothless walrus chula­ vistensis fossil 3.5 million years old found in Rancho del Rey, on display in the San Diego Natural History Museum. (From the author's collection.)

Rice Canyon, once called Fossil Canyon, is one of many sites where Chula Vistans have found shell fossils. On a hill near Clear View Elementary School, a large block of fossils testify to the area's rich paleontological history. A toothless walrus found in Rancho del Rey, unlike any other known walrus species, was given the name chulavistensis in honor of its place of discovery. Archeological evidence reveals humans lived in the region since the end of the Ice Age. The San Dieguito people hunted game such as the mammoth with crude spears. The "La Jolla" people settled inland valleys 7,500 to 2,000 years ago. More than 500 La Jolla sites from the Archaic period were found in Chula Vista. Between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, Yuman-speaking people arrived from the

Indian site, Otay.

desert. Ancestors of the Kumeyaay, the Tipai, lived south of San Diego River

(From the author's collection.)

during the Late Prehistoric Period, from 2,000 to 800 years ago. The Tipai used bows and arrows, and made baskets and colorful pottery. They built stone retaining walls and dams, and cultivated grasses and elderberry in what is now Rolling Hills Ranch. In 1769 Father Junipero Serra walked through our area, along the El Camino Real, which became a supply road for Spanish presidios and missions in Lower and Upper California. The road crossed the Ocay River 700 miles north of Loreto and 470 miles south of the last mission built in San Francisco IX

Prologue

Ruins of Arguello Adobe "La Punta" ca. 1946. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

in 1823. It was the major north-south road through southern San Diego. The historic El Camino Real became U.S. 101 in 1928. Spain ruled California from 1769 to 1821. Soldiers and supplies crossed Otay Valley along El Camino Real from Lower California to San Diego. Rancho del Rey was the official presidio ranch. Mission priests occasionally visited the rancheros in Otay, but most of the vast area below Sweetwater River remained _J'taecrc•

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Rancho de la Nacion diserio to support land grant claim of John Forster, filed 1854 and granted 1866. (Public domain.from Bonita Museum.)

home to the Kumeyaay. Then the Mexican revolution in 1821 ended three cen­ turies of Spanish rule. As the presidio and missions declined, Mexican governors in California allowed towns to develop, awarded land grants to private citizens and opened the port to trade with U. S. ships. In 1829 Governor Jose Maria Echeandia granted the Estudillo family rhe Janal and Otay ranchos. He granted to Santiago Arguello the "site of Tia Juana," about 25,000 acres encompassing land on both sides of the future international boundary. "Tijuan" was a Kumeyaay term used in 1827 on a map of Arguello's proposed rancho. Santiago Arguello and his wife, Guadalupe Estudillo, built an adobe house on a bluff above El Camino Real where it crossed the Otay River, known for many years as Rancho de La Punta. From another house in the Tijuana valley in the 1830s and 1840s, Arguello and his son administered as one vast cattle empire all southern ranchos, the Otay, Janal, Melijo, and rhe Tijuana. He abandoned his ranch in the Tijuana Valley after an uprising of rhe Kumeyaay in 1837. For the next 30 years La Punta was rhe only residence in all of southern San Diego. In 1845, Pio Pico, the lase of 12 Mexican governors of Alea California, granted "Rancho del Rey" to Don Juan (John) Forster, husband of Pio Pico's sister, Maria Ysidora Pico. During the Mexican era from 1821 to 1848, chis vast grazing land of 42 square miles became known as Rancho de la Nacion. Forster never lived there but held on to it after the Americans took California in 1848. He sold the property in 1856 and title changed a few rimes before Frank Kimball and his brothers purchased it in 1868. Kimball quickly surveyed his rancho, paying $10,000 for rhe county subdi­ vision map. He sold lots to American settlers attracted by Sweetwater Valley's climate and agricultural potential. When Thomas Sedgwick drew a map of the Oray Valley in 1870, there were already a dozen homes and farms. Enabled by the Homestead Ace of 1862, a

X

Prologue growing stream of seeders arrived from the Midwest, East Coast, and Europe. The census of 1880 listed pioneer farmers of Ocay Mesa and Ocay Valley in a dis­ trict called Monumentville, numbering 50 dwellings and 249 residents. The name "Monument" declined in use in the 1880s, replaced by Tia Juana City and Ocay. Santa Fe Railroad owners formed the San Diego Land and Town Company in 1881. Frank Kimball turned over much of his National Ranch to the rail­ road syndicate for a transcontinental terminal and stock in the new company. Devoting himself to promoting its growth, he bought Janal Ranch from the Estudillos, and in 1883 negotiated the purchase of Ocay Ranch. In 1885 the long-anticipated completion of the transcontinental railroad was celebrated. A spurt in growth followed as thousands came by train in search of land and opportunity. The Land and Town Company sent William Green Dickinson to

Frank Kimball and Col. William Dickinson. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

National City. Dickinson, an experienced town builder for the railroad, created more than 80 towns along the Santa Fe line. He opened the company office in National City in 1886, announcing three historic decisions: plans to construct a dam on che Sweetwater River, build a railroad from the dam to the border, and subdivide the land into orchards. Construction of Sweetwater Dam began chat same year. Dickinson's second project, the National City and Ocay Railroad, the first commuter railroad in the San Diego region, was the precursor of today's trolley. The line came east over Olivewood Terrace at 24th and L Streets where Col. Dickinson built his house, then south to Sweetwater Junction at 30th and Edgemere Road. Dickinson's third goal, to create a city of orchards, was also under way. The name "Chula Vista" appeared for the first time on the front page of the National City Record, June 9, 1887. Dickinson envisioned a quiet rural village of wealthy landowners purchas­ ing large orchards and stately mansions. By 1888 a 5,000-pound steam roller smooched streets, and crews planted 7,000 trees. Dickinson filed the Chula Vista subdivision map March 1888, with a grid of 688 five-acre lots and streets 80 feet wide. A five-acre lot cost $2,500. Dickinson required every owner to build a house within six months for not less than $2,000. By the end of 1888 fifty homes were built or were under construction. The Land and Town Company established Horticultural Headquarters at Third Avenue and K Street to maintain and expand the company's orange Davidson & Second Avenue, ca.1908. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Col. Dickinson's Home, ca. 2008. (Courtesy City of Chula Vista, photo by Ryan Bethke.)

Prologue orchards. Soon it was discovered that Eureka lemons ripened earlier, thriving in the cool coastal climate. Lemon cuttings grafted onto young orange trees produced a hearty deep-rooted lemon tree. The company planted over 3,000 acres, and Chula Vista became known as " The Lemon Capital of the World." Dickinson's plan prevailed during the early years. But Chula Vista still had dirt roads and only the bare essentials of a village. There was no electricity or gas, sewers, public parks, trash removal or fire depart­ ment, no library or churches-a Sunday school met in the general store. Melville's Chula Vista Realty Office. ca. 1910. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

From its beginning, Chula Vista benefited from the desire of private citizens to create clubs and organizations to meet the community's needs. The Chula Vista Village Improvement Society met in the schoolhouse starting in 1889 to maintain and beautify the streets. The first church was constructed by residents next to the school in 1894 on a lot donated by the Land and Town Company. The 1890 Census counted a population of 289, listing Chula Vista as a "precinct" of National City, which had incorporated in 1897. Settlers built a short pier in 1889 at the end of D Street for sailboating. The Land and Town Company helped build a larger F Street pier in 1897. The Chula Vista Yacht Club formed in 1898, adding a clubhouse on the F Street pier in 1901. Unfortunately, in 1893, a national depression dried up capital investment. A big winter storm in 1895, followed by a seven-year drought from 1897 to 1904, ruined many orchards. The town that emerged in 1904 was small and fragile. The town site around Third Avenue and F Street had only a few buildings, including the railroad depot, post office, and general store. A druggist, black­ smith, plumber, and dressmaker also occupied the town center. Fruit growers owned packing plants on Third Avenue, F Street, and K Street, employing several dozen laborers. Drought and lawsuits caused the Land and Town Company to dissolve in 1902, but a new group of landowners emerged to shape the growth of Chula Vista. Charles Mohnike bought John Davidson's home, one of the original 1888 orchard houses. Mohnike surveyed 10 acres along F Street in 1907, plotted new streets and created 52 lots measuring 50 by 133 feet. This was the first subdivision in Chula Vista for small homes. Edward Melville acquired property for subdivisions, opening Chula Vista Realty on Third Avenue in 1908. Sixteen more subdivisions were filed in the next four years by Mohnike, Melville, and others. In 1908 Melville helped organize the new Chula Vista Improvement Club. Other members included bankers Bishop Edmonds and Greg Rogers. Improve­ ment Club members urged incorporation as a city. They wanted paved streets and sidewalks and understood this required raising money with long-term bonds. National City was issuing bonds, but Chula Vista had to incorporate to do the same.

XII

-DR. STEVEN SCHOENHERR

-- 1911-2011 -­

CHULA VISTA

CENTENNIAL

The Decade in Brief... The city began in 1911 with only a few stores, no sidewalks, parks, sewers, or street lights. But it did have hundreds of 5-acre lemon orchards, many elegant, two-story residences, plus the Fredericka Home, the Womans Club, Yacht Club, Congregational Church, Carnegie Library, and the F Street School. • Ed Melville built subdivisions, Clarence Austin carried the mail, Karl Helm opened the first auto garage. • The Great Freeze of 1913 and Flood of 1916 nearly devastated the new city. • The First World War brought recovery, thanks to employment at the Hercules potash plant on Gunpowder Point, and the booming celery industry. • The ladies in the Red Cross helped the wounded at Camp Kearny and the airmen at Ream Field. • At the end of the decade, E Street was the first street to be paved.

The Chula Vista City Band played for many civic events during the first decade. In this photograph of 1911 at the Herman Hotel, Walter Trook holds the tuba in the back row, far right. In front of Walter are trombone players Carl Boltz, far right, and Ernest Campbell, second from right. By 1928, the band had 34 members with James Seebold as conductor and was paid $50 per month by the City Council for weekly concerts. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

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Elected Members of the Board of Trustees ( 1 9 1 1 - 1 930, appointed Mayor 1 926- 1 927) • E.T. S M I T H ( 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 4) • C H A R LES BO LTZ ( 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 4) ( 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 4) • CHARLES AUSTI N ( 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 4) • A.C. E I TZ E N ( 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8) • G EO R G E G EY E R ( 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8) W.A. M O N R O E ( 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8) • R.J . WHARTON ( 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 6) • E L M E R NOYES ( 1 9 1 6- 1 924) • J U DS O N B E N T ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 926) F RA N K H O W E ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 922) • T H OMAS J. H. M c K N I G H T ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 922)

L U C I U S B A R N ES

• G R EG G ROG ERS • •

C HULA

VI STA O F F I C I A L LY B E C A M E A C I T Y on October 17, 1911, by a

popular vote of 121 to 88. The results were ratified by the State of California in mid-November: and the five elected members of the Board of Trustees met for

The Old Grammar School and the Congregational Church on F Street in 1911. (Courtesy Chula Vista Middle School.)

the first time later that month. The first City Hall was the small building built in 1910 for the People's Bank. At the first meeting the Trustees defined the area and boundaries of the new city. From the bay shoreline on the west, east to Sixth Avenue (Hilltop Drive) south to Fourth Street (L Street) and north to C Street, the city was about 5 square miles. The street names from Colonel Dickinson's 1888 map remained in use until changes were made in 1922 and 1941. The city limits did not yet include Otay or Sweetwater valleys, or the great expanse of rolling hills to the east, where several hundred families lived on farms and ranches. There were enterprises under way that would become important to the future of Chula Vista. Elisha Babcock invested heavily in Otay Valley to supply water to his Hotel del Coronado. He bought the Janal rancho and built a dam across the Otay River, creating the Lower Otay Lake. Babcock built three hunting lodges around this lake for his guests at the hotel, and located his own lodge and ranch near the dam. He mined gravel and stone from the river bottom near the water wells a mile south of the Salt Works. Henry Fenton took over the gravel pit in 1911, at the western end of the valley. He incorporated

Fenton mining operations in Otay Valley. (Courtesy Fenton Archives.)

the Fenton-Sumption-Barnes Company and began mining operations, building a narrow-gauge railroad to haul sand and rock dug from the river bottom with a steam shovel. Third Avenue from City Hall to Farrow's General Store became the vibrant core of a bustling down­ town. The west side featured Witkowski's paint store, Skinner hardware, the pool hall, cigar store, and the post office. On the east side, the bakery and meat market were in the Melville building, along with the

5

Fredericka Home. McNabb Hospital, right, built in 1913. (Photo courtesy Chula Vista Middle School.)

city's second bank, the Chula Vista Scace Bank. Next door was a smaller office building with H. DeForrest Smith's drugstore and Peter's grocery. Ac Center Street the old Kindberg harness shop, a two-story wood building, was transformed into che Raymond Restaurant. On the corner the Chula Vista Realty building was outfitted with a round metal ring chat served as the city's fire alarm. The Fredericka Home for the Aged, founded by Emma Saylor in National City in 1908, graced the north end of Third Avenue. An endowment from Henry Timken allowed her to buy the 10-acre prop­ erty in 1909. It was appropriately named in honor New palms were planted in the center plazas on Third Avenue about 1920. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

of his wife, Fredericka, who died in December 1908. After another 5 acres were purchased, the property was landscaped, and the two-story house on chis addition became the headquarters. Henry Timken's daughter Amelia began the practice of donating a bungalow-by 1913 there were 14 of the small cottages on the property. The Fredericka Home became nationally famous, and Emma Saylor was elected president of the local chapter of the American Woman's League in 191 1.

