San Diego Historical Landmarks—#14D: Casa de Pedrorena

Within Old Town San Diego State Historic Park (San Diego Historical Landmark #14) are many historic buildings and rebuilds. We’ll explore nine of them since they also have been designated San Diego Historical Landmarks.

The fourth one, San Diego Historical Landmark #14C, is Casa de Pedrorena.

Casa de Pedrorena was built in 1869 by Miguel de Pedrorena Jr (picture ►), a wealthy stockman. His dad, a native of Madrid, Spain, living in Peru had come to San Diego as a ship’s agent, marrying into the prominent Estudillo family in 1842. Although he claimed the lot adjacent to the Estudillo home in Old Town, the historic Casa de Estudillo, he died in 1850 before he could build a home.

One online source states that the structure was built in 1850 by Miguel Sr. Since he died on March 21, 1850, I’m going to go with it being built in 1869 by Miguel Jr. I just don’t believe an adobe or framed home could be built in San Diego at that time in a mere 2½ months.

A plaque on the grounds (lower right corner of picture above) states that Casa de Pedrorena was the final adobe built in Old Town, and one online source states that its thick adobe and mud-plastered, whitewashed walls were typical of Mexican adobes in the area. However, the shingled roof, as well as the mill-sawn, wood-columned front porch, reflected American building practices.

Other online sources state categorically that Casa de Pedrorena was “one of” the first frame houses in Old Town.” Several sources state that it was “the first frame house” built in Old Town. Here is a picture taken around 1920:

I looked closely at the building exterior but could not determine whether it was a wood-frame building or an adobe. I guess I’ll just leave it at that. As my wise old grandmother said, “It is what it is.”

Miguel Sr. came from one of the best families in Madrid, being educated there and at Oxford University. He served as a captain in the United States Cavalry during the Mexican-American War. He was in the forefront of the attack against Fort Stockton when it was finally captured.

During the early part of the war, he had buried under his house (or the patio behind it, one source says) El Jupiter (picture ►), the old bronze cannon now on display at the Junipero Serra Museum (see my post here) in order to prevent its being used against the Americans.

Miguel Sr. was a member of the California Constitutional Convention which met in Monterey, California, in 1849. He was a member of the group headed by William Heath Davis which attempted to found New Town in 1850, an attempt that failed because of the lack of fresh water.

Miguel Jr. gave Casa de Pedrorena to his sister, Isabel de Altamirano, in January 1871, a gift that joined together two pioneer California families. Isabel and her husband, José Antonio Altamirano, raised their family in the home.

Although some sources call the home “Casa de Pedrorena y Altamirano,” Altamirano also owned the little frame house next door where the San Diego Union newspaper was first published in 1868. The newspaper building is more traditionally connected with Altamirano’s name rather than Casa de Pedrorena.

Casa de Pedrorena remained a family residence until 1907, although one source says “until the 1890s.” It was restored in 1996 by California State Parks and is said to be one of five historic 19th century adobes in Old Town State Historic Park. Currently it is a gem, jewelry, and rock shop, open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There are two old railroad mining cars located on the property:

For the introductory blog post
to San Diego’s historical landmarks,
click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.

For previous posts in the
San Diego Historical Landmarks series,
go here.

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Urban barn

Now that the days are getting longer, there is time to go exploring after teaching chess at elementary schools in the afternoon, and that’s what I’ve been doing.

I got a surprise the other day when I went exploring in a 1% neighborhood and saw this:

Usually, in order to see a real barn here in San Diego, one has to travel far out into the boondocks. This barn, however, was in a semi-rural neighborhood of large homes.

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He’s home!

Someone was gone for 213 days, but he’s home now!

Discovered yesterday as I was exploring on my way to a new elementary school to teach some rugrats how to play chess.

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San Diego Historical Landmarks—#14C: Casa de Bandini

Within Old Town San Diego State Historic Park (San Diego Historical Landmark #14) are many historic buildings and rebuilds. We’ll explore nine of them since they also have been designated San Diego Historical Landmarks.

The third one, San Diego Historical Landmark #14C, Casa de Bandini, was one of San Diego’s great Mexican restaurants when I came to San Diego in April 1993. It had been for about thirty years, but that all came to a crashing end around 2006 when the State of California did not renew the lease of the restaurant, now located about 30 miles north of San Diego, in Carlsbad. I have not been to it because I don’t frequent Carlsbad often enough or long enough to eat at a fine dining establishment. I do remember that they had the biggest margaritas in the world, the 32-oz “Bird Bath” margarita. Sadly, I lost all of my pre-2006 pictures in The Great Hard Drive Crash of August 2005.

