Archive for September, 2010

On November 1, 1898, the first classes of the future San Diego State University began. In leased rooms above a downtown novelty shop, eighty-one students appeared for the formal opening of the new San Diego State Normal School.

Read about the beginnings of the San Diego State Normal School.

The Hill Building at 6th and F Streets was the first home of San Diego State in 1898.

In the early 1900s, the ultimate status symbol for a business tycoon in America was a luxurious, ocean-going yacht. A personal mark of opulence in San Diego was the 226-foot steam yacht Venetia, owned by John Diedrich Spreckels. Read more about Spreckels’ famed yacht: The Venetia.

The “Venetia” leaving San Diego in 1924. From Adams, The Man: John D. Spreckels.

The floating stadium would be perfect for San Diego, particularly if it was located in Mission Bay. It’s the first novel idea in stadium-building since the dome.  –Barron Hilton, October 1964.

Read about the Floating Stadium in Mission Bay.

Engineers proposed a unique concept for a sports stadium in San Diego.

The building was populated with an amazing assortment of wildlife: squirrels, bees, doves, flies, lost cats and dogs, lizards, fleas, termites, spiders, and mice. None of these visitors could really be blamed on the proximity of the Zoo next door. The staff learned not to feed the squirrels, to administer soda and sympathy for bee stings, [and] to wield a well-aimed fly swatter . . . —Clara Breed, City Librarian.

Read here about The Library in Balboa Park

The Public Library in Balboa Park’s Food and Beverage Building, 1953.

Agoston Haraszthy

Pioneer Agoston Haraszthy is recognized in state history as the “Father of Winemaking in California.”  He is also known as San Diego’s first county sheriff.  But Haraszthy is most often remembered in San Diego for a legendary scandal that one local historian would call “the first instance of graft in California.”

Read more about Agostin Haraszthy.

  

Robert Walsh at San Quentin. Courtesy California State Archives.

One night a cross was burned in the wash at the head of Del Monte Street, and this may have been connected with the talk about keeping the Negroes out.  We’d heard a rumor that one was going to move in, but that “we” would never stand for it . . . 

An ugly incident in San Diego’s  Ocean Beach.

Aeronautical genius or scam artist? Charles Toliver excited San Diegans in 1911 with his plans to build a gas-filled dirigible. Investors eagerly bought shares in the Toliver Aerial Navigation Company. But the project did not turn out as expected . . .

Read the complete story of the San Diego Airship.

Charles Toliver.