Woman's National Daily/ Weekly wrote chat "Mrs. Saylor, single handed and without capital, has built up in San Diego probably the most successful and best conducted home for the aged in America." Emma was a dynamic leader, but she did not do it "single handed"; many Chula Vista citizens contributed to the home's success. In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. McNabb donated $85,000 for a hospital at Fredericka-Chula Vista's first-featuring 52 beds, an X-ray room, and a maternity ward. Ac its dedication ceremony in 1913, former state senator Marcin Ward said there was no better equipped hospital in Southern California. (The hospital proved unprofitable and was closed to the outside community in 1916.) North of the Fredericka Home, in 191 1, John Boal and the San Diego Land Company developed Sea Vale, a new subdivision chat became known for its 6

1911-1919 modern architecture and wealthy homeowners. Many Sea Vale homes were single-story Craftsman bungalows, the most popular style for new homes in chis decade. The Rosebank railroad station at D Street and Second Avenue was named for the wild, rambling roses that grew in the area. Local teenagers rode the train to high school in San Diego, and the girls would gather rose petals at the station to roll into beads for necklaces. The San Diego Land Company began developing the large 40-acre Rosebank subdivision in 191 1, but only a few houses would be built along the new street of Minot Avenue. James Bulmer, a Nova Scotian, built an elaborate home on Second Avenue across from Marcella Darling's home. Bulmer wanted a California-style house befitting its location high on the bluff overlooking Sweetwater Valley. Architect Laurie Davidson Cox designed a two-story mansion with a red-tile roof and white plastered arches. Built in 1913, the Bulmer home was the first Spanish Colonial Revi�al residence in Chula Vista-a full two years before the Panama­ California Exposition in San Diego would popularize chis architectural style. The citizens of Chula Vista were excited about the Panama-California Exposition. Ella Penfold, president of the Woman's Club, arranged for a special preview tour of Balboa Park in 1913. The recently organized Chula Vista Woman's Club met in the homes of its first 28 members until it could build a clubhouse. Ella's husband, Henry Penfold, was Secretary of the Exposition. John D. Spreckels coaxed him from Nebraska, where he had organized the successful Omaha International Exposition of 1898. The Penfolds bought a lemon orchard at Fourth and D. While Henry took the streetcar into San Diego every day

Members of the Chula Vista Woman's Club visited the incomplete Exposition in Balboa Park on October 31, 1913. They were guests of Mrs. H. J. Penfold, Club President and her husband, who was Secretary of the Panama-California Exposition of 1915. (Courtesy Woman's Club.)

1911-1919 to work on the Expo, Ella joined the committee that went door-to-door recruiting members for the new club. It was easy to get to the Expo on the new electric trol­ ley lines. John D. Spreckels bought the NC&O and the Coronado Beltline in 1909, as additions to the San Diego Southern Railroad in the Spreckels transit system. Chula Vistans could catch a ride from any of the streetcar stops on Third Avenue and visit the playgrounds Spreckels built at Mission Cliff Gardens, Belmont Park in Mission Beach, and Ramona's Marriage Place in Old Town. They could ride one of the Spreckels ferries across the bay from his Broad­ way Pier in San Diego to Coronado and take the trolley to Herman Hotel, 5 0 F St. The resort hotel attracted tourists visiting Hotel del Coronado, burned down ca. 1913. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

his Hotel del Coronado (bought from Babcock in 1894) or Tent City. From Coronado visitors could return to Chula Vista on the Beltline to visit the luxurious Herman Hotel on F Street, which burned down around 1913. Spreckels had begun construction of his San Diego and Arizona Rail­ road seven years earlier and by 1915 express trains ran daily to Tijuana, where he opened a race track at the Lower California Jockey Club. Soon after, the old train depot was replaced by a new SD&A depot at Third and Madrona. The many subdivisions developed along Broadway reflected the growing importance of the main highway from San Diego to Mexico. The Chula Vista Realty subdivision on Broadway and the Ratcliffe subdivision on E Street were

The Perry Brothers store and small rai lroad depot on Third Avenue at Center Street i n 1 897. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

both developed by John and Lilly Ratcliffe, who advertised themselves as the "oldest firm" selling real estate in the city. Their Chula Vista Realty office at Third and F was well-known to everyone in town due to its huge sign extending into the street.

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Valois Butler, age 94, stands in the yard with Verna and Elma Melville at the Melville home. (Courtesy Dorothy and John Helm.)

Edward Melville, also of the Chula Vista Realty Company, sold his 20-acre orchard on E Street and Fifth, and built a large house at the corner of E and Fourth where he and Lucy raised their family. Lucy's father, Valois Buder, joined with W.J.S. Browne in 1912 to develop the original Melville orchard into the Brightwood subdivision at E and Fifth. The twenty-one lots were arranged around the new streets of Brightwood and Flower, the latter no doubt named by Lucy Melville, who was an avid gardener and would become well-known for her floral exhibits at rhe Woman's Club annual flower shows. The San Diego Land Company began developing the area around the train

station at Third and J in 1908 with its large Chula Vista Villa tracts. Several property owners subdivided their 5-acre orchards into small subdivisions around a single street. One, Charles Austin, a City Trustee, put eighteen lots on the street he named after his hometown of Mankato, Minnesota. Charles Austin was also the father of the city's first rural mail carrier, Clarence E. Austin. Clarence rode his route on horseback in 1910, going out early in rhe morning to cover an 18-mile route, up and down Chula Vista's streets and avenues from Sweetwater to Otay Valley. There were no house numbers or street

9

1911-1919 addresses until the 1920s, so he had to know everyone's name in town and where they lived. At first, Clarence could get the job done every day by noon, and he would have time to work on the family lemon ranch. The lone mail horse was soon augmented with a buggy and for rainy days Clarence used a green, box-like delivery wagon. In 1913 the government ordered the wagon painted red. But when this conflicted with the color of fire engines, Clarence had to again paint his wagon green. In 1914 he switched to a Model T Ford and sold the horse and buggy to George Downs, who later said that when he drove the horse and buggy down Main Street in Otay, the animal still stopped at every mailbox. Clarence Austin and his mail wagon, ca. 1910. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Charles Austin and his wife, Hattie, were deeply involved in the community life of the new town and were members of the Congregational Church. Hattie was active in the Ladies' Aid Society, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.), the Quilters, and was a charter member of the Woman's Club. The club was established in 1913 by a committee of the Chula Vista Improvement Club. Their major effort in 1914 was "Making Chula Vista Clean and Beautiful," as Laura Crockett later wrote. "The biggest affair was planting day. More than one hundred men and women volunteered and planted thousands of geraniums along Chula Vista

Old Grammar School. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

streets. Subsequently most of these plants died but the community spirit born that day lived on."

____, ___.. L =

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The new F Street School opened in 1916 with seven classrooms. It served the community until 1975. (Courtesy of John and Dorothy Helm.)

The F Street Grammar School, a landmark since the 1890s, was now overcrowded, so in 1915 the Board of Education built a new elementary school at Fourth Avenue and F Street. On the old Grammar School site, a handsome library donated by the Carnegie Corporation was built. The first Library Board of Trustees was established in 1912 with 1,168 books, collected by the Reading Room Associa­ tion since 1891. The recently formed Library Association put the book collection in the care of Harry Welch, who loaned out books only at night. The need for a new library was clear. Flora Johnson Flanders was a founder of the Reading Room Association and presi­

Carnegie Library on F Street. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

dent of the PTA that led the movement in 1913 for the new school. Flora's son Raymond collected statistics to make a formal application to Carnegie. The Trustees made Raymond the first paid librarian and with his help, the City received a grant in 1916 of $10,000 to build the library, on the condition that the City support its operation. The Carnegie Library, opened on May 10, 1917, was replaced by a new library in 1955. The new school and library contributed to F Street becoming the city's cen­ tral axis. Charles Mohnike established the Chula Vista Lumber Company next to the church in 1910, and Karl Helm in 1912 started the first auto garage next door. Herbert Bryant owned the Chula Vista Auto Company on F Street near Landis. The old McCoy Hotel was across the street from Byers grocery store. Zettie Byers married John Morgan when he was driving a wagon delivering milk to her father's store. John's construction company would help build the F Street School and many other buildings over the next twenty years. On the bay where F Street terminated stood the old pier built by Land and Town Company in 1897. The Chula Vista Yacht Club constructed a clubhouse at the end of the pier and members launched their boats every weekend to sail 11

1911-1919

Chula Vista Pier with Yacht Club at end of pier. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

around the bay or across to South Cove on the Strand for a picnic. Regattas and races were popular events, and the Cheney Cup was awarded annually from 1911 to 1915 to the winner of a race over a 3-mile triangular course. Several club members joined to design a sloop class known as the Chula Vista One Design, built at the Jensen Boat Yard in San Diego. These boats were 28 feet long with a mast 28 feet high and a 10-foot bowsprit and were designed for racing in the shallow coastal waters of the bay. The Yacht Club came to a sudden end with the Great Flood of 1916. The flood was a low point for the newly incorporated city, having followed a series of other natural disasters. The "Big Freeze" of 1913 destroyed most of the young lemon trees when a cold front swept down from the north and the tem­ perature dropped below freezing for two days. On January 6 the temperature was 22 degrees, "the coldest day in the written history of San Diego," according to the San Diego Union. "This is said to be the first time in the history of fishing at San Diego that the men have been unable to go out on account of frozen nets." On January 7, Russell C. Allen in Bonita reported "the temperature in my or­ chards went as low as 13 degrees above zero. Fruit on my older trees was almost a total loss." Charles Stuart, who owned 47 acres of lemons and a packing house in Chula Vista, said the crop loss would amount to $4 million over two years. "Never before has San Diego experienced such cold. Never before in 40 years has a killing frost been reported. Within a radius of 125 miles of Los Angeles, smudge pots by the thousands smoldered or blazed, emitting dense clouds of smoke." The orchards in Chula Vista used a different kind of smudge pot, which emitted heat rather than smoke, but none of these emergency devices were able to save the lemon crop. Elmer Kinmore owned orchards on Fifth Avenue and was wiped out in the freeze of 1913. "It was the hardest freeze San Diego has had, I believe. The ice was so thick youngsters were skating in the streets."

12

1911-1919

Chula Vista was a land of endless rows of lemon trees. This view looking west shows the orchards between the cluster of houses along F Street at upper left and E Street at upper right. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

13

Tlie Flood The drought that began i n 1912 created a need for water throughout the county. The City of San Diego h i red Charles Hatfield, a wel l-known "Rai nmaker" to build a tower near the Morena Reservoi r to seed the atmosphere with rai n-i nducing chem icals. Hatfield's tower coi n cided with a major Pacific storm that produced 1 9.2 i nches of rai n in Otay from Jan uary 14 to Jan uary 30, 1 916. Throughout Southern Cal iforn ia, the i n tense rai n storm flooded river val leys, washed out bridges and roads, and cut off telephone and rai lroad service. According to the official Department of I n terior report, "The rai n on Jan uary 27 was extremely heavy, and by noon the water had risen so h igh that Rudolph Wueste, i n charge of the Otay dam, deemed it advisable to open the outlet gate. Th is fai led to check the rise, and it was real ized that the dam would probably be overtopped before eveni ng. Men were accordi ngly dispatched to warn residents i n the val ley to move to h igher ground. Word was also sent out from the telephone exchange at National City. Most of the i n habitants too k advantage of this warn i ng. A t 4:45 p . m . the water had reached the top of the dam and had seeped through and fi l led the boxes that were sunk in the top to al low an exa m i nation of the steel core." Five men set out that afternoon to warn val l ey residents, but F. E. Bai rd, a laborer at Otay Dam, would be the only one of the five to survive. He was able to get 6 m i les below the dam before it broke and had to swi m for h is l i fe. One of the four who did not survive was Wi l l iam George Gal lagher, a pi pe-wal ker at the dam whose body was recovered the next day. W. C. Darce, a U n ited States Deputy Marshall, rode out on horseback to warn residents in the l ower val ley. Fortunately, many left the val ley during the afternoon before the dam gave way.

The dam had been overflowi ng si nce 4:45 p.m. on Th ursday, Jan uary 27: "Water began run n i ng down the lower face on the east side of the dam at approxi mately 4:50 p.m. About this time several spouts or smal l streams of water appeared on the lower face of the dam, on one i n stance loosen i ng a large boulder which rol l ed down to the bottom. From this time on, the destruction was very rapid. The lower face of the fi l l q u ickly melted away, th us removing the support from the core wal l . A t 5:05 p.m. t h e tension was s o great that t h e steel diaphragm tore from the top at the center, and the dam opened outward l i ke a pai r of gates. The released water rushed through and fi l led the canyon to a point approxi mately 20 feet below the top of the dam. It req u i red 2 and one half hours for the reservoi r to em pty. A h uge wal l of water, variously descri bed as from 6 to 20 feet h igh, rushed down the val ley, coveri ng the distance from the dam site to Pal m City, about 1 0 m i l es, i n 48 m i n utes, carrying a l l before it." " I t was a terri ble sight," said Bai rd. "Trees were swept away l i ke twigs. Noth ing could have stood in the path of that seethi ng, twisti ng, roaring wal l o f water. The noise was deafeni ng. Where t h e great stream struck obstacles, the spray went i n to the a i r al most o u t o f sight. I do n o t bel i eve that h uman life

was l ost above the point where I stood, for every rancher either left h i s home with h is fam i ly w h i l e I was there or pro m i sed to do so soon. I c l i m bed the h i l l to the house of a rancher named Bland where I spent the n ight. This morn i ng [Jan uary 28] the Otay val l ey was devastated. The river was sti l l run n i ng, but the houses were a l l gone and once prosperous ranches were noth i n g but waste p laces." People who l ived i n the area at the time said the water crashed agai nst the rai l road em ban k­ ment on the north side of the val l ey. The fo rce of the water crushed houses in Otay or knocked them off their foundations. A Pal m City resident was q uoted i n a newspaper: "A terri ble wave come. I heard a great roar . . . there was a crash, a boom and a m ighty swish . . . al most before I knew it the water was upon me . . . The water towered what seemed to be a h undred feet i n the a i r . . . ." Very few structures survived the flood. Th ree are sti l l standing today: t h e Otay Baptist Ch urch on Zen i th Street, the Clark b u i l d i ng, and the Ban ks' house on Main Street. Rudol p h Wueste said the dam "crum pl ed l i ke so m uch sugar. About 20 feet of the crest went the fi rst time. It went with scarcely a noise. The steel core parted i n the m iddle and swung back to the ban k on either side l i ke a pai r of giant doors and the flood

