San Diego: Old Town (July 2018)

Old Town (July 2018) - Didn’t Expect to Find an Historic Park Here; We Thought It Was Just a Neighborhood Description

My spouse and I visited Old Town State Historic Park on a Friday afternoon in early July 2018. Old Town is the oldest settled area in San Diego and the site of the first European settlement in present-day California. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 because of its many historic buildings from the period of 1820 to 1870. 

In 1834 the Mexican government granted San Diego the status of a “pueblo”, or “chartered town”. The Old Town area remained the heart of the city of San Diego until the 1860s, when Alonzo Horton began to develop present-day Downtown San Diego. Residents and businesses quickly abandoned "Old Town" for Horton's "New Town" because of New Town's proximity to shipping facilities. In the 1910s, Old Town became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by a streetcar system built by John Spreckels (the Balboa Park organ is named after him) that was spurred by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915.

The Old Town neighborhood has 27 historic buildings, 9 hotels, 32 restaurants, and more than 100 specialty shops (including 12 art galleries). Five original adobes (accommodation made of sun-dried earth and straw) are part of the complex; other historic buildings include a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, newspaper office, cigar and pipe store, houses and gardens, and a stable with a carriage collection. The Old Town complex also contains stores where you can see local artisans demonstrating their crafts, and an area called Fiesta de Reyes ("festival of the kings") that offers dining and entertainment. 

We walked around the dusty “town”, peeking into several of the structures, but it was an extremely hot day and we tired quickly. We stopped for a drink at the Casa de Reyes, and then for lunch at the Old Town Mexican Café. (The latter restaurant is just outside of the Old Town Historic Park.)

We enjoyed our brief visit to the Old Town State Historic Park. We arrived on the Old Town Trolley Tour, and because all passengers are required to disembark there, we thought we would walk around a bit before getting on the next departing trolley. We wish that we had been better prepared for what we found in Old Town! We had expected only a neighborhood/suburb of San Diego, not an historic park that offered a few hours of exploration. It was an unexpected find!