Here is the Cosmopolitan Hotel in June 2012:

And here it is a century ago, ca. 1913:

In addition to being a historic structure, Casa de Bandini also has to be explored in terms of the Bandini family itself. First, let’s explore the history of Casa de Bandini.

Don Juan Bandini (1800-1859; picture ►) built Casa de Bandini from 1827 to 1829, originally a one-story structure with a thatched roof (probably palm fronds!), seven rooms, an entrance way, enclosed courtyard, corral, and several sheds. The house included Spanish Colonial features usually found only in the California missions. Enhancements to the home were done in the 1840s, including pane-glass windows, a brick-lined patio with well, and a small bathhouse to encourage his daughters to visit more frequently.

Financial losses forced Bandini to sell his house in 1859, and he died in November 1859. Part of the building was converted at that time into a store.

In 1869, Albert Seeley, a stage master, acquired the building and converted it into a Greek Revival hotel, the Cosmopolitan. The first story was renovated, and a wood framed second story and balconies were added.

Albert Seeley sold the Cosmopolitan in 1888, and in the years that followed, it was used first as a rooming house and then converted for use as an olive packing factory.

In 1928, Cave J. Couts Jr., Don Juan Bandini’s grandson, bought the property and restored it as a memorial to his mother, Ysidora Bandini de Couts. Couts remodeled the residence in Steamboat Revival architecture style, and by 1930 it had been wired for electricity and plumbed gas. Couts renamed the building The Miramar Hotel and Restaurant.

James and Nora Cardwell bought the Bandini property in 1945. Their son, Frank, renovated the building in the 1950s into an upscale tourist motel. The Cardwells sold the property to the State of California in 1968, the same year Old Town became a state historic park.

Now let’s look at Don Juan Bandini and who he was. He was born into a revolutionary Italian family dating back to at least 1478 when an ancestor assassinated the brother of Lorenzo Medici, the ruler of Florence.

Juan had been born in 1800 in San Marcos de Arica, Peru. Juan’s father, a native of Spain and a lieutenant on the Spanish ship “Nymphia” at the Battle of Trafalgar, found his way in 1818 to Monterey, then the capital of Mexican California, to defend the city against pirates.

In 1831, Juan denounced his allegiance to Victoria, the Mexican governor of California, his pronunciamiento stating:

“Let the rights of the citizens be born anew; let liberty spring up from the ashes of oppression, and perish the despotism that has suffocated our security.”

With that, Bandini and fourteen other San Diegans seized the Presidio of San Diego and arrested the Mexican authorities. Governor Victoria tried to end the uprising (the “Revolt of 1831”), but when Victoria’s army and the Bandini-led rebels met near the Cahuenga Pass on December 6, 1831, Victoria was wounded and his forces defeated. Following the battle, Victoria resigned as governor and, on January 17, 1832, sailed back to Mexico.

Juan Bandini was a significant influence behind the secularization of the California missions, eventually earning the title “Destroyer of the California Missions.”

Juan Bandini supported the Americans during the Mexican-American War. His three daughters are credited with making the first American flag that was raised in the Old Town Plaza on July 29, 1846.

Following the war, Juan entered the business world, but all he did there was bring his family to the brink of bankruptcy with his wild and crazy ventures. The fact that he and his wife were early socialites, often spending as much as $1,000 on galas and fiestas, didn’t help. Bandini is credited with introducing the waltz to California in 1820.

Juan and his first wife, Dolores, had two sons, Alejandro Felix, who died at the age of 14, and Jose Maria, and three daughters, Josefa, Arcadia, and Isidora. When Josefa married Pedro Carrillo, the Mexican governor, Pio Pico, gave the new bride the Peninsula de San Diego Rancho, which included Coronado and North Island, as his personal wedding present.

Pedro and Josefa had one son, Juan José, who had two sons, Leo and Jack, who became quite famous in modern America. One source says that Jack became a world famous engineer, the builder of Idlewild Airport in New York City, now known as JFK International Airport. However, I could find no other corroborating sources.

Leo Carrillo (1881-1961; picture ►) was a film star from 1929 to 1950. In 1950, he took the television role of Pancho in “The Cisco Kid,” arguably the role that made him most famous.