Boiler plate carried 10 miles by flood, Otay Dam. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Daneri wine cask found in the Otay Valley after the 1916 flood. (Courtesy Fenton Archives.)

s l i p ped out i n to the gorge a l m ost without a sound. Then the dam began to wear down gradually and at 9 o'clock the last of it went out. I t has cut out an i m mense V-shaped gap clean back to the sol i d rock. The gorge is about 400 feet h igh at the top and for a height of 70 feet its sides have been pol ished as clean as a concrete wal l ." Aure l i a de B i n cenzi remem bers her father- i n - law, Man uel Daneri, was i n h i s wine cel lar when the flood came. "The wi nery was u nderground out i n the val l ey. It was a great big cement wine cel lar. [Mrs. Man uel Daneri] cal l ed to [Manuel) to come i n t o eat, b u t when M r. Daneri came u p t h e steps they looked down the val l ey and they saw 40 feet (sic) of water com i ng down on them. My father- i n - l aw and mother- i n - law ran up the side of the h i l l and did not enter the kitchen; but they shouted and shouted to the others, i nside to come out, that the water was com i ng. But they didn't hear them. When the water came down, the house and a l l the people i nside were washed away down the val l ey and lost. There were about five or six h i red men, the man who came to warn them about the dam, the housekeeper, [ Rosa Mosto] and her brother, J o h n Mosto, and they a l l were l ost. Rosa Mosto had been worki ng fo r the Dan eris fo r 36 years. Her other brother, Joe Mosto, was not there that day and h e l ived fo r years afterward in town. The Daneris lost everyth i ng-a l l t h e i r w i n e, thei r ranch -everyt h i ng they had." Adm i ral Wi l l iam Fullam of the Pacific Reserve Fleet was sent to h e l p restore o rder in the val ley, and landed sai lors and mari n es from wars h i ps to p reven t looti ng. The S a n Diego Union reported three days after the flood that "the lower Otay Val l ey was

an armed cam p today. Mari nes and sai lors from the battlesh i p Oregon and the cruisers M ilwaukee and South Dakota patrol led a l l approaches and penetrated i n to the val ley, with orders to shoot looters on sight. Each carried twenty rounds of a m m u n ition. The mari nes under Capt. Charles T. Westcott, J r., camped i n the val ley. The sai lors under Ensign Hami lton O'Brien of the M ilwaukee took quarters i n the l i ttle brick schoolhouse at Otay City. The U n i ted States destroyer Lawrence acted as base sh i p and a hospital sq uad from the M ilwaukee operated in conj u n ction with both forces." Howard Morin, a young staff reporter for the San Diego Union, was sent to i nvestigate in a flying boat piloted by Raymund V. Morris of the Curtiss Aviation Cam p on North Island, and "they found noth i ng but mud and desolation where the dam had stood. That fl ight, on Friday, Jan uary 28, was one of the fi rst cases of the use of ai rcraft to 'cover' a disaster." The flood completely removed the topsoi l from the val ley, leaving farms worthless. The official report noted that agricultural damage in San Diego County was $ 1 .5 m i l l ion. "An exam ple is afforded by a tract of land i n Otay Val l ey formerly used as a truck garden and val ued at $ 1 ,000 per acre; after the flood 11 acres of this land were sold at a foreclosure sale for $ 1 00." Officially, twenty-two people died i n San Diego County due to the flood and most of these were in the Otay Val ley. The San Diego coroner bel ieved fifty people died in Otay, but many bodies washed out to sea and were never found. Eleven Japanese farmers died; many l iving m i les up the val l ey were not warned i n time. According to h istorian Susan Hasegawa, the tragedy had a profound effect on the

Damaged buildings in Otay after the flood. (Courtesy Bonita Museum.)

Japanese com m u n ity: "The deaths and fol l owing burials were a sti m u l us for the leaders to start a Buddhist Temple i n San Diego." The San Diego & Southeastern Railway Co. had 92 m i les of track before 1916. 'The flood washed out 1 9.65 m i l es, or more than 21 per cent of the total track. The fai l ure of the Lower Otay dam resulted in the loss of a l l tracks in Otay Val ley. The total esti­ mated damage i n the eastern and southern divisions was $31 8,626 including $30,000 for rol l i ng stock." The Western Salt Company lost 170 acres of salt ground, 2,500 tons of processed salt, a large q uantity of bri ne in the ponds, and most of its mach i nery, with total damages of $85,500. The Fenton sand and gravel plant was a total loss, and "there is not an i ndication on the surface to show its location. The val ue of the eq ui pment was $35,000. The soi l from 100 acres of bottom land, purchased for about $450 per acre, was enti rely removed." The Sweetwater Dam overflowed but did not break. Damage i n the val l ey was less severe than in

Otay. The flood destroyed water pi pes and bridges and washed out rai l road tracks and buildi ngs i n Sweetwater Val ley, but t h e lemon orchards survived and no deaths were reported. The City Trustees issued an emergency resol ution "that a great public calamity, consisti ng of extraordi­ nary floods and storms, amounting to a disaster, has occurred i n and adjoining said city for ten days i m mediately preceding the 5th day of February, 1916, and the effects of which now exist, whereby rai l ­ roads a n d rai l road bridges, wagon roads a n d bridges in and adjoi n i ng said city have been destroyed, and whereby a l l usual means of travel for the citizens of said city i n and out of said city have been destroyed, and the water supply of said city seriously i m paired, and the health and property of the citizens of said city endangered; Said Board of Trustees, by reason thereof, do hereby declare and determ i n e that public interest and necessity demand the i m medi­ ate expenditure of public money to safeguard the health and property of the citizens of said city."

1911-1919 After the freeze came the heat. The headlines of September 18, 1913, read "State Shrivels Under Fiery Breath of Blast From Burning Desert. Thousands Held in Clutch of Sweltering Hear" and "Yesterday was the hottest day in the history of San Diego, at 1:30 pm the downtown temperature was 110 degrees." The heat caused forest fires in the back country and killed new growth on the lemon trees, as well as rabbits and chickens. These disasters changed the direction of many lives in Southern California. Property values plummeted and Chula Vista almost went bankrupt. The tele­ phones were removed from City Hall to save money, and petitions to disincorpo­ rare the City were circulated. The NC&O railroad went out of business, and the lemon packing plants in National City and Bonita were closed. George Cox lost his orchard in Riverside and moved his family to Chula Vista, becoming foreman of the new Chula Vista Cirrus Association packing plant on K Street. Gladys Downs remembers her family had no income from lemons for six years due to the freeze and flood. The 10-acre orchard at Fourth and F that belonged to Vera Reynolds' father was wiped om by the freeze and never recovered. The land was later purchased by the City and became the site of the new City Hall in 1951. Many growers changed from lemons to celery after 1916. The winter vari­ ety had been introduced by Japanese farmers in 1907. The Muraoka family pioneered the use of cucumber tents and fertilizer from the San Diego Bay fish canneries. Planting the celery under small white paper tents protected the seedlings and accelerated growth, yielding two harvests per year rather than one. Claude V. Brown moved to Chula Vista in 1911 to raise celery and ocher crops. He sold his vegetables at the Farmer's Market in San Diego and would take his children with him on the wagon piled high with celery and cucumbers and tomatoes, leaving before dawn with only a kerosene lamp shining on the dirt road. By 1920 there were 130 acres of celery planted in the city, and Brown became known as the "celery king." Celery was only one of the products chat brought the new city back to life-another product was gunpowder. The First World War, which began in Europe in 1914, created a demand for American food and munitions. The Hercules Powder Company built a plant on Chula Vista's northern bayfront to process kelp into cordite for British guns. Although no war guns were ever fired on Chula Vista's shores, the tidelands that jutted into the bay around the Hercu­ les plant came to be called "Gunpowder Point." The large kelp plant with its 156 disrilling tanks was built in only six months at a cost of $7 million. Operations began in July 1916 with 1,100 employees working 24 hours a day in 12-hour shifts. Three giant kelp harvesters remained at sea extracting raw material from kelp beds along the Southern California coast. The chopped kelp was pumped to a fleet of 9 barges and 4 towboats chat brought the cargo to a new 1,200-foot pier where it was piped to the factory. The key to the whole process was fermentation, much like making beer.

19

1911-1919 Heat and chemicals were applied to the kelp slurry in the 50,000-gallon redwood tanks, each 25 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep. The tank farm was the largest in che world and covered most of the 30-acre factory site. Using a new and secret process, a variety of produces were extracted from the kelp, including potash and acetone to make gunpowder, and ethyl acetate and ethyl anhydride for airplane paint. Black smoke from the early boilers filled che sky over che city until new boilers were installed in January 1917. Rolin Downs described the work as dangerous, especially around Hercules kelp-treatment tanks on Gunpowder Point during World War I. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

che acetone solvents, which could cause blindness. The worse pare of the job was enduring a smell bad enough "co drive a dog off a guc-wagon." Bue che pay was good, $165 per month, and attracted young men from Ocay to San Diego. After the war, the plant closed but each worker received a " War Workers Badge" and commendation letter from the Ordnance Department for their "viral pare in the prosecution of the war, second only co the pare played by che man in actual contact with che enemy." Those who did not work at Hercules, or at Concrete Ship in National Cicy, joined the Army. Charley Roberts enlisted in 1918, served in France, returned to become a lemon orchard foreman, and subsequently the first custodian of Chula Vista Junior High School, remaining for twenty-five years. Ray Downs, unlike his two brothers who worked at Hercules, enlisted in the Army Signal Corps serving in France with his Otay neighbors David and Howard Banks. Zeccie Byers' brother Jack served in the Army bur her sister Jenny died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Jack returned to become che City's first motorcycle policeman. When Alf Lansley enlisted in 1918 he was sent to the new Army Air Corps base on Otay Mesa known as East Field. Lansley worked as a mechanic for che planes that practiced bombing on land known as the " Bombing Range," taken from che Kuebler ranch by eminent domain. The field was abando.ned after che war, but revived in 1927 by the Navy and became Browri. Field in W WII. The women of Chula Vista contributed to the war effort in many ways. Annie Hazard and Orra Place were hired by che Army co reach Spanish classes for the enlisted men at Ream Field. Orra spent many years in Mexico and founded Chula Vista's Fiesta de la Luna in 1930. Both were charter members of the Woman's Club when the aviators of Ream Field were invited to a dance at the club's Third Avenue Farmer's Hall, in March 1919, hosted by City post­ master Georgia Wiard. The club formed a local chapter of che American Red Cross in 1917 and with help from Harriet Cushman established a headquarters on Center Street. Here they taught first aid classes and raised money to hire a community nurse. Center Street was fenced off in October 1917 for a carnival, and women participated in the Liberty Loan parades.

20

1911-1919 The ladies joined other chapters in San Diego in the many activities of the Red Cross. Emily Haines was known as the champion helmet knitter, urging friends in the Community Church to help with their needles and sewing machines. One of the most successful projects was Cookie Day for soldiers in the hospital at Camp Kearny. On May 19, 1917, Alice Sallmon led a motor convoy of all the Red Cross ladies 16 miles north to the camp and "hundreds of home-made cookies were placed on the tables for 300 soldier boys who enjoyed chem as dessert at the evening meal." Chula Vista emerged from che war with a growing population and a pros­ perous economy. The Trustees decided after years of debate to pave the main streets with concrete 5 inches thick and 18 feet wide. E Street was the first street to be finished with cement from Third to National Avenue. Over the next year, che Fairchild-Gilmore-Wilton Company paved F and J Streets and Third Avenue. No longer would the ladies need sawdust on the streets to get through che mud to Farmer's Hall. Paved streets attracted investment, and new buildings would soon appear on both sides of the improved streets. Soldiers and sailors returning from the war had good reason to choose Chula Vista as the best place to start a new life. ♦ Home of the first Mayor, Edwin Thomas Smith Sr., constructed in 1912 at 6 16 Del Mar. Mayor Smith is the hatless man standing in the center of his family, enjoying with gusto a feast from his own watermelon patch. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

The Decade in Brief . . . Chula Vistans in 1920 witnessed the arrival of engineers, businessmen, and architects, as the young city entered a decade of growth and economic development. • For the first time, residents enjoyed modern infrastructure-such as a sewer plant and dump to service the rapid growth of new housing. • A golf course and Country Club designed by world-class architect Richard Requa

would be the envy of the region. • The waterfront hosted a plethora of industry including cottonseed, hemp, salt, ethyl gasoline,

chemicals, and a magnesite factory. • Dairy ranches and lemon orchards dotted the landscape in Sweetwater Valley. • In 1929 the Border Patrol installed district headquarters in the new Castle Park subdivision. • Volunteers formed a fire department and baseball team, and City Trustees paved the streets. • Prohibition-era Tijuana brought heavy trqffic to Broadway, and gas stations and

auto courts to Main Street and Broadway. • The Seville Theater and a new City Hall opened downtown. Border gate at the Mexican line, ca. 1925. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

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Chula Vista 1 920- 1 929 (city boundary in red) with subdivisions (green) was 3,449.6 acres in size. Population in 1 920 was 1 ,7 1 8, an increase of 1 03% from the 1 9 1 0 population of 846.

