It was plain that they were in fact buying comfort, immunity from snow and slush, from piercing winds and sleet-clad streets, from sultry days and sleepless nights, from thunderstorms, cyclones, malaria, mosquitoes and bedbugs. All of which, in plain language, means that they were buying climate . . . Theodore Van Dyke, in Millionaires of a Day (1890).

“Bay’n climate,” some people called it. The irresistible twin lure of a beautiful harbor and an equitable climate drew tens of thousands to San Diego between 1885 and 1887—a period of furious growth called the “boom of the eighties.” Within an eighteen month period, San Diego’s population exploded from about 5,000 to an estimated 40,000 people.

The story of The Great Boom of the Eighties.

5th Street in 1887.