Right here in San Diego County is the Leo Carrillo Ranch, a fascinating place to visit and where I saw my first white peacock!

For more on the Leo Carrillo Ranch, see my post here: Where are the colors, mommy?

For the introductory blog post
to San Diego’s historical landmarks,
click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.

For previous posts in the
San Diego Historical Landmarks series,
go here.

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I’m rich! I’m rich!

It doesn’t take much for me to get inspired each day, usually a catnap here and there, a hot shower, the news report, and my Excel spreadsheet detailing my goals and tasks for each day.

Occasionally, though, my level of inspiration jumps a few notches, as it did two days ago when I got this email:

Notice that payment is in Pounds. I thought Great Britain was part of the Eurozone and was using the Euro. Not so. I guess the citizens voted down membership in the Eurozone. Good for me, though. When I initially read the email, I thought the sales price was in Euros, which were trading at $1.14 to a U.S. dollar. When I went to my PayPal account, the amount was much more than what I thought it should be. That’s when I realized that payment was in Pounds Sterling, which were trading at $1.499 to a U.S. dollar. Yahooooo! More money for me!

Here is the video that sold:

A mere 13 seconds. However, the event itself started at 10:00 a.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m. Knowing that parking in the area would be bad, I arrived at 7:00 a.m., got a great parking spot, and proceeded to take pictures of the trains passing by every 30 minutes:

So if I divide the sales price, $1,124.25, by 12 hours, I get an hourly rate of $93.69. Hmmm. Still not bad………..LOL

 

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Out & About—Homes and 100 acres abandoned!

I’m always on the lookout for anything abandoned. Even when I find something, though, it’s often not accessible, guarded by a high fence topped with barbed wire with NO TRESPASSING sign posted every five feet.

Last Thursday, on my way to a new (for me) elementary school to teach chess to 14 aspiring world champions, I came across not one, not two, not even three, but many abandoned homes, buildings, and what were obviously agricultural structures of some sort.

I was traveling a winding rural highway where the speed limit was 35 mph. Since there is a huge casino at the end of the road in the city of my destination, traffic was heavy and slow. It took me another mile before I found a place to make a safe U turn and go back to do a little exploring.

I found an extensive article online, dated December 7, 2000, a date that is relevant to this whole story.

The two office buildings were for two dairy farms, Pete Verboom Dairy Farm No. 1 and Pete Verboom Dairy Farm No. 2. The homes were for his family and employees. The dairy farms were opened in 1966 and closed in 2000. The homes were built from 1966 to 1974, and there are 100 acres of land comprising the two dairy farms.

But why are 14 buildings and 100 acres of land duly abandoned? Who has that kind of money, to just abandon valuable buildings and land in Southern California where real estate is so expensive?

It’s a long story, which I shall endeavour (the U is for my Canadian and Australian friends) to make short.

First, I guess we have to discuss the dairy industry, or any industry that involves animals and such which produce manure, flies, odors, etc. In the olden days of 1966, there wasn’t too much in this area. Now, with the Pala Casino and Resort, which opened on April 3, 2001, the area is quite popular. Note that if this huge casino and resort opened in April 2001, there’s a high probability that construction started in 2000, the year the dairy farms closed. There IS a connection.

During the 34 years that the Verboom dairy farms were in operation, more than 100 dairies ceased operations in San Diego County. With the construction of the casino and resort, CalTrans obtained an easement through the dairy farms to straighten and expand the winding, two-lane rural highway from I-15 to the casino. The homes and buildings were built close to the road, so an easement to straighten and expand the road probably would have meant tearing down all of the buildings.

Pete and his wife, Lani, raised four children on the property. The children were interested in remaining in the dairy industry, but their location was not conducive to doing that, and San Diego County itself was not friendly to the dairy industry; the last dairy that opened in the County was in 1971.

Verboom closed the two dairy farms and bought five hundred acres in Orland, California, about one hundred miles north of Sacramento where agriculture and farming is a way of life. The dairy farm in Orland opened in 2001, and that’s where Verboom lives, with his children close by and working the dairy.

Verboom’s dairy farms ran afoul of the San Luis Rey River Habitat Formation Committee, created to develop and preserve habitat for the endangered Least Bell’s Vireo (picture ►). The vireos live in willows along the river, and during drought years (common in Southern California), Verboom was prohibited from pumping extra water out of the ground lest the willows die back, which would also cause a dieback of the vireos.