Elected Members of the Board of Trustees

( 1 9 1 1 - 1 930, appointed Mayor 1 926- 1 927) • W I L L I A M PETERS ( 1 922-1 930, appointed Mayor ( 1 924-1 93 7) • E L M E R N O Y E S ( 1 9 1 6- 1 924) • J U DS O N B E N T ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 926) • F R A N K H O W E ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 922) • TH OMAS McKN I G H T (Appointed Mayor, 1 9 1 8- 1 922) • H E R B E RT S H A W ( 1 922-1 926) • J A M E S SCOTT ( 1 926-1 930) • C H A R L ES W E N TWORTH ( 1 924- 1 92 7) • W . M . H A W K I N S ( 1 92 7- 1 930) L U C I U S B A R N ES

1 927-1 930) •

W I L L I A M LYO N S

FRED

STA F F O R D AND H I S YOUNG FAM I LY belonged to the

influx of new residents drawn to this idyllic city of opportunity. An engineer from Michigan and an Army officer during WWI, Stafford worked at the Concrete Ship Company. At war's end he bought the Engebretson house and lemon orchard on Fifth Avenue. Stafford added more land and new crops, leased out celery fields, and built greenhouses to grow lima beans faster. Like his British neighbor, George Spencer, he became a florist, develop­ ing bulbs that won prizes at the county fair. Another young man from the Midwest, Robert Conyers, prospered in Chula Vista after the war. He too bought a lemon orchard but soon invested in lumber. Conyers built a home at Fourth and D near another newcomer, Ralph Pray. The men formed a real estate development partnership and built homes, subdivisions, and downtown stores. The two became civic leaders and in 1928 Conyers created what became the area's largest insurance company.

The Stafford House at 640 Fifth Ave. still sits today on almost an acre of its original 5-acre lemon orchard. (From the author's collection.)

William Moeser was already wealthy when he won $25,000 in the Louisiana lottery in 1920, so he and his wife came to Chula Vista to retire. They bought 5 acres of the Thompson lemon orchard at Third Avenue and Davidson, which soon became part of downtown. Moeser developed houses on Landis Street and buildings on Third Avenue. His son William C. Moeser and grandson William B. Moeser continued to develop downtown property and became leaders in the community. The San Diego Country Club and golf course attracted many new residents to the city in 1920. Originally dating from 1897, the Country Club lost a series of location leases before accepting the Board of Trustees' invitation to set up in Chula Vista. The Trustees assured them of "good roads and a hearty coopera­ tion in the matter." The Country Club was in the unincorporated area of San Diego County until December 31, 1985, when it was annexed into the City of Chula Vista. Investors created the Chula Vista Land and Improvement Company to build the golf course and clubhouse. Architect Harry Bell adapted the course to the natural hills of the site along L Street, using horse-drawn plows to smooth the natural terrain. PGA Champion Billy Casper, who grew up on the course, later said, "Because our course was built with horse and plow, there are subtle undulations you don't find on machine-made courses. I learned to play every kind of shot here, off every kind of lie." Architect Richard S. Requa designed the one-story red-tiled clubhouse in his Mediterranean and Spanish-inspired Southern California style, with an arched entry and a chimney that simulated a bell tower.

25

The new San Diego Country Club golf course lacked trees but preserved the natural terrain. The hacienda-style clubhouse designed by Richard Requa opened August 31, 1921, and stood until 1989. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

Stock certificate for the Chula Vista Land and Improvement Company, which built the Country Club, issued to Ralph Pray, August 17, 1921. (Courtesy Thomson Pray.)

The Country Club's investors laid out the Tarrytown subdivision near the golf course in 1921. Its large lots (150 by 290 feet) were meant to attract wealthy home owners. In 1926 Claude Conklin reduced the lot size of his Country Club Villas to build more homes east of Country Club Drive. The Board of Trustees paved Third Avenue to L Street, and from Third to Country Club Drive, making it easy to get to the fast-developing area. In 1922 street names

The Claude Conklin house at 58 San Miguel Drive was one of the large Spanish mansions built in Conklin's Country Club Villas. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

changed from H Street south to the golf course to be consistent with the streets north of H Street. First, Second, Third, and Fourth Streets becam:e I, J, K, and L Streets. The Board soon paved J Street from Third to Broadway, providing another convenient way to reach the Country Club and Tarrytown. Several magnificent Spanish-style homes were constructed in the new subdivision next to the golf course. In 1928 architect Louis John Gill, the nephew of lrving Gill, designed a Spanish Colonial Revival house at 89 Country Club Drive for an Episcopal bishop. The richly detailed house cost $17,000 and was surrounded by a high wall with a wrought iron gate. Another house, at 58 San Miguel Drive, built about the same time for the Conklin family, featured a second-story porch and a walled courtyard. The Riach House on L Street was notable for its Monterey-style cantilevered balcony with carved-spindle wooden railings

26

1920-1929 and unusually large braces and support beams. Renowned San Diego architect Hammond W. Whitsitt designed a house for Robert L. Mueller, just to the north, built by C.W. Diffen at a cost of $25,000. Wide open spaces in the southern part of the city attracted golfers. The bay from, however, lured a different breed. Money could be made extracting minerals and raw materials from seawater, as demonstrated by the Sale Works south of the city limits and by Hercules Powder Company at Gunpowder Point. After World War I, the huge kelp factory stood empty until taken over by the San Diego Oil Products Corporation. " Everything is hustle, bustle," announced the newspaper in October 1920 as hundreds of workmen were hired to start up the plane. Railroad cars brought thousands of tons of cottonseed daily from the Imperial Valley. This was processed into oil with leftover hulls turned into meal cake for cattle food. A disastrous fire in 1923 destroyed four buildings, with damages totaling $331,135. Although local firemen were helped by firefighters from National City and San Diego, and a fire boat from San Diego, the oily hulls could not be extinguished and the fire burned for several days. Another fire, in February 1923, destroyed the K Street Randolph lemon packing plane. Were it not for an evening rain, this fire might have burned the entire southern part of the city. The city clearly needed better protection. Those who attended a meeting at Skinner's hardware store on Third Avenue called "for the organization of a volunteer fire department and baseball team." There was no fire station, no alarm except an iron ring from a locomotive wheel, and no equipment except buckets and a horse cart. By 1922 the cart was replaced by a Model T parked at Helm's Garage and fire hydrants were installed on Second and Third Avenues. The City's first fire alarm was an iron ring from a locomotive wheel, at Chula Vista Realty Co., Third Avenue, ca. 1921. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Chula Vista baseball team, ca. 1925. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

27

Volunteer Fire Department in 1924 with new Seagrave truck, later known as the "Goose." (Courtesy Chula Vista Middle School.)

The firefighters finally got their fire station in 1923 when a new City Hall at 294 Third Ave. replaced the little wood house next to People's State Bank, which had served the Board of Trustees since 1911. More importantly, the vol­ unteers won the county baseball championship behind the pitching of fireman Art Spencer. The big fires of 1923 underscored the need for better equipment, so in 1924 the City purchased its first fire truck, a brand new Seagrave pumper. Howard Jordan was hired in 1924 as the first full-time, paid fireman who stayed at the fire station monitoring the new electric fire alarm. Volunteers were still expected to clean City Hall, the police station, and two jail cells behind City Hall. Care and feeding of prisoners was also under fire department scope and more than once, old firemen have said, a rambunctious prisoner was "cooled off with a few shots of water from the fire hose." The cottonseed factory was rebuilt after the big fire but fell victim to the Great Depression. More successful was the Magnesite Company, whose plant at the foot of G Street extracted magnesium from ore brought in by railroad and barges. This effort started in 1910 when Theron Tracy bought 91 acres along the bay. His Tracy Brick and Tile Company imported raw magnesite ore from the island of Santa Margarita to make a building product called Durostone. The International Magnesite Company bought the Durostone factory in 1915 and processed ore from Lower Mexico until 1923, when it was purchased by the Duralite Company. Duralite continued processing ore on the site for several years. In 1923 they hired Ludwig Tyce, a chemist from South Bend, Indiana, as plant superinten­ dent. In 1909, while working for the Ideal Concrete Machinery Company in South Bend, Tyce had patented a product called Tycrete. It was waterproo£

28

1920-1929 colored cement made from magnesium extract that could be used for buildings, wall coverings, floors, even furniture and cabinets. In Chula Vista, he soon took over Duralite and formed his own Tycrete Company to manufacture his product. At the west end of F Street, the former Yacht Club property, never having recovered from the devastating flood, was sold in 1925 to the California Carbon Company. The company used a process similar to Hercules to extract chemicals from kelp. Barges brought raw kelp to the pier. The plane distilled carbon com­ pounds used in paints and in refining cement and sugar. In 1927 this became the Pacific Marine Chemical company but was out of business by 1929. The Chula Vista Airport started in 1925 when brothers Rollie and Bob Tyce built their own plane from surplus Curtiss Jenny parts and formed San Diego's first civilian flying club. Known as the Chula Vista Aeronautic Club, members included Joe Crosson, who became an Alaskan pilot, and Dan Burnett, who helped build Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis airplane at Ryan. The club was soon replaced by the Tyce School of Aviation at 850 G St., next to the Tycrete factory. In 1928, the Tyce brothers earned transport pilot licenses and purchased a Thomas-Morse scout plane to give lessons. One early student was Nathan Williams, who quit high school to work on his family's large Bonita ranch. In his Tycrete plant at the end of G Street, ca. 1925. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

1920-1929

Four pilots are Joe Crosson, Fred Young, Bob and Roland Tyce. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

spare time, he helped with maintenance at the airport. The Tyces bought a trac­ tor and borrowed a grader from the City to keep down the dust that frequently spread over the area from the dirt runways and ruined crops. The Western Salt Company was a large and successful industry at the south­ ern end of the bay. Henry Fenton purchased the company and its 954 acres from the Babcock family in 1922. Annual production expanded from 15,000 tons per year to 26,000 tons in ten years. The company proclaimed that its Western Rewashed Coarse Salt was the best in the world, known as "That Salty Salt." Clean enough for table salt, it was instead used for more profitable industrial purposes: curing hides and meat, pickling, water purification, de-icing roads, feeding livestock, and preserving the fish on San Diego's tuna boats. Fenton replaced the teams of mules used by Babcock to harvest the salt with miniature The salt works is still operating on the bay front. (From the author's collection.)

locomotives called " dinkeys" that ran on movable tracks along the salt pond

1920-1929 levees. Intersecting rail lines of two distinctly different gauges are still visible at the east entrance of the Salt Works. As the salt ponds evaporated, their colors changed from muddy brown, to dark blue, to azure, and then to pinkish white. A steam shovel-like machine called a drag line scooped the salt from the pond bottoms into rotary dump cars pulled by dinkeys. The salt chunks were unloaded into hoppers where they were washed, crushed, dried, and poured onto large mounds waiting to be shipped. The 50-foot pure-white mountains became famous landmarks in the South Bay. Next to the great salt mountains, a tower appeared in 1926 . The California Chemical Corporation built the structure, called a Kubierschky tower, as the first commercial plant in the United States to extract bromine compounds from salt ponds. One of these compounds, ethylene dibromide, was used by the Ethyl Corporation (owned by GM and Standard Oil) to make anti-knock gasoline. California Chemical was subcontracted to make the bromide that helped elimi­ nate lead residue from the tetraethyl lead additive in gasoline. Starting in the mid-1920s, ethyl gasoline, dyed red, was sold at a separate pump in most gas stations and cost 2 cents more per gallon. The octane scale of O to 100 was developed to measure the degree of knocking in a gasoline engine, and ethyl gas produced less knocking and a higher octane rating. The Chula Vista plant did not make any of the lead ingredients that were banned in the 1970s as an environmental poison, but remained in business producing bromine as long as ethyl gas was sold. The Salt Works were only part of Henry Fenton's growing South Bay holdings. He expanded his sand and gravel plant in the Otay Valley with partner George S. Parker, providing the material to pave Rockwell Field, and helped the Marine Corps grade and pave land at Dutch Flats in 1919 for the Recruit Depot. He had done business for the Navy since his early days work­ ing for Babcock and in 1926 received a major contract to supply concrete for the Naval Supply Depot. San Diego had become the headquarters of the new Eleventh Naval District after the war, and Fenton was a major supplier for Navy construction projects that changed the face of San Diego. In 1920 he began buying Rancho Janal, and by the end of the decade, with the land he owned at Western Salt and at the gravel pit, Fenton owned over 4,000 acres at both ends of Otay Valley. Fenton's neighbor in Otay Valley, Merrill Nelson, joined with Paul Sloan to purchase 60 acres north of Otay River and incorporated the Nelson & Sloan Company. The partners began with two wagons and two mule teams; Merrill drove one and Paul drove the other. These were soon replaced with a fleet of Autocar trucks. The company hauled sand and gravel from its plant at Seventh and Main that was used to pave Chula Vista roads in the 1920s. Nelson operated sand pits in Sweetwater Valley until his death in 1944.

