Archive for April, 2010

30th April
2010
written by Richard

The philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of 1,689 libraries in the United States between 1883 and 1929. San Diego was the site of the first Carnegie library in California.

Read more about the Carnegie Library in San Diego and see the film below.:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2QzzcMEhiE

29th April
2010
written by Richard

Cannery workers at the Cohn-Hopkins Company.

We ate lunch, but we didn’t have a break for dinner.  We worked straight through. It was pretty hard . . . sometimes there was only two or three hours of work, it just depended on how much fish the cannery had, how many boats came in . . . We were only paid 33 cents an hour.

Read more about the Canneries.

29th April
2010
written by Richard

The arrival of the British tall ship Dudhope in San Diego harbor on November 30, 1914 was an impressive sight.  Describing her “massive yards and mast and the white sails hauled tight by the brisk breeze” the Union called the 2000-ton tall ship a “marine spectacle.”

 The steel-hulled bark had the historic distinction being the last cargo-carrying windjammer to enter San Diego via the storied Cape Horn route.  But the ship would be better remembered for a surprising mutiny.

Read more about “The Dudhope Mutiny”

23rd April
2010
written by Richard

A redwood pipe past its prime.

There wasn’t a lawn in the city. But some people went without baths so they could water their pet shrubs. Everybody with money left town. Those who remained became water experts . . .

Read about the Wooden Pipeline to San Diego.

23rd April
2010
written by Richard

The closing of the Stingaree.

Strolling down Fifth Street any evening, the ear is rasped by the notes from asthmatic pianos, discordant banjos and fiddles, and half-drunken voices that sing boisterous and ribald songs. The eye is pained to see one, two, or perhaps three men on each corner, so intoxicated that they can barely stand . . . the lower Fifth Street in San Diego is fully as bad, if not worse than the notorious Barbary Coast district of San Francisco . . .

Read about the Stingaree.

23rd April
2010
written by Richard

The Dulzura district is the most extensive and richest gold bearing deposit in the world today. –Col. J. Lovick Johnson, mining engineer.

A surprising gold strike set off a stampede in March 1908.
Read more: Dulzura Gold Rush

Miners on the road in Dulzura

22nd April
2010
written by Richard

Within the next twenty days San Diego harbor will assume a warlike appearance, for twenty vessels of the navy, including the two submarines Grampus and Pike . . . will be in the waters of the inner bay . . .

Go to submarines.

22nd April
2010
written by Richard

In May 1991, San Diego Union staff writer Roger Showley interviewed nearly a dozen local historians to get their favorite picks for books on local history.   Here’s what the historians suggested . . .

Go to Suggested books on San Diego history

21st April
2010
written by Richard

On August 12, 1938, a great match race at the Del Mar racetrack pitted Seabiscuit against Ligaroti. Over 20,000 fans watched the race and a nationwide audience listened on the radio . . .

Read http://www.sandiegoyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Seabiscuit-Comes-to-San-Diego3.pdf and check the YouTube video here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcnawQ7DFaE

Seabiscuit and Ligaroti down the stretch.

Seabiscuit and Ligaroti down the stretch.