San Diego History

Old Town Historical Monuments

Unique Place in San Diego History
By Mark S. Burgess
Posted on Feb 19 2005
Last updated Dec 21 2006

Dedication Ceremony in 3D

(from left)

Bob Stivers and Barry Friedman of Shell Oil,

County Supervisor Ron Roberts

and Fred Grand of Old Town's Chamber

Copyright©2005 sandiego.com, Inc.

In 1769 when the first western settlers moved into their haciendas in what is now Old Town, San Diego, they probably weren't thinking it was too old; and it certainly wasn't a town. In 1868, downtown San Diego began to develop and Old Town became the "older" part of San Diego, beginning an identity crisis that was finally resolved this week with the installation of the second of two entry monuments.

"Visitors walk in to my restaurant, " says Jack Peveri of Jack & Giulios in Old Town, "And they ask me where to find Old Town."

Old Town sits nestled between the 5 and 8 freeways, tucked against the Gold Hill foothills just north of downtown San Diego and south of Mission Valley. San Diego Avenue runs through it bounded by Washington Street in the South and Taylor street in the north.

The New Monument

Copyright©2005 sandiego.com, Inc.

The Old Town Chamber of Commerce has 450 members in it. Organizations with a business license located within Old Town automatically become members. It was the Chamber and its members that first pushed to have something clearly mark out their unique place in San Diego.

10 years ago, Dr. Jack Borgos, owner of the Las Casitas apartments in Old Town and 11 others who decided to stake Old Town's identity out for all to see each contributed $100 to a fund to build some entry monuments. Dr. Borgos designed two monuments and the search began to place the monuments and to find funding to erect them.

"That original $1,200 sat in an account at the San Diego Community Foundation for years," said Fred Grand, President of the Old Town Chamber of Commerce. It wasn't until the Chamber got the attention of County Supervisor Ron Roberts, that things began to move again. Supervisor Roberts found enough funding to build two of them, one of each end of Old Town.

Taylor Street Monument

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The first of the monuments was erected in the front yard of the CalTrans building 3 years ago.

"Dr. Borgos' design called for something that looked like a fallen doorway," said Mike Orosz of Southwestern Sign, the monument's constructors. To avoid the problems of real adobe collapsing on someone, Mike carved the basic shape from a foam core and then covered it with fiberglass mesh and epoxy. The final coat was an Elastomeric paint, a rubberized paint mixed with sand. "To get the real feel of adobe, we took color samples from the historic buildings left from the first settlement that still stand in Old Town. It'll look like the same old fallen wall forever ."

Ron Roberts(left) and Fred Grand(right)

flank Jane Cushman of All The King's Flags

Photo Courtesy Old Town Chamber

Of the many and varied establishments in Old Town, there is a store that sells flags, all kinds of flags: military, US, foreign even religious. All the Kings Flags donated the flag pole and California flag that flies above the new entry monument dedicated by Supervisor Roberts on February 16th.

As a measure of the success of the monuments, Chamber President Fred Grand said, "I see visitors having their pictures taken in front of the monuments from the time they first appear." It might be worthwhile to go back to Jack and Giulio's later and ask if he gets as many questions about finding Old Town.

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Comments

Posted by alessa	May 6, 2005
hallo was is das für ne dumme page????????????ich muss referat halten über ne dumme scheiß stadt

Posted by Tour Guide Service	June 24, 2005
There's no information about the Famous "Cabrillo National Monument", Why? Not to found anywhere on the web sites, why?

Posted by harry haegar	July 5, 2005
Hi alessa San diego is surely not a scheiß stadt - the page truely semms to be a little poor and does not accord to the fantastic city of san diego - but: be true - you are not really motivated to make the referat! zu deutsch - setz Dich hin und lern was, das internet kann Dir die Hausaufgaben nicht abnehmen - eines stimmt aber: diese page kann Dir nicht viel dabei helfen - ich hatte auch mehr erwartet.

Posted by frank Peralta	July 11, 2005
I was unable to locate any information or history regarding Our Lady of Guadalupe catholic church 1770 Kearney ave, San Diego. I might have missed it, but could you advise where this information could be located. thanks

Posted by Bob Devon	September 12, 2005
Whatever happened to the steamboat that was moored at the east end of Harbor Island? I believe it was a resturaunt called the "Reuben E. Lee" or something like that. Is the boat still there under another name or is it history? Thanks.

Posted by M. Meeker	September 25, 2005
A little tacky, isn't it? I wouldn't have wasted my time or money on these "entry monuments"..it gives an artifical look to an other wise authentic historical area...the "historical monuments" look like they were made of plastic. San Diego deserves better.

Posted by DENNIS	December 23, 2005
unak yevalo kolp irak da.enakiteye addiya. unake apramaa paakare

Posted by chappan tikli	December 23, 2005
sontak beltu katti kondu freeway nalli haarikondu,exit nalli jaari kondtaro. nammuralli hangenilla ,bussal jaaga saakagalla,toppal kuutu beedi sedtaare.

Posted by gina	March 10, 2006
Im from germany and I heard their fucked up old town. They closed the best mexican restaurant in san diego and changed the fantasic old stil.Its sad that somebody did that to it.I was a wonderful place and now the whole flair is gone.

Posted by Anna Hernandez	June 23, 2006
i remember my beautiful town even from two years ago to see a historical page on it makes me happy that people do want to learn about my towns history even in texas i long for all my favorite resturants and places such as parks i just hope that all is well in my lovely home town i hope that every one can soon visit my home town and see how wonder full it can be and how wild californians can be much love for my home town -anna hernandez :D!

Posted by Naomy Hernandez	June 23, 2006
Old town is awesome! I still remember when we went there 2 years ago. We went to see the celabration of 5 de mayo. I used to love going there alot. I also went on a one week feild trip there in 4th grade. I remember the stories I hered there, like bum the dog or, about the first bank ever (WELLS FARGO). I still miss it since we moved to Texas. And I hope we go see San Diego my home town this summer! I would also love to go surfing. Your hering from a real San Diegian. And I also hope people keep writing about it.

Posted by Naomy Hernandez	June 23, 2006
I hope San Diego stays the same for as long as possible.

Posted by Andy	June 25, 2006
Yo pensaba que S.Diego fue fundada por los españoles...Vaya, sino no hay ninguna referencia a ellos!!.

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