31

1920-1929 Among the many passions of John D. Spreckels, who developed major infrastructure, transportation, and parks, was his early advocacy for good roads in San Diego. In 1905 he was granted the first automobile license in the state of Cali­ fornia, and in 1909 was appointed to the first County Road Commission when it launched a program to build 461 miles of dirt road. In 1919 the Commission directed the paving of 80 miles of county roads. California's gasoline tax of 1923 provided 1 cent co counties for roads, jump-starting the local Paul Sloan with his Autocar truck in the late 1920s. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

road-building industry. Spreckels died in 1926 with the county road program just getting started, but Chula Vista could thank him for the San Diego and Arizona Railroad chat followed Bay Boulevard through the city. It was finished November 15, 1919, at the spectacular Carrizo Gorge. The Spreckels Commercial Company was taken over by Claus Spreckels, who carried on his father's work. In 1927 he leased 7 miles of Ocay Valley west of the Lower Ocay Dam to dig the sand and gravel needed to meet the grow­ ing demand for paving roads. A plane was designed by Long Beach engineer George Adams Roalfe, who selected the Ocay Valley location because it was "che finest and largest single gravel deposit in the County." Roalfe at the time worked for William Wrigley Jr., who was building Catalina Island into a major tourist resort. Roalfe examined many local deposits in San Diego County and concluded chat in Ocay Valley, "che character of boch rock and sand is extremely good, the rock being a hard porphyry and the sand being almost entirely free from mica." The plane was built near Maxwell Road and Main Street, at a cost of

The first city truck and road scraper at work, ca. 1929. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

$150,000 and began operation August 15, 1927, producing 1,800 tons of sand and rock per day. The material was transported by a railroad spur line down the valley to the San Diego and Arizona Railroad. It was also transported in a fleet

of thirty six-wheel, 10-ton trucks. Cranes and shovels dug the raw material from the valley floor; at the plane it was screened, washed, and separated into different grades. The Spreckels plane was the third gravel pit in the valley, providing raw materials for new roads throughout the 1920s road-building boom. Claus Spreckels also invested in a large hemp factory south of Chula Vista. The Imperial Linen Products Corporation bought 50 acres at Broadway and Naples in the new subdivision of Harborside. The factory was 1,000 feet long and made linen fiber from hemp straw using a decorticator machine invented by Karl Wessel. The hemp came from Imperial Valley and from local experimental farmers, like Fred Stafford and Walter Wood. The factory operated for several years, closing when Spreckels went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Frank Schmedding was one of the local investors who, according to his son, "lost his shirt, pants, and everything in between." The roads in Chula Vista were paved just in time for the onslaught of visi­ tors during Prohibition. The Volstead Act closed saloons in America on January 16, 1920, but not chose in Tijuana. Thousands drove their Model Ts across the Sweetwater River down Broadway to the "Gate" at the "Line" with Mexico. On a single day, July 4, 1920, an estimated 65,000 people and 12,654 autos crossed the border into Tijuana. They went to bars and casinos on Avenida Revoluci6n, some built by Americans known as "Border Barons" who saw opportunity in the prohibition law. Wirt G. Bowman owned a horse ranch in Palm City and joined

Mid-way gas station on Broadway, ca. 1923. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

33

1920-1929 the barons who built the Monte Carlo and Agua Caliente. Frank "Booze" Beyer of San Ysidro was a casino owner who paved a shortcut to Tijuana from Third Avenue in Chula Vista across the Otay River to the border, later to be named Beyer Way in his honor. Frances Mavin, raised on a farm near D and Broadway, sold vegetables to drivers heading south. "We had a stand on the east side of National Avenue [now Broadway] and on a Sunday afternoon we would sell $115 worth of vegetables. The Foreign Club and Caliente were going full blast and the traffic was bumper to bumper, so the people could open their car doors and tell us what they wanted without getting out ofline. This was when carrots, beets, turnips, green onions, etc., were three bunches for a dime." The traffic was so bad the City took action in 1921, hiring five more motorcycle cops to help their lone cop, Jack Byers, enforce the 35 mph speed limit on Broadway. There was no police radio yet, but a telephone was installed in the station, and call boxes with red lights installed at street corners. A Police Physician was hired to examine drunk drivers, and a separate jail cell installed for women prisoners. Bribery was common during Prohibition, but not for Jack Byers. In 1927 he stopped a car on Broadway chat ran a stop sign. As he walked up, he noticed the car was full of 1-gallon cans used by alcohol smugglers. One of the bootleggers asked him, "Will $1,000 be enough?" Jack said no and arrested chem both. Chula Vista had no court system yet, so anyone arrested by the police was taken to City Hall and arraigned by the City Recorder. After the death of Erastus Dyer in 1923, James Jackson served for nine years as Recorder and Police Judge. City Hall had only two small jail cells, so bootleggers were sent to jails in San Diego or San Ysidro. In 1924 Congress created the Border Patrol. Clifford Perkins, of the Chinese Mounted Patrol of the U. S. Immigration Service, headed the small and poorly funded new agency. Only about a hundred men patrolled the vast Canadian and Mexican land borders from the headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Perbns created a Los Angeles District to patrol the Arizona and California border, and recruited agents from law enforcement and ranchers from the border area, requiring chat they speak a second language. In 1929 Perkins moved to Chula Vista and built a headquarters in che Castle Park subdivision at 1236 Twin Oaks Ave. He appointed Joe Van Orshoven as Chief Inspector of the San Diego Border Patrol station. Joe was the Otay Town Constable in 1916 when the flood came roaring down the valley. He alerted his neighbors, helped people reach high ground, and cared for refugees at his family home in Castle Park. Tending mules and horses during World War I, Joe later supplied the Daley and Hazard construction companies with work horses. Spanish-speaking and with equestrian experience, he was che ideal candidate for the Border Patrol.

34

1920-1929

Border Patrol headquarters in Castle Park, ca. 1929. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Motorcycle cops on Third Avenue in front of the new City Hall, ca. 1925. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

1920-1929 Increased traffic to the border focused attention on Chula Vista's new "Main Street." In the age of the automobile, Broadway became more important with the growth of bus lines. The Sutherland Stage Company began to run its buses from San Diego to Ensenada in 1920, taking advantage of the rush to pleasure venues in Mexico during Prohibition. The twenty-seven-passenger Sutherland bus, built by Yellow Coach of Chicago, stopped at Palm City, where a short distance west on Palm Avenue was a collection of bars called Whiskey Flats for chose who did not want to go all the way to Tijuana. Sutherland added bus stops in Chula Vista at K Street and E Street, picking up more passengers on the "Road to Hell." When the trolley stopped running on Third Avenue in 1925, Sutherland added bus service to downtown Chula Vista. The fare was 40 cents to San Diego or Tijuana, but only 5 cents to ride anywhere in Chula Vista. Across the street from the bus station at E Street was another new fea­ ture. Ross Conforth built the first auto court in Chula Vista, the predecessor of motels and hotels that later lined Broadway. These early auto camps were Postcard of Agua Vista Auto Court at 70 Broadway.

primitive, often just tents grouped around an outhouse. By 1929 two more auto courts were built on Broadway, one complete with a grocery and gas station.

(Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

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Property owners throughout the city peti­

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tioned the Board ofTrustees during 1924 chat it was time to install a sewer system. A special

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election in June 1925 approved a bond issue, and the Board authorized an easement along G Street for a treatment plant next to Tyce and a sewer outfall to the bay. Construc­ n\a ern \...,ahtor y in South ater and es, fresh w ch bea g 0 and u bathin \.5 st $ be atc e o ano th t ater. R � Old Mexic tinuou�o 1acent to t and con n. Gas hea er d mo t•t1Y · �

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tion began in 1926, and homeowners were John Odom's auto court at Broadway (newly paved) and G Street, ca. 1925. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

1920-1929 finally able to replace septic tanks with modern plumbing. The city also decided it needed a better place to dump garbage than the gully behind the packing plants in the center of town. In 1927 the City bought 5 acres at the northern end of Bay Boulevard in the estuary of the Sweetwater River and established an official City dump. At the same time, Elmer "Fuzzy" Mikkelson began collecting garbage with an old truck. Subscriptions were on a voluntary, individual basis, and Fuzzy made just $98 his first month. The Mikkelsons expanded their busi­ ness to La Mesa, Grossmont, San Ysidro, and Bonita. It became the Chula Vista Sanitary Service, which served the South Bay for many years. The City could build a sewer and dump on its bayfront because in 1925 it finally gained control of its tidelands. When California G overnor Richardson signed the bill on May 11, transferring authority from the State to the City, it was "considered the most important act ever made so far as the south end of the bay is concerned." The City of San Diego took control of the north end of the bay in 1911, and Chula Vista agreed to allow the San Diego Chamber of Commerce Industrial Lands Committee to act as a holding company for the city tidelands. The Chamber, led by G eorge Burnham and William Kettner, had successfully negotiated with the Navy to dredge the harbor, fill Dutch Flats for a Marine base, and build the concrete shipyard in National City that became the destroyer base. But Burnham and Kettner had done nothing for the south end of the bay. The Chula Vista City Clerk collected fees from San Diego Oil Products and California Carbon and the Tracy companies for using the bayfront. The Board of Trustees considered a 1929 plan to dredge and fill 192 acres for an Army Air Depot, but the Army backed out. An Airport Committee appointed by the Board of Realtors proposed building a city airport on 31 acres of tideland south of the city limits. In 1929 voters approved a $100, 000 bond issue to develop a tidelands airport, but this ended with the onset of the Great Depression. Despite some progress in paving the streets, building a sewer, attracting the Country Club and some new businesses, the city remained agricultural during the decade. It was still a pastoral region of 5-acre lemon orchards as planned by Col. Dickinson three decades earlier. Most of the water from the Sweetwater Dam was used to irrigate countless rows of fruit trees. Landowners bought young seedlings from local nurseries, and when the trees matured after five years, they produced an annual crop oflemons worth $2, 000 per acre. Crews oflemon pickers, many of whom were Japanese from one of the local contract labor camps, went through the orchards two, three, or four times during the summer picking season. They put 43 pounds into each picking box, getting 10 boxes from each of the 73 trees per acre. Lemon growers provided only the trees and lemons. Picking crews were hired by the local packing plants. The two largest plants in town were the Chula Vista Citrus Association and the Chula Vista Mutual Lemon Association.

37

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1920-1929 CVCA was a growers' cooperative organized in 1916 by the former Land and Town Company. Charles Inskeep was president, an orchard owner and former pharmacist who had founded the American Optical Company. The co-op was affiliated with the California Fruit Growers Exchange, which used the "Sunkist" logo. Walter Carey began working for the co-op in 1920 and became field superintendent of all the picking operations. He was manager when the plant closed in 1959. Sunkist plant at Third Avenue and K Street. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

The other big packing plant began in 1926 when the Leach and Randolph plants joined to form the Chula Vista Mutual Lemon Association. This coop­ erative was affiliated with Mutual Orange Distributors and marketed its lemons with the "Pure Gold" logo. Aaron Riesling was the manager for many years, later becoming mayor of Chula Vista. The 1920s was surely the Golden Age of lemon orchards in Chula Vista. Local growers watched the population boom in Florida replace citrus groves with housing developments and believed this would drive up the price oflemons. Their own land would become more valuable as orchards rather than houses. The Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce began meeting in 1925 in City Hall with Ralph Pray as president. In 1927 the Chamber officially separated itself from the City to promote the community, and especially its citrus resources.

Bay Brands Fruit label, ca. 1895, portraying Chula Vista lemon orchards. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

The Chief John Tortes Meyers, a Native American known as "Chief Meyers," played for the National League Giants from 1909 to 1915. He was a member of the Cahuilla, born in Riverside in 1880. In 1920 he retired to Chula Vista with his wife, Juanita, living at 350 G St. In 1928 he purchased the Frances Hayden Fisher house at 617 Del Mar, a Mission Revival home built in 1911. When Babe Ruth, friendly with the "Chief," came to San Diego in January 1927, he was photo­ graphed standing in a rowboat swinging his shotgun while duck hunting with his friend on the Sweetwater Reservoir. (The lake at "Old Sweetwater" was nationally famous in the 1920s for its bird hunting and bass fishing.) Ten days later, the Babe was arrested for violating child labor laws when he invited kids to the stage during one of his shows to give them autographed baseballs. The Babe paid his $500 fine in San Diego and returned to the Yankees for the 1927 season, hitting 60 home runs.

19 1 1 baseball card by Hassan Cigarettes. (Library of Congress.)

Babe Ruth hunting on Old Sweetwater, Jan. 12, 1927. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

On the City's 50th anniversary the Chamber of Commerce proclaimed Chula Vista was the "Lemon Capital of the World." Downtown Chula Vista reflected the changing times more than the lakes and orchards. The new invention of radio was sweeping the country, and Albert Proctor, an authorized RCA dealer, opened the Chula Vista Radio Shop in 1927. H. DeForrest Smith sold the Kennedy model, "the Royalty of Radio," in his new drugstore building on Third Avenue, built in the now-popular Mission style. Across the street at 319 Third Ave., the Chula Vista Star newspaper built an adobe office building in this same style. Herb Bryant sold his auto shop in 1922 and opened Bryant Electric at the north­ east corner of Third and F Street, selling Majestic radios. Claude V. Brown opened

39

1920-1929 the town's third auto dealership in a lot next to the new Palmer Furniture Score and the Piggly Wiggly grocery score. Mr. C.V. "Chula Vista" Brown sold Dodge and Plymouth. The Helm Brothers' Chula Vista Garage sold Chevrolet and Buick, and Chula Vista Motor sold Ford. The ease side of Third Avenue from Bryant Electric north to Davidson underwent significant change after the death of Erastus Dyer in 1922. Dyer kept lemons on the 10 acres he bought Howe's business block along Third north of G Street later included the Seville Theatre and Service Station. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

from the Land and Town Company in 1888, and his two-story house was the only building on chis block of Third Avenue. The subsequent subdivision of the Dyer trace into forty-eight lots and commercial buildings began to fill in the lase empty downtown spaces. City Hall was rebuilt in 1923 on its same location, but with room for the police and fire departments in the new building. The Chamber of Commerce was north of the City Hall. The People's Bank build­ ing became Bank of Italy in 1928 and Bank of

Howe Court built 1929 at 3 19-325 G Street. (Courtesy author's collection.)

America two years lacer. Thomas Howe built a major addition to downtown in 1926 on Third north of G Street. Howe's subdivision included a business block featuring a cheater, beauty shop, doctor, and real estate agent offices. He also built the unique Thomas Howe Court at 325 G Sc. Residential courts became fashionable in the 1920s, resembling the auto courts chat clustered small buildings together for privacy and safety from the busy highway or urban congestion. The four small

Chula Vista Woman's Club house built 1928 at 357 G St. in Howe subdivision.