The Brown-headed Cowbird (picture ►) also presented a problem. The name “cowbird” pretty much tells you that they like to be near cows where they eat lots of bugs and flies which are part and parcel of a dairy farm. Cowbirds, though, are thieves and invaders, laying their eggs in the same nest as the vireo. The cowbird chicks are bigger, so the vireo chicks die off from lack of food, as well as a problem called “blood parasitism.”

The Highway 76 corridor also played a major factor in closing the dairies. There are 19 Indian tribes located in San Diego County, more than any other county in the nation. Eight of them have casinos, and four of them are located along the Highway 76 corridor. I-15 is the main feeder to Highway 76 and those casinos. The dairy farms are on Highway 76 just a couple of miles from I-15.

See location on Google Maps

Traffic is a nightmare because the winding two-lane road has never been straightened or expanded. So much for planning, and possibly a good case study for traffic in other areas that are trying to building Indian gaming casinos and resorts. Plans don’t always come to fruition!

Verboom was fortunate to sell the land before he moved. So if he sold it, why is it vacant and abandoned? Who would buy land in Southern California and just abandon it?

Ah, it gets more interesting, involving the Gregory Canyon Landfill.

Back in 1986, the County began looking for a North County site for a new landfill that would be able to accept one million tons of solid waste each year for thirty years. The Gregory Canyon site was not on the official 1986 list of possibilities; it was added in 1988. Without getting into the pros and cons of the Gregory Canyon site—and there are many!—suffice it to note that the Gregory Canyon Landfill still has not been built, although there still are plans to do so. And therein lies the reason why the property remains vacant and abandoned.

According to the 2000 article that I used as the basis for this post, Gregory Canyon Ltd bought the dairy farms to provide a natural buffer around the landfill; by the time of the sale, the land already had been rezoned for open space. Gregory Canyon Ltd. paid $5,000 per acre for the land and threw in additional compensation for the facilities—the milking barns, houses, etc. Land in Orland cost only $2,500 per acre, providing Verboom with a nice profit and many fewer worries and headaches.

One final paragraph in the article reminded me that there is another abandoned property here, a former chicken ranch that I need to visit again. I used to live just a mile from it while it was operational. It closed in the early 2000s because of complaints of dust, flies, etc.—typical things one would expect to be connected to a chicken ranch—from many in the 1% neighborhoods surrounding the ranch (yes, at one time I really did live in a 1% neighborhood!).

Glenn County, where Orland is, has an ordinance stating that if you’re outside of the city limits of the cities in Glenn County, then the county, being an agricultural county, does not consider dust, flies, spraying, and other agricultural activities as being a nuisance. It’s part of business. Pro agriculture….

Out & About—Hail Satan

I recently commented to a photographer friend on Facebook that finding abandoned buildings in San Diego doesn’t happen often because real estate is so expensive here.

If anyone abandons buildings or—gasp!—land, some developer comes in, swoops it up, and redevelops it, creating a subdivision of cookie cutter homes, condos, a mall, or a parking lot.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when I passed a collection of abandoned homes and (obviously) agricultural buildings along a one-mile stretch of winding rural highway.

I was on my way to an elementary school that is part of the San Antonio de Pala Mission on the Pala Indian Reservation. A huge Casino (picture ►) also resides on the reservation, so traffic on the rural highway was heavy and slow, speed limit 35 mph.

Abandoned buildings make great pictures, so I went back to explore, although I had to drive another mile before finding a safe place to do a U turn.

I only found one building with a NO TRESPASSING sign, so I skipped that building but explored all the others. I’ll have more about these abandoned homes and buildings—and an abandoned 100 acres of real estate as well!—in tomorrow’s post. It’s quite interesting.

Meanwhile, three pictures to whet your appetite:

Comes to an end

I am making progress on creating an online store at RusselRayPhotos.com. However, in doing that, I have made the decision to shut down MyWiseOldGrandmother.com because those two sites (and a couple of others which also will be shut down) share the same account at the same host. I am not yet ready to spend buckets of money on additional storage space for Photographic Art, and since I haven’t done anything with MyWiseOldGrandmother.com in seven years…. It comes to an end.

I originally put a lot of work into MyWiseOldGrandmother.com, so I’m not willing to just throw it all away. Thus, I’ll be bringing the more interesting stuff over here to share with you!

