Downtown San Diego is the central business district of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. It houses the major local headquarters of the city, county, state, and federal governments. The area comprises eight neighborhoods: Gaslamp Quarter, East Village, Columbia, Marina, Cortez Hill, Little Italy, Bankers Hill, and Core.
The downtown area is home of the San Diego Convention Center, the city's primary convention center. It is also home of the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera, as well as several performing arts venues, such as Jacobs Music Center, the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, and the San Diego Civic Theatre.
Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay, which houses the USS Midway Museum and the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Balboa Park is a historic urban cultural park that borders the area. San Diego International Airport is located northwest of downtown.
History The downtown of San Diego was previously inhabited by the Kumeyaay who referred to the area as Tisirr, and also established a village called Pu-Shuyi near what is now Seaport Village.
The city of San Diego was originally focused on Old Town near the Presidio, several miles north of current downtown. The location was not ideal because it was several miles from navigable water. In 1849 Lt. Andrew B. Gray, a surveyor working with the boundary commission to establish the boundaries of the new state of California, suggested that an area closer to San Diego Bay would be a better location for a city because it would be better for trade. He proposed the idea to William Heath Davis, who recruited four other investors. The partners under Davis's leadership purchased of land in what is now downtown San Diego. They laid out a street plan for New Town and built a wharf and warehouse.San Diego Historical Society Biography of William Heath Davis Several people built houses there, including the still-standing William Heath Davis House, now a museum. John Judson Ames wrote a prospectus for a newspaper, the San Diego Herald in December 1850, soliciting advertisements and subscriptions from the towns-people; the first issue was published on May 29, 1851. However, New Town did not do well due to a lack of fresh water, a financial depression in 1851, and opposition from the established settlements in Old Town and La Playa."Abortive Attempt to Establish New San Diego", Smythe's History of San Diego part 2, chapter 14 In 1852, a San Diego grand jury called for the removal of several Kumeyaay villages close to any White settlement and the village of Tisirr was razed to the ground."Community Plan Update for the Community of Old Town Prehistoric Cultural Resources" (PDF). January 2015.
In 1867, Alonzo Horton purchased of pueblo lands in the current downtown area, and in 1869 he added Davis's to his holdings; the area was referred to as the Horton Addition.San Diego Historical Society biography of Alonzo Horton Davis's wharf had fallen to pieces by then, but Horton realized the area was still ideal for a harbor.Engstrand, Iris Wilson, California’s Cornerstone, Sunbelt Publications, Inc., 2005, p. 88 He built a new wharf at the end of Fifth Avenue in 1869. He vigorously sold property and gave away land to promote development of the area, fueling the first of San Diego's many real estate speculation booms. People flocked to the area, known as New Town, because of its better access to shipping. In 1871 government records were moved to a new county courthouse in New Town. By the 1880s New Town had totally eclipsed Old Town (as it is called to this day) as the heart of the growing city.
In 1885, the transcontinental railroad reached San Diego. The Santa Fe railway station opened downtown in 1887 (that station was replaced in 1915 by the downtown landmark Santa Fe Depot, which is still in use). In 1886 the city's first electric lights and first streetcars were established in New Town.San Diego Historical Society timeline In 1912 the Spreckels Theatre opened downtown, the first modern commercial playhouse west of the Mississippi.San Diego Historical Society: Spreckels Theater A new commercial pier, the Broadway Pier, was built by the city in 1913.
In the 1910s, downtown became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was spurred by the Panama–California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of the neighborhood until their retirement in 1939.
In 1964 the multi-story City Hall and Community Concourse were dedicated on a four-block-square property at 202 C Street. Recent mayors and city councils have discussed building a replacement city hall, but no replacement plan has been approved. In the 1960s, Centre City began to fall into a state of disrepair and disrepute. Major businesses and stores moved from downtown to suburban shopping malls. The downtown area became known as a hangout for homeless people and sailors on liberty. Tattoo parlors, bars, and strip clubs were predominant forms of business. Trash littered the Gaslamp Quarter, many 19th century Victorian houses were rundown, and there were few buildings of significant size (the tallest building at the time was fourteen stories, the locally famous El Cortez).Journal of San Diego History, Volume 46, No. 1, Winter 2000 Despite this, low- and mid-rise buildings were beginning construction.
In 1975, redevelopment plans were created for downtown.History of the City of San Diego . San Diego Government. Retrieved on 2007-10-14. These efforts were spearheaded, in part, by councilman Leon Williams, who represented downtown at the time. In 1985, the area underwent more redevelopment with the completion of Horton Plaza, the Gaslamp Quarter revival, and the completion of the San Diego Convention Center. Petco Park, a ballpark used by the San Diego Padres, opened in 2004.