(Courtesy author's collection.)

buildings in Howe Court were built in the Pueblo Revival style, with flat roofs and sloping wing walls. Another residential court, built by cement contractor Robert Dyson on Flower Street in 1929, featured an Art Deco streamline, modern style popular in the late 1920s and 1930s. Howe also provided two lots for the Chula Vista Woman's Club to build a new clubhouse. Membership had grown rapidly since the first clubhouse was built in 1923. Five years later, the club accepted Howe's offer of a new location at the corner of G Street and Garrett Avenue, and his stipulation chat it be erected within one year. Edgar Ullrich, a skilled architect from Colorado,

Members in front of the first Chula Vista Woman's Club at 382-384 Del Mar Ave., ca. 1925. Among those identified are (back row, left to right): Vi Uland, Bernice Kubeck, Ruth Drew, Mother Howe, Nellie McCausland; (in front row): Ruth Timmons and Gwen Day. (Courtesy Chula Vista Woman's Club.)

designed a charming, one-story Spanish Colonial clubhouse with stucco walls and a low, red tile, hip and gable roof. The L-shaped building faced inward toward a private patio and garden. The other two sides of the garden were enclosed by high walls punctuated by arched openings with wrought iron gates. The main structure held a large hall opening onto a wide, tile-covered open porch with a red tile shed roof and square, wooden post supports. The new clubhouse provided more room for the growing number of activi­ ties staged by the Woman's Club. The first Flower Show was held on April 8, 1921, "one of the most beautiful and brilliant affairs" in the city, according to Laura Crockett. Mrs. Charles Darling was the first chairwoman of the show and she remained in charge for many years. In 1925 she won a silver cup for the best six General McArthur roses in the San Diego Flower Show. To raise money, members baked cakes and darned socks, made cottage cheese, and sold flowers on Broadway. "The hearts of motorises must have been touched at the sight of chis aristocratic appearing woman being reduced to such a plight, for she raised her quota in no time." They held card parties and concerts, food sales, and bazaars, dinners and evening entertainment. One elocutionist in a sleeveless, flowing Grecian gown performed in the cold of winter, warming her hands on gas burners in the kitchen. ♦

41

The Decade in Brief... The Great Depression closed industries, but agriculture thrived. Lemon exports grew to nearly $1 million a year and lima bean crops were introduced in the eastern valleys. Dairies flourished in Castle Park and Proctor Valley. Stafford and Chino organized the Celery Association, and the Vegetable Exchange opened on K Street. • Another millionaire, Stephen Birch, came to town and purchased Otay Ranch. He created the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation, which still funds hospitals and the Nature Center today. • The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built L Street School and the Memorial Bowl, and the PWA paved streets. • El Primera Hotel and the Smith building added Art Deco Moderne architecture to the expanding downtown. • The Fiesta de la Luna became an annual celebration of civic pride.

Sixth Annual Fiesta de la Luna in 1937 opened with a dinner dance at the Woman's Club featuring "Spanish Dancer Rita Hayworth and Strolling Troubadours from Cesar's Hotel in Tijuana." Rotarians organized a Spanish parade the next afternoon, followed by an evening street dance, planned "as a public frolic without charge." Participants were expected to "go Spanish" by sporting costumes and growing beards to resemble caballeros. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

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1911

Elected Members of the Board of Trustees W.M. HAWKINS (1927-1930) • VINCENT HOWE (1930-1945, appointed Mayor 1941-1944) • ARTHUR DONE (1930-1941, appointed Mayor 1930-1934, 1938-1941) • W.E. BRADLEY (1930-1932) • CLAUDE BROWN (1932-1940,

appointed Mayor 1936-1938) • ROBERT CONYERS (1930-1934) • C. OSWALD BOLTZ (1934-1938) • GEORGE H. RIFE (1934-1937, appointed Mayor 1934-1936) • HERBERT BRYANT (1937-1939) • CHARLES TIMMONS (1937-1944) • RALPH PAXTON (1939-1942)

---

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Janal ranch house and barns and employee living quarters, 1939. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

IN THE 1930 ELECTION, Arthur Done, Robert Conyers, and Vincent Howe

joined the City Council, and thanks to the voter-approved Proposition A, were for the first time paid $10 per month for their services. Art Done was appointed mayor, replacing Bill Peters. The Council hoped to develop industry on the bay­ front and build a city airport, but the Great Depression put an end to those dreams. A proposal to celebrate the City's twentieth anniversary was quickly tabled and soon forgotten. In the grip of hard times, the City cut expenses and reduced teachers' pay. Plans for a steel mill and a revived kelp plant evaporated. The Spreckels Company, bankrupt in 1931, closed the Harborside hemp factory and the Otay gravel plane. John D. Spreckels' pride, the San Diego and Arizona Railroad, was sold to the Southern Pacific and became known as the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway Company. His grandson, John D. Spreckels III, wasted his inheritance on a lavish lifestyle and lost his Bonita Hills mansion in a messy divorce in 1936. Although lacking industry, the city survived due to its most valuable asset: land. Henry Fenton planted lima beans and barley on 3,000 acres of Rancho Janal. Henry's daughter, Emily Fenton Hunte, recalled that during the Depression, Henry "would turn the fields over to the needy, once the harvest had been completed. There still were thousands of lima beans lying on the ground, and people would flock to the ranch by the hundreds to scoop them up into sacks to take home." He installed a processing plane to wash and pack lima beans, and invested in Caterpillar farm equipment. Henry also grew vegetables, declaring in 1937 that his tomatoes were the best ever, "some as big around as a saucer!" His Otay Valley gravel business and Western Salt Company returned annual dividends from expanding sales. Fencon's neighbors were the many ranchers who raised cattle and dry-farmed the mesas down to the Mexican border. Sam Williams ran his dairy and cattle ranch on 3,000 acres in Proctor Valley. The Union Oil Company bought 2,500 acres from Williams, hoping to strike oil; they did find bentonite, slippery clay used in refining oil. The Standard Oil Company bought 265 acres on the north 45

1930-1939 side of Otay Valley to mine bentonite, and the pit they dug later became the county landfill. (Standard Oil also built the beacon tower on the top of San Miguel Mountain to guide airplane pilots flying at night.) In 1936 a new neighbor, Stephen Birch, bought Otay Ranch, which had passed from the Estudillos to Spreckels to Babcock to Rube Harrison. Birch made millions in the Alaskan Kennecott copper mine and invested it by expanding Ocay Ranch to 29,000 acres. He lived in the Rancho del Ocay lodge, built by Spreckels on 11 acres between the Upper and The round quail barn (today owned by Otay Land Company ) was in the center of Stephen Birch's Bird Ranch in Otay Valley, and was featured in the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce booklet on the city's fiftieth anniversary in 196 1.

Lower Ocay Lakes. Like Fenton, he grew lima beans and raised cattle, hiring dozens of workers from the ranch complex on Wolf Canyon Road. Birch loved flowers and built greenhouses on the ranch for his prize-winning orchids. He also constructed the unique, twenty-four-sided Bird Ranch barn to raise quail-game birds whose numbers had diminished due to over-hunting. Birch discovered chat baby quail instinctively crowded into corners and piled on top of each ocher for warmth, often smothering chose on the bottom. His round barn was a safe hatchery without sharp corners. Birch enjoyed his ranch-resort for only five years before he died on December 29, 1940. He created the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation in 1938, named for his two children, who inherited his $200 million fortune. Stephen Jr. returned to the family estate in Mahwah, New Jersey. Mary traveled for a number of years, then returned to Otay Ranch and lived there with her husband, former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Patrick R. Patrick, until her death in 1983. During her lifetime, she kept Ocay Ranch intact and managed its operation as a working cattle ranch. She formed United Enterprises as a limited partner­ ship for land development. Mary told friends she believed chat hei- father had "great vision for the property" and she wanted to further chat vision. United Enterprises had a significant influence on the direction of Chula Vista's growth. Lemons dominated the local agricultural market during che Depression years. Orchards from 200 growers covered more than 2,000 acres of the city and Sweetwater Valley. By the end of the decade they shipped over 1,000 railroad cars per year, almost $1 million worth of lemons. The two big packing planes doubled their size to handle the large crops. The Chula Vista Citrus Associa­ tion at Third and K Street hired extra teams of pickers, providing housing in dormitories and bungalows along Fourth Avenue. The Mutual Lemon Associa­ tion at Fourth and Center Street installed the largest lemon washing machine in the state, capable of processing 600 boxes per hour. The ice factory nearby supplied 100 tons of ice a day to refrigerate railroad cars, or "reefers," chat carried

46

1930-1939 lemons to the East Coast or western ports to be loaded on refrigerated ships of the California Fruit Growers Exchange bound for Europe. During the decade several imposing homes were built by lemon growers on the hill at the eastern end of E Street. In 1931 Karl and Ivy Helm built a two­ story house (21 Toyon Lane) with a swimming pool that doubled as irrigation for lemon orchards. Builder Ray Sanford also constructed the Pueblo Revival home next door (12 Toyon Lane) for G. W. Anderson. Gabriel "Andy" Anderson was a director of the 1935 Exposition in Balboa Park; he tragically died in April 1934, one week before the Expo opened. His son William lived there briefly until he moved to Hollywood and became the actor known as Leif Erikson. The fast-growing celery industry challenged lemons for agricultural value. The first growers were Japanese. It was back-breaking work to trim and trans­ fer each seedling by hand from bedding plots to fields every August, 2 inches apart in furrows 8 inches deep, 25,000 plants per acre. Each seedling was cov­ ered with a sm.all paper or plastic "hot cap" tent to conserve warmth and speed growth. W hen harvested in the winter, the stalks were packed 5 dozen to a crate in the field-each crate weighing 150 pounds. Farmers paid 25 workers 15 cents an hour to load the crates into railroad cars. If the price stayed above $5 per crate, a Japanese farmer like Kajiro Oyama could earn $1,500 per acre (Oyama owned 160 acres between ] and K Streets near the railroad tracks). The

The Pueblo Revival home of G. W. Anderson (center) dominates the hill at the end of E Street in a 1930s color photo made by Karl Helm (his home on the right). On the left is the Charles Field house. (Courtesy Dorothy and John Helm.)

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The dairy industry was the first to sign, agreeing to a 1-penny increase for a quart of milk, from 11 to 12 cents on delivery. Some of the 20 dairies in the South Bay delivered bottled milk every morning to residents' homes; others were wholesale producers. One producer, Robert Egger, who emigrated from Switzer­ land in 1930, founded the Swiss Club at the foot of Main Street in 1939. Henry Rienstra, from Holland, built a large dairy in Castle Park. The Davies Dairy in Otay Valley was the latest enterprise of four generations who had begun ranching in San Diego during the Julian gold rush of 1870. The doors on Vince Davies' barn came from the La Punta adobe of the Santiagos. Dairy Mart Farms in San Ysidro, started by the Snells in 1900, had become by 1939 a cooperative

Ad from 1933 recommending people shop where the N RA symbol is displayed.

processing milk from several South Bay farms, passing it on to distributors.

(Courtesy Star News.)

dealerships, 3 clothing stores, 3 beauty salons, and 5 barber shops. The biggest

NRA codes were signed by Chula Vista's 9 grocery stores, 4 automobile price jump was imposed on barbers, who either raised haircut prices from 25 cents to 50 cents, or faced prison sentences and fines of $500. Some customers grumbled, some went to Tijuana for a cheap cut, but most cooperated in the spirit of the Blue Eagle. One positive effect of the codes was leveling the playing field for all stores, big and small. The national trend toward big chain scores was considered a threat to small-town Chula Vista and its family-owned businesses. The NRA made it possible for the Black & Kendall grocery on Third Avenue co survive with the big Safeway score at the corner of Third Avenue and F Street. More money came from Roosevelt's Second New Deal and its $5 billion Works Bill of 1935. The Works Progress Administration (W PA) funded recreation programs, night and adult classes, and hot lunches for students in the Otay Elementary School District. The Otay Recreation Club and Chula Vista Re­ creation Association coordinated grants to a wide variety of programs includ­ ing playgrounds, sports, crafts, community singing, and a harmonica band. A Junior Softball League played at the City ball park across from the school. The W PA recreation headquarters was located in a small building shared with the Boy Scouts next to the ball park. It also housed an innovative Toy-Tool Library lending over 500 coys, games, and scooters repaired by W PA employees. The W PA and PWA made it possible to build the city's second elementary school and expand its two junior high schools. Chula Vista Junior High School and Southwest Junior High School were earthquake-proofed and enlarged in 1938. The tenth grade moved in 1939 from Sweetwater High School, and the junior highs became grades seven through ten schools. Calvin Lauderbach was principal of both F Street School and Chula Vista Junior High School at the

54

1930-1939 start of the decade, and in the larger schools, Joe Rindone became principal at Southwest High and Frank Chase at Chula Vista High. When City Attorney R. Lowell Davies became president of the grammar school board, he secured funds from the PWA for a new school. Architect Lilian

J.

Rice was selected to design the L Street Elementary School. Rice designed

a more modest school than in her preliminary sketch, but kept the Spanish hacienda style with red-tiled roof. She died from ovarian cancer December 22, 1938, only a few months after the school opened. Six years later the school was renamed in her honor. Superintendent Lauderbach arranged a sale of land to the City for a new park across from F Street School, to be built with help from the W PA. Voters approved the purchase in 1936. Construction began in 1937 along Alma Street between Third and Fourth. A 1,000-seat grandstand was added as a civic amphi­ theater with a moat surrounding the stage. The city also sought funds for a new civic cent�r and City Hall, police and fire stations, swimming pool, tennis

Black and Kendall's remained an old-fashioned grocery store until World War I I , operated by the owners Al Kendall (center) and cousins Al and Cliff Black (right, with Al's daughter Frances). (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

1930-1939 and shuffieboard courts, but voters refused to approve the bond issue of $50,000 needed to pay the City's cost. The center had co wait until after World War II. The Municipal Park and Civic (Memorial) Bowl were dedicated in September 1939 during the Fiesta de la Luna celebration. The Fiesta de la Luna developed into a grand, three-day civic affair. The purpose of the first Fiesta in 1930 was to pay off the mortgage on the new Woman's Club building. Members sold tickets to a dinner dance and Mrs. Fred Pratt, an artist who had lived in Mexico, suggested a Mexican theme. She cre­ The W PA-funded Memorial Bowl originally featured a moat. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

ated a fiesta atmosphere by encouraging attendees co wear Mexican costumes. The idea was well-received and the Fiesta de la Luna was born. Mrs. Pratt orga­ nized the first parade, with a dinner in 1932 for 300 ticket-buyers entertained by professional singers and dancers from Tijuana, ending with "a mock bull fight comedy skit chat brought down the house." Five hundred guests attended in 1933 and a prize was awarded for best costume. In 1934 the Fiesta queen contest began and a horse show was added in the ball park. In 1936 the Rotary Club took over the parade, and the Woman's Club sponsored the dinner and entertainment. The concessions and street carnival were good fundraisers, with donkey rides for the kids. Mayor Rife thought the wheel of fortune concession was a form of gambling and he ordered it

Children of Japanese immigrants donned costumes to perform Kendo, the Japanese art of sword fighting, F Street School, 1932. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

56

The 193 7 Fiesta de la Luna parade watchers at Third Avenue and F Street, view toward the southwest. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

shut down. After protests to the City Council, Rife was removed for the second time from the position of mayor, this time for good. The Star claimed the "Spinning wheel of political fortune cost G . Harvey Rife the morality of Chula Vista Monday night." The writer meant to use the term "mayoralty" but the irony of the situation gave the words a double meaning. The Council then appointed Claude Brown as mayor, or as reported, "to the morality of Chula Vista." In 1 937 the Council began supporting the Fiesta with a small appropriation. Mayor Brown invited other cities to join in the annual parade. The Fiesta opened that year with a Kangaroo Court charging admission for people to witness a mock court trial and imprisonment of leading residents. Men were encouraged to grow beards for the Whiskeroo contest, and a merry-go­ round was set up on the parking lot of Fuson's garage. In 1 938 the Woman's Club moved the Fiesta to a lot west of Fourth Avenue and south of C Street, calling it Rancho de la Nacion Park. They built bleachers on the hillside for an original pageant, "The Pathfinder," written and directed by Miss Sybil Eliza Jones, head of the San Diego State College drama department. After the Fiesta, the City maintained the park, eventually renamed Eucalyptus Park. In 1 939 the Woman's Club yielded planning to a Fiesta Civic Committee.