I hope you will spend some time with the elderly in your life so we don’t lose what they have to offer. Talk with them, write down their stories, record their stories, take pictures, and share everything with others!

My wise old grandmother’s name was May Agnes Kirk. She was my paternal grandmother and adopted me in December 1965 when she was almost 55 years old and I was a juvenile delinquent three months shy of 11. The morning glory was her favorite flower, opening bright and early each morning and, as the day wore on, slowly closing and going to bed.

My wise old grandmother taught me a lot with her love of life; her knowledge about life, which came from the “school of hard knocks” (she had only a first-grade education), her wonderful words of wisdom, which I typed and put in my notebook; and her love of nature, of which cats, dogs, birds, and gardening were most prominent.

She had a particular fondness for neglected, injured, or mistreated animals, and we were always adopting dogs and cats from the alley behind our house. She is the reason why I recent decided to sponsor Boots (picture ►), a special needs kitty, at Cat House on the Kings. Read more about Boots here: Meet Boots!

Her other fondness was for music, and me playing both the piano and the violin, as well as being a singer, might have given her hope that she could make someone out of me.

My original mission for MyWiseOldGrandmother.com was to bring something positive to the world, represented by the positive and beautiful words of knowledge and wisdom conveyed to me by my wise old grandmother. Her spirit lives on although her web site won’t, but maybe something in those pages that I bring over here might provide someone with inspiration, hope, or a smile.

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San Diego Historical Landmarks—#14B: Casa de Cota site

Within Old Town San Diego State Historic Park (San Diego Historical Landmark #14) are many historic buildings and rebuilds. We’ll explore nine of them since they also have been designated San Diego Historical Landmarks.

The second one, San Diego Historical Landmark #14B, Casa de Cota site, remind me of the song by The Eagles where they paved over paradise and put up a parking lot. Here is what the Casa de Cota site looked like a couple of days ago:

Sadly, that’s it, and I have proof:

Lots of nagging questions….

The sign is a California Historical Landmark sign, indicating that the Casa de Cota site was historic enough to make it onto their list, too, at #75.

I walked around the parking lot but didn’t find a plaque to tell me more about the Casa de Cota site. So we’re left with research online, at the San Diego History Center, and at the library.

Here is what the San Diego History Center has:

“Built in the mid-1830’s by Juan or Ramón Cota, this house stood for over a century on the corner of Twiggs and Congress Streets, before being destroyed by United States Army bulldozers during World War II.”

The California Parks web site isn’t of any additional help:

“This adobe is said to have been built about 1835 by Juan or Ramon Cota.”

Hey! At least we have something to go on!

A book found online titled “San Diego in the 1930s” tells us that ca. 1937 the Casa de Cota was “a two-room fragment of an adobe house which is rapidly falling into ruin. Above an interior doorway is the date 1852, approximately the year of construction.”

I found three old pictures but, sadly, they are owned by the San Diego History Center, and since they want a minimum of $95 per picture to use them, well, that ain’t happening in this century or the next, so here are links to the three pictures:

Casa de Cota 1

Casa de Cota 2

Casa de Cota 3

I could not find any information on Juan or Ramón Cota so I don’t know if the adobe was historic because it was old or because of who Juan or Ramón Cota were.

For the introductory blog post
to San Diego’s historical landmarks,
click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.

For previous posts in the
San Diego Historical Landmarks series,
go here.

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Out & About—Not your typical San Diego stucco home

Probably my greatest deficiency in life is that I am interested in everything, a true Jack of all Trades. Sadly, there’s not enough time in the days, the weeks, the months, and the years to develop all of my interests, and just as soon as I get started developing an interest in one area, another area comes along and carries my interest away with it.

Architecture is one such interest that I never took time to develop. Fortunately for me, the residential architecture in San Diego is pretty blasé, so there’s no need to develop anything. Most of our houses are stucco, a great material for the Mediterranean climate that we have. However, occasionally, if you keep your eyes open while you’re out and about, you can find houses made out of stucco, some with stucco, a few with stucco, and if you’re really lucky, that rare mansion made out of stucco.

So imagine my surprise when I’m out and about in one of those 1% neighborhoods and find a Victorian mansion with clapboard siding:

I was pretty sure that Scotty had beamed me to somewhere in New England and that I was looking at a house straight out of a Stephen King novel. But no….

Upon recovering from my shock, I realized that I was still in San Diego. Everything else for miles around was stucco, stucco, and stucco.

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