Chinatown
In the 1860s, the first Chinese people moved to the downtown area. In the 1870s, the Chinese were the primary fishermen in the area. Beginning in the 1880s, a large number of Chinese began to move to San Diego, establishing a concentration; with up to 200 Chinese making up a minority of the 8,600 who lived in all of San Diego. At its peak, about a thousand Chinese lived in San Diego and were faced with discrimination. The concentration became known as Chinatown, and an effort to demolish the area due to the Panama–California Exposition was attempted but the area continued on until World War II. Beginning in the early 1900s, Filipinos began to move to San Diego, and settled in and near Chinatown. In 1995, the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District was created to preserve the remaining structures that remained from the era when Chinatown, as well as Nihonmachi (Japantown), existed. While a few of the buildings remain, there no longer exist a significant concentration of Chinese Americans in the former neighborhood.
Geography
Located in central San Diego, downtown San Diego is delimited by San Diego Bay to the west and southwest, Bankers Hill, Middletown, and Balboa Park to the north, Sherman Heights and Golden Hill to the east, and Barrio Logan and Logan Heights to the southeast. San Diego International Airport is just northwest.
Districts and neighborhoods Columbia, the west district of downtown. Located between the Marina and Little Italy, west of Columbia Street. Core, the central business district of downtown. Cortez Hill, the northeast district of downtown. East Village, the east district of downtown, which is home to Petco Park and the surrounding Ballpark Village. Gaslamp Quarter, a two- by ten-block nightlife district in central downtown Little Italy, the northwest district of downtown. Marina, the southwest district of downtown, which is home to Seaport Village and Pantoja Park.
Architecture
Due to San Diego International Airport's proximity to downtown, there is a FAA imposed 500-foot height restriction on all buildings within a 2.3-mile radius of the runway.Shaw, Gary. "Not Sprawling To Ramona ". San Diego Metropolitan (October 2003). Retrieved on 2007-10-13. The height regulation exists because when planes approach the airport, any structure taller than 500 feet within the radius could interfere with flight operations and potentially result in a collision.FAA Information about San Diego International Airport (SAN). Airport-data.com (2013-12-12). Retrieved on 2014-05-24.
Government buildings The United States Postal Service operates the downtown San Diego Post Office at 815 E Street."Post Office Location - DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO ." United States Postal Service. Retrieved on May 5, 2009. The city's former main public library is located across the street from it at 8th and E streets, but currently is vacant. A new nine-story Central Library opened in 2013 on Park Boulevard at J Street."New main library is a creation in concrete", San Diego Union-Tribune, November 16, 2011 Other government buildings downtown include City Hall and other city administration buildings, the San Diego Police Headquarters at 14th and Broadway, the State of California office building at 1350 Front Street, and a three-block federal office complex at 8th and Front streets. County and federal courthouses are also located downtown.
Historic landmarks
The downtown area contains numerous sites that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They include:
The Gaslamp Quarter Historic District Star of India and Berkeley, historic ships berthed at the B Street Pier in downtown The Alfred Haines House at 2470 E Street The Armed Services YMCA at 500 West Broadway The Balboa Theatre at 868 Fourth Avenue The C Street Inn at 636 C Street The former City of San Diego police headquarters, jail, and courts at 801 Market Street Eagles Hall at 733 Eighth Street The El Cortez Condominiums at 702 Ash Street The Hawthorne Inn at 2121 First Avenue The Horton Grand Hotel at 332 F Street The Independent Order of Odd Fellows building at 526 Market Street The John Ginty House at 1568 Ninth Avenue The McClintock Storage Warehouse at 1202 Kettner Boulevard The Medico-Dental Building at 233 A Street The Panama Hotel at 105 West F Street Pantoja Park on G Street and India Street The Pythias Lodge Building at 211 E Street and 870 Third Avenue The Robert E. Lee Hotel at 815 Third Avenue and 314 F Street The San Diego Rowing Club building at 535 East Harbor Drive The San Diego Trust and Savings Bank Building at 530 Broadway Spreckels Theatre at 121 Broadway Santa Fe Depot at 1050 Kettner Street The U.S. Grant Hotel at 326 Broadway The U.S. post office at 815 E Street The U.S. courthouse at 325 West F Street The Walker Scott Building and Owl Drug Building at 1014 Fifth Avenue and 402 Broadway
Arts and culture
The San Diego Civic Theatre in the Community Concourse is the home of the San Diego Opera as well as traveling shows. The San Diego Symphony is headquartered at Jacobs Music Center, a renovated movie palace on 7th Avenue originally built in 1929 as the Fox Theater. The Spreckels Theater at 1st and Broadway, in continuous operation since 1912, hosts local and traveling performances and productions. The Balboa Theatre, built in 1924, re-opened in 2008 after extensive renovations as a venue for live performances and concerts. Both the Spreckels and the Balboa theaters are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other downtown theaters include the Lyceum in Horton Plaza, which hosts the San Diego Repertory Theatre as well as concerts and art shows, and the Sledgehammer Theater. Nightclubs such as the House of Blues and Croce's feature well-known musical groups. The Museum of Contemporary Art, also located in downtown San Diego, has displayed work across a collection of media since 1950.
Filming locations