The 1936 Fiesta de la Luna winners for best Spanish costumes, Elburn Stanley and Miss Betty Harris, best couple, and Barbara Dittmar, best girl's costume. Elburn also won the Whiskeroo contest. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

57

1930-1939 '\==========

S EVILLE THEATRE

For the first time, the Spanish theme was combined with a lemon theme to broaden the appeal of the event. The packing houses set up a big tent downtown and served free lemonade, and merchants put

CHULA VISTA

lemon displays in shop windows. The Fiesta Queen, Carolyn Skin­ ner, was chosen by a public vote for the first time. Rollie Tyce gave

IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY!

airplane rides, and a horse show was held at the ball park. The climax

•

of the three-day event was the dedication of the Civic Bowl, where an

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audience of 1,000 watched the "Rose of the Rancho" pageant. By 1937 the event included a Vaudeville stage and an evening street dance following the parade. In 1939 developers (including Thomas Howe) constructed new buildings and pioneered a modern style of architecture. Art deco was growing in popularity, reflecting the streamline style of planes, trains, and automobiles. Hammond W. Whitsitt designed the Smith building for fire Chief Charles Smith, who wanted a fireproof structure. Victor Tessitore of Chula Vista did the concrete work. This unique, two-story EACH ENTIRE PROGRAM 1 00% TALKING! F()'J; Movietcm film showing Sound Track

Seville Theatre's grand open ing was February 1930. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library,)

building features a second-floor open patio, a fa�ade with reeded pillars,

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and a horizontal zigzag motif. The Sprouse Reitz dime store opened in 1935 in the Smith Building where "nothing over 49 cents" was sold. The city's first modern hotel, El Primero on Third Avenue, was completed in December 1930. Like the Smith building, it featured the dramatic vertical Zigzag Moderne design elements. The twenty-two-room hotel was built for John and Lilly Ratcliffe at a cost of $30,000. In 1936 Rita Hayman and Luise Daley opened the Rita Luise Beauty Salon at 382 Third Ave., "its modern new equipment, beautifully finished interior strikes a new note in beauty shop operation and makes a welcome addition to Chula Vista's ever-growing list of smart shops." Luise said, "A feature of our

Historic El Primero Hotel, recently restored by Soledad and Pie Roque. (Court�sy Centennial Committee.)

equipment is our new Fredericks one-minute permanent wave machine which is the latest type permanent wave machine on the market today." Both women graduated from beauty schools in the East. The Seville building was home to the first movie theater in 1930. Here, the latest Hollywood motion pictures were featured-with sound! At the premiere, Harlan Skinner's Concert Orchestra played the Prelude, then the Metrotone Talking Newsreel began, followed by "The Untamed" with Joan Crawford. The 500-seat theater used gimmicks to attract patrons, such as bargain nights, when kids could get in for 10 cents. At the 1932 showing of "Red-Headed Woman" starring Jean Harlow (the film was black and white), all red-headed women attended for free. Jimmie Zurcher bought Smith Drugstore (built by H. DeForrest Smith) in 1936. Zurcher, who began working for Smith as a teenager, became a registered pharmacist and planned to cake over when Smith retired, but he spent six years on crutches after contracting polio in 1930. When he finally acquired the Rexall franchise, he remodeled the interior and soda fountain. Zurcher's hobby was deep-sea fishing. From 1937 he served free swordfish dinners with the first catch of the season. He was a founder of the Chula Vista Sportfishing Club, which operated its own boat, the Cee Vee. Zurcher was elected treasurer of the new Chula Vista Merchants' Associa­ tion, formed in 1937. It included familiar names, such as Herb Bryant (who sold radios and owned the only photography studio in town). Vern Farrah returned in 1937 to open Farrah's Cafe. His wife worked in the beauty shop on Fourth

Farrah's Cafe was at 308 Third Ave., between Vi's Jewelry and Macey's open-front grocery. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

59

Harold Beaumont immigrated from England in 1922 and operated his service station at Third Avenue and E Street for more than thirty years. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Avenue, and his son was an usher at the Seville. Ed Kindberg repaired shoes in the score founded by his father, and for two years in a row was Western States Champion Shoe Repairman. George Borg opened a furniture store in the build­ ing of the former Ortiz Motors. Some of the association's new members started clothing shops. Mode O'Day opened in the Starkey building at 297 Third Ave., next to Fred Gunn men's clothing store. Wayne Egbert cook over the Service Pharmacy from retiring Howard Carrell. Verne " Doc" Spice opened the Durch Lunch in 1933 at 317 Third Ave., and Willis Fullerton's Owl Buffett became the Silver Dollar. One reason the Third Avenue merchants formed an association was the growing competition from the merchants on National Avenue (Broadway). Two big lumber yards opened and new gas stations, cafes, and auto courts served tourists and travelers on the busy route to Mexico. The road became part of the state highway system in 1932 and was designated Highway 101. A newspaper editorial noted in 1934, " For some years past there seems to have grown up in this community an antagonism between the residents of National Ave and the residents of 3rd avenue." Chula Vista gradually became less agricultural and more commercial. Although the official census population was 3,869, a careful count shows the number at 4,126. The vast majority were white, 94 percent of the 4,126 total. The largest minorities were Japanese (145) and Mexican (93). The average age

60

1930-1939 was thirty-five and a half and became lower as many young families moved into the city looking for new opportunities. Thirty-four percent were born in the Midwest, 23 percent were born in California, 15 percent were foreign-born, 13 percent were born in the East, and 5 percent in the South. Only 12 per­ cent of the population listed an agricultural occupation. There was a diversity of teachers (35), truck drivers (34), sales/clerk (86), manager/merchant/propri­ eror (92), bookkeeper/accountant (45), carpenter/builder (82), and engineer/ mechanic (40). The city had ten arboriscs but only one dentist. Half the 1,243 homes had a radio. President Hoover promoted commercial aviation with the Kelly Air Mail Act of 1925. Airports sprang up all over the country; thousands of young men dreamed ofbecoming another Charles Lindbergh. Chula Vista changed its plans for the bayfront from industry to aviation. The big wharf at Gunpowder Point was removed in 1934 when plans failed to develop another industry at the site of che old Hercules Gun Powder plant. The City Council hoped the Navy would build a seaplane base in the South Bay. The City wanted to build a municipal airport and attract aircraft factories. The private Tyce airport attracted publicity in 1938 when Wrong Way Corrigan returned after his famous flight to Ireland, which was supposed to be a flight from New York to California. The newspaper reported his arrival in Chula Vista, September 11, 1938, chat "motorcycle sirens wailed. Official automobiles sped along National Ave. A crowd of between 150 and 200 persons was at the field. Doug Corrigan who not so long ago left Chula Vista as an unknown was returning as a hero who had captured the nation's fancy." By the end of the decade the city had much to celebrate. Although there was no airport or Navy base, it had survived the Depression and Prohibition, City Council horseplay, and bicycles on the sidewalks. Lemons, celery, and dairies were profitable, cattle and lima beans flourished, and downtown prospered. The war in Europe and China remained only a distant rumble, but chat soon changed. ♦

Tyce airport, "Chula Vista" name on roof, across from Tycrete plant, 1935. (Courtesy San Diego History Center.)

The Decade in Brief... The 1940s brought major changes to the city. Rohr Aircraft Corporation built a large plant on the bayfront to manufacture aircraft engine power units, just as the war in Europe was revving up. • Japanese residents were evacuated to relocation camps in 1942, and the bracero program provided Mexican labor to local farms and industry. • War defense housing was built at Hilltop Village and Vista Square and at several trailer parks. • The housing boom resulted in new subdivisions and the first annexation to the City since 1911. • Downtown continued growing, with the addition of a department store, more cafes and beauty parlors, and the state-of-the-art Vogue Theater. • Chula Vista became a Charter City in 1949.

Rohr employees donated to the Russian clothing drive. (Courtesy Goodrich Aerostructures.)

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Elected Members of the City Council AARON RIESLAND (1944-1954, Mayor 1952-1953) • VICTOR WULFF (Mayor 1952) • GEORGE DEWOLFE (1950-1958, Mayor 1953-1954) • JAMES LOGAN (1950-1954, Mayor 1953) • JAMES L. HOBEL (1950-1954, Mayor 1951-1952), • RICHARD HALFERTY (1952-1954, Mayor 1954) • HAROLD RADER (1954-1958) • PETER DEGRAAF (1955-1964, Mayor 1956-1964) • EARL MANSELL (1955-1956, Mayor 1955) • JOHN SMITH (1955-1964, Mayor 1955-1960, appointed 1961) • EDWARD DILLON (1956-1957) • ROBERT McALLISTER (1958-1970, Mayor 1960, 1967) • STANDLEE MCMAINS (1958-1966, Mayor 1959-1960) • KEITH MENZEL (1957-1964, Mayor 1958-1959, 1961-1964)

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ANTICIPATING

THE NEED for an expanded City Hall, the newly chartered

City purchased an old lemon orchard at Fourth Avenue and F Street in 1948. Dr. McCausland's home on the site was moved to the San Miguel Boys School in National City, clearing the way for construction of the 9-acre Civic Center project. Architect Percy Burnham, son of Point Loma developer George Burnham, organized the civic buildings around a widened Guava Avenue, which became a central mall with a palm tree-lined walkway. The first link in the chain of buildings was the new fire station, designed by city engineer Henry Algert in 1948. The new City Hall complemented the fire station with its red-tiled roof and large archway entrance under a two-story tower. The spacious new building was occupied in 1950. Chula Vista acquired a new courthouse in response to a recently approved amendment to the state constitution, merging the justice and City courts into a single Municipal Court with jurisdiction from San Ysidro to Sunnyside. The County Board of Supervisors funded construction, and on January 1, 1952,Judge Lowell Howe began hearing civil cases valued at less than $3,000, and all criminal cases except felonies. The Carnegie Library had served the city well since 1916, but was badly in need of repairs. The City Council approved a new library at the corner of Fourth Avenue and F Street. The 1954 design by Louis Bodmer featured a red-tiled roof and stone pillars along the entrance. It opened in the summer of 1955; Librarian Janice Stewart reported a circulation of 250,000 the first year. A 1975 postcard of City Hall in the Civic Center Complex, constructed in 1950. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

89

The Civic Center Complex in a 1959 photo. The fire station is at top left, and the Courthouse is on the right. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

A new post office opened in 1955, the lase link in the complex. One year lacer, downtown mail carrier James W. Nation retired after pedaling the mail on a bicycle for thirty years. He started as one of two carriers when there were only three clerks. By 1956 there were seventy-one clerks and carriers. Government was bigger and more professional. When City Clerk Herb Bryant started in 1940, there were only forty City employees and the City budget was $96,743. When he retired in 1953, more than 100 people were employed under the charter's new civil service system, and the budget was $781,187. Fred Wagner, hired in 1951, became the first full-time City Planner at a hefty annual salary of $5,000. Richard Floyd, hired as the new City Administrator, also served as City Engineer, reorganizing and expanding the Public Works department. Major Floyd, as he was called from his days in the Army Corps of Engineers, became a familiar figure around town, driving a new City truck and puffing on a big cigar. The City previously subcontracted street work co outside companies, but engineer Floyd cook over all street maintenance with $30,000 in new equipment.

90

1950-1959 Floyd looked to Memorial Park when voters approved a bond issue in 1953 to build a gymnasium and municipal pool. Working with architect Victor Wulff, they designed a gym-pool-recreation center connected to Memorial Bowl by pathways. The center opened in March 1955 with an aquatic show that became the annual summer Aquacade. One of the last remaining lots on Third Avenue was taken by Bank of America, leaving its old landmark building with classic pillars to house a modern clothing store. David Phair opened Highlander, a men's clothing store, across the street, and Elm's clothing store took over the Piggly Wiggly building. On one side of the 200 block stood Guilbert's Pharmacy, Fred Gunn's clothing store, Withem's Bakery, Trugon's Furniture, Higg's Jewelry, Karl's Shoes, Mode

Third Avenue looking southeast from Davidson in the 1950s. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

O'Day, and Sprouse-Reitz. On the other side were Bank of America, Standlee's Bakery, Glenn's Market, Frazee Paint, Wee Tot, Franklin's clothing store, Atlas Travel, and the Greyhound Bus terminal. The great clock on the corner of Third Avnenue and F Street remained at the center of downtown when the Security Trust and Savings Bank moved to the other side of F Street in 1953. The bank originally installed the Minneapolis­ made clock when it opened in the Melville building in 1929. When moved, the clock was modernized to match the architecture of the new building. Downtown prospered in the 1950s, prompting seventy merchants to sepa­ rate from the Chamber of Commerce and form the Chula Vista Downtown Third Avenue Business District Association. This group led the installation of pedestrian benches, City-owned parking lots, and promoted Dollar Days and Shoppers Square sales. Some merchants wanted to replace the palms in

Security Pacific Bank clock in its original location on Melville building. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

1950-1959 the center plaza of Third Avenue with parking meters, but the City Council rejected the idea. It did, however, agree with merchants in

LOU VALLIN'S

1959 to remove the railroad tracks when the lemon packing plants

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closed the following year. The Leader Department Score expanded in 1957, moving to a two-story building across from the Vogue Theater. With four times

-

the floor space, air conditioning, and the first elevator in Chula Vista, it became the most modern score in the city. The second floor included a mezzanine. The Leader was the first, county-wide, to offer a revolving charge plan, installing IBM card punch equip­

ment to post its accounts. It was also the first to offer the "Tres Secrete"

inflatable bra: "It's revolutionary! Insert cube, inflate, press to seal." Diner's Club Mel Cowherd's credit card, issued in September 1955. (Courtesy Mel Cowherd.)

introduced the first national credit card in 1950. Lou Vallin, who started the Silver Dollar cafe in 1943, was the first local merchant to issue credit cards. Under the new City Charter, employees were required to take an oath of office with a new addition: " . . . that I am not a member of any party organiza­ tion which advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or violence." During the Cold War era, the country was gripped with fear and foreboding-some of it simply unfounded hysteria. After the Alger Hiss spy case, local headlines screamed "Sister Linked With Gigantic Red Spy Ring," falsely implicating the sister of a man who worked at the card club on Third Avenue. Flying saucer reports increased, and a resident on Second Avenue said in 1956 chat she and her friends saw a "large object sailing across the sky trailed by a bright red fire. It looked real close, and appeared to have gone down right in our neighborhood." Aside from red spies and red skies, there were real dangers. In June 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea and President Truman committed American forces to combat there. Local Army and Navy recruiters said "enlistments are booming" and they were "swamped" with recruits. Fears of shortages and ration­ ing caused appliance stores to sell out of refrigerators, stoves, and washers, and one family bought 3,300 pounds of sugar. The City Council appointed Herb Bryant as Director of Civil Defense to prepare for a possible atomic-bomb attack. The Civil Defense headquarters, located in the Chamber of Commerce building, conducted regular drills, blasting sirens to alert the city, and installed the "Bells and Lights" warning system that used a telephone with white, yellow, and red lights for different levels of warning. Just as in World War II, the air raid warden system was reactivated and several hundred block captains organized. The Air Force selected thirty-five sites in the county for Operation Skywatch, including the MOD tower at the Mutual lemon packing plant. Volunteers manned the W WII-era 45-foot tower twenty­ four hours a day, watching for enemy planes or missiles.

92

1950-1959 The Civil Defense program in 1951 provided funds to organize the city's first Police Reserve unit. Two platoons of ten officers patrolled downtown on foot, operating the radio, road blocks, and highway safety checks, and maintaining crime files. The Police Department grew under veteran Police Chief Cy Taylor. The Council added six Chevrolet patrol cars to crack down on speeders racing on Montgomery Freeway. But parents and downtown businessmen wanted more foot patrols and motorcycle cops, not patrol cars. Virgil Seiveno was promoted to Lieutenant, overseeing the fast-growing Patrol Division. In 1955 Ann Garber became the city's first Policewoman, and Ruth Hermann the first full-time records clerk; the next year former Marine Betty Walters joined the depart­ ment. Retiring due to health problems was Kid Harris, a championship boxer, and the first Chula Vistan to attend the FBI Academy. When the State Office of Civil Defense provided designs for fallout shelters, the City built one at the Civic Center for a cost of $495. A small underground chamber 10 by 8 feet, covered by 3 feet of cement, it served as a model for residents to build their own. During the decade at least three private bomb shelters were built, including one by Rohr President Burt Raynes at his home at Hilltop Drive and F Street. A retired Army Major in Bonita volunteered in 1950 to lead the local Freedom Crusade, a national program to mobilize the home front against com­ munism, led by Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Lucius Clay (and, it was later revealed, funded by the CIA). Everyone was invited to sign Freedom Scrolls that were sent to West Berlin, displayed with a 10-ton replica of the Liberty MOD tower used by Skywatchers during the Cold War. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

93

1950-1959 Bell. Contributions financed radio stations around the world, including Radio Free Europe, which built a powerful West German transmitter in 1951, able to broadcast over most of Europe. The local Freedom Crusade sponsored a parade in September 1951 releasing propaganda balloons over the city. The Seville Theatre extended the showing of "The Thing," about a small Air Force crew in the Arctic who battled an alien monster, ending with the classic Cold War phrase "Watch the skies!" While the home front watched the skies, soldiers left home for the war front. Sargeant Jack Bennett, who served in World War II with his three broth­ ers, flew forty missions over Korea in a B-29. Three Chula Vista pilots earned multiple medals flying from the carrier Bonhomme Richard: Cooper Barrett and Daniel Welzer, and Panther pilot Robert Schully. Captain Chuck "Trainbuster" Wolfe, the most decorated pilot from the

Howard Kruegel examining bomb shelter built by Rohr President Burt Raynes in the 1950s. (From the author's

South Bay, led the first B-26 Night Intruder unit with the Third Bomb Wing,

collection.)

lines. Wolfe, who flew hundreds of missions in W W II, had started his own

which specialized in low-flying night-time sorties against North Korean supply

The B-52 was produced by Boeing with engine pods supplied by Rohr. The jet bomber was so important to the company that Fred Rohr kept a model of the B-52 in his office. (Courtesy Goodrich Aerostructures.)

94

1950-1959 Wolfe Air Park on the south edge of Otay Valley in 1946, offering flying classes,

airplane rentals, and crop dusting. "I chose to go in low, which probably came

from my experience in crop dusting back in Chula Vista, " Wolfe said. "The terrain is rugged and the many high tension lines in the hills make it rough

to fly low, but you don't encounter as much flak that way." When awarded the Silver Star for destroying two locomotives near the Yalu River, it was noted,

"Wolfe established tactics and different types of attacks that are used widely by

his successors in the 'night shift' operations against Communist supply routes."

Helicopter pilot Lt. Edwin Moore was captured during the rescue of a

downed flier near Wonson and became the first POW from Chula Vista.Others

served behind the front lines in command and support roles. Major Walter R. Pinkham, with his knowledge of modern, high-speed business machines,

designed and set up the identification system used in the Korean War.

W hen Chula Vistan Corporal Robert Gonzales had a birthday while

serving on the Korean front lines, his mother sent him a cake. He was aston­

ished to receive the cake perfectly intact without a crack in the homemade icing.

It was hand-carried the entire distance for ten days, by ship, plane, truck, and

Jeep. The first delivery of its kind during the war, the box was covered with

inscriptions from carriers who, in turn, passed the box along.According to the

newspaper Stars and Stripes, it was probably the small cellophane window on the top that prompted the spontaneous aid of so many mail carriers. For through the window could be read an inscription in red candied letters, "Happy Birthday Robert. From Mother."

The Korean War gave Rohr another big boost. After W WII the company

became a subsidiary of the Detroit appliance company Detrola. Fred Rohr never liked making refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, and bought back his aircraft

company in 1949. During the three years of the Korean War, Rohr's workforce

increased from 3,000 to 6,700, orders surpassed $100 million, and a second plant was built in Riverside.The Chula Vista factory now filled 22 buildings on 70 acres

of bayfront; it was a major supplier of engine pods to Douglas for the DC-7 and to Convair for the 340, which replaced the DC-3.

With an annual payroll of $29 million, Rohr had a major impact on

Chula Vista's economy.W hen employees received a raise of 7 cents per hour on March 1, 1953, downtown merchants held their first annual "Chula Vista Days " sale, and it was a great success, "the greatest week ever experienced in

March ...We prepared 500 specials and were sold out by Friday night." Rohr

gave bonuses every year, which injected over $250,000 into the city.Hundreds

of employees served on PTAs and civic organizations, including the Chamber of

Commerce, American Legion posts, and the Soroptimist Club. Rohr Manager

James Hobel was a City Councilmember and served as Mayor in 1951.

This influence caused a political crisis that swept over the city in 1954.In

the April election, gas station owner Hal Rader, a newcomer who won a seat

95

1950-1959 on the City Council, launched an investigation into Council affairs. He claimed Rohr was getting special favors from the City, and raised questions about the Planning Commission. A huge crowd showed up for the July 13 Council meeting to protest a Master Street Plan to turn First Avenue into a highway. After the stormy meeting, the Citizens League for Better Government started a petition campaign to recall the Councilmen pushing for the street plan. More questions were raised about how the library, pool, and gym were financed. The group's leader, Gordon Hardy, claimed Rohr wanted to "run the city" and made other wild accusations. A mass meeting in the Legion Hall drew 800 people and had to be cleared by the fire marshall and police. A Grand Jury found that no laws had been broken, but the recall was still on the ballot. A record 5,613 votes recalled Mayor Halferty and Councilmen Hobel and Riesland. For the first time in history, Chula Vista held a second election to fill the vacancies as a result of the recall. Rohr announced all its employees would withdraw from City activities, but sixty civic leaders made a formal appeal to reconsider. Voters may have been angry at the Council, but they were not angry at Rohr. Even the Citizens League backtracked and forced Hardy to resign. Fred Rohr responded in a most unusual way. On Friday, December 10, 1954, he paid his workers with bags of silver dollars. Rohr was important to Chula Vista, and the silver dollars were a visible symbol of that importance. More than 12 tons of coins were brought directly from the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in four armored trucks to pay the weekly payroll of $345,000. The trucks arrived at the Security Bank on Wednesday. Fifty men worked day and night to count the coins into individual bags. (The average pay was $l l5, so a bag of l l5 coins weighed a little over 7 pounds.) On Friday, the bags were distributed to workers around the plant in small carts and trucks. Normally, payroll checks were printed in a few hours by a couple clerks. But for this one payroll, it took 675 hours. "Then began the shower of silver upon the community . . . Cash registers in stores became so laden that drawers would not fly open at the touch of a button, but had to be pulled out by hand." Over the next weeks, banks had to work extra hours to count and re-sack the coins brought in by workers for deposit. No longer was there any doubt of Rohr's importance to the city. Rohr was not the only cause of growth. Inexpensive land and homes, and availability of schools, churches, shopping centers, and drive-ins-all the attributes of a secure and prosperous suburb-attracted a steadily growing number of young families. During the 1950s the last remaining lemon orchards disappeared, replaced by vast housing developments. Fred Stafford, who began as a fruit and vegetable rancher, ended as a housing developer. He formed a partner­ ship with son-in-law Jack Gardner, replacing 100 acres of lemon trees west and south of his home on Fifth Avenue with Kenwood Village.

96

1950-1959

Counting silver dollars before distribution at the Rohr plant. Seated left front, Bob Campbell, future Councilmember and Port Commissioner. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

Stafford owned 100 acres taken by the federal government in 1942 for the Vista Square defense housing project. He never got the land back. le was sold to the City in 1954 for the bargain price of $7 1,768. The City continued co collect rent from the 603 housing units until 1959, when they were demolished to make way for Vista Plaza, a regional shopping center. During the decade there were continuous housing tracts built on both sides of Broadway south of Vista Square. As the population increased, developers looked to eastern borderlands for room to build. They hoped the City would contribute sewers, utilities, and water for che new homes, but these services were becoming more difficult co provide. When the federal government provided utilities and sewers for the defense hous­ ing project at Hilltop Village, Carlos Tavares and ocher developers cook advantage of these improvements. However, south of Telegraph Canyon Road, Hilltop Drive, and L Street were unfinished and other streets were only dire trails. The large area south of Telegraph Canyon Road owned by Ocay Ranch was not available for development. After the death of her father in 1940, Mary Birch spent much of her time away from the 30,000 acres she had inherited. In the early 1950s she assumed a more active role. She marri�d former RAF Com­ mander Patrick R. Patrick in 1955 and the couple moved into Rancho del Ocay

97

1950-1959 Lodge, built by John D. Spreckels on Upper Otay Lake. She loved the ranch and often invited school groups to visit. They toured the barns and hay grinders, the deep well pumps and the round bird house, and sometimes saw the cattle herds still carrying the original Estudillo brand. All were given a ride on a pony named Coco. Although Mary Birch Patrick would have preferred to keep the ranch as her father left it, she realized it had to change. The South Bay Irrigation District was formed in 1951 to provide Colorado River water to Sweetwater Valley and environs, but Otay Ranch was excluded from its service district. Mary decided to sell some parcels on the ranch's western edge through United Enterprises, the real estate company set up by her father. In 1953 Hobart Homes made the first purchase in the section south of Telegraph Canyon Road and east of Hilltop Drive, buying 160 acres for Country Club Park. Other developments created from Otay Ranch land sales included Telegraph Knolls, Seaview Estates, Sun Valley, and Robinhood. After a long debate, the City Council agreed to annexation and connected the new section to the City sewer system. Councilman Peter DeGraaf later said there was a time when he opposed any annexation or growth. He wanted it to remain a "pleasant, small town" but realized that the City must either grow or fall behind. By the end of the decade, the City had annexed over 1,200 acres on its eastern boundary. Mary Birch Patrick supported the formation of a new water district that gave Otay Ranch access to the Colorado River water from a second aqueduct under construction. The Otay Municipal Water District was formed at a meeting on Memorial Day 1954, called by Ray Coyle in his Chula Vista Star, "a red letter day for the entire South Bay Empire." Twenty-five property owners agreed to form a district of 60,000 acres, from Spring Valley and Jamul, south to the border. Attorney Paul Engstrand drew up the agreement, which went into effect in July 1956. The first Board of Directors included Larry Kuebler and Fritz Roll, whose families pioneered large ranches on Otay Mesa, and Jim Schutte, Cattle on Otay Ranch carry the brand of Magdalena Estudillo. (Courtesy Chula Vista Public Library.)

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