Yellow Chairs


Venice Italy is arguably the most photographed city. And certainly one of the world’s most popular as well. It is pretty difficult to maneuver in the city with a camera during the height of day time. One needs to rise when custodians are sweeping the side walks, when milk is delivered, and when the baker is loading his oven. The yellow chairs are at Piazza San Marco. The brick element on the left is the base of San Marco’s bell tower. Straight ahead in the background is Torre dell’Orologio. It is the city’s famous astrological clock dating from 1499. That is the bell atop the structure. On either side of the bell are statues of Moors that strike the bell as part of the clock mechanism. “A masterpiece of technology and engineering.” The archway at tower base leads into what is the main shopping street of the city, the old Merceria.


The elements of Piazza San Marco, the historical political and religious ground zero of the city, face the waters and oceans Venice once ruled.

A nice quiet Piazza newspaper read before tourists arise and fill the awaiting yellow chairs.

Little Sweden

Perhaps the area between Utah Street and 28th Street isn’t enough real estate to be called Little Sweden, but there are a number of structures there built by San Diego’s Swedish community.


Dance Halls were popular teenage hangouts in the 1930’s. Of the many venues in San Diego, Vasa Hall at 3094 El Cajon Boulevard was among the most popular. Here on any given Friday and Saturday night the joint was hoppin’ with Jive, Boogie Woogie, and The Lindy.

I remember when Bit Of Sweden at 2850 El Cajon Blvd. was open for business. I probably ate there. It is now a banquet facility for rent. And sometimes it is also referred to as Vasa Hall or Club.

Sweden’s three crowns; entrance to Bit Of Sweden.

Two other businesses associated with the Swedish community are Rudford’s and the former Gustafson’s Furniture.

The Gustafson Furniture building was in use until a few years ago. Allowed to sag and crumble. There’s a trend to tear down and replace with a similar looking structure. A bit of a compromise between preservation and tasteless development. Although a nice gesture, the Gustafsons replacement seems a bit sterile. Condos replaced the retail space shown above.

Pizza Pie, Chicken Pie and Chicken

Leonardo’s Pizza is the best. “Who sezez? I sezez,” ‘sez’ Tony.

Leonardo’s.

Now hold on. Uncle Jonni argues Uncle Joe’s has the best pizza pie.

Uncle Joe’s. But…under new management since my encounter with Uncle Jonni. Reviews however are good.

No essay of The Boulevard is satisfactory without these two major icons. The water tower and San Diego Chicken Pie Shop. There are legions and generations of San Diegans in testimony that the chicken pie dinner is the cheapest and most satisfying comfort food experience on the planet.

Gone forever. At attention at Keith’s Chicken In The Rough at 32nd and El Cajon. 1939.

I suppose the balloon is a nice try. But not even close to the charm of that old diner. Church’s has a following in San Diego because Hall of Fame Padre Tony Gwynn is part owner.

Headwater and Delta

Frank The Trainman, since 1946. The store at this location on Park Boulevard at the headwater of where El Cajon Boulevard begins was replaced by a credit union building. The neon sign was preserved and remains in various states of repair and operation today. The following blog details one memory of the old store. http://www.ogaugewatch.com/ogaugewatchcom/2006/02/frank_the_train.html


Originally a Piggly Wiggly Shopping Center. It is the hinge, so to speak, of The Boulevard’s front gate. The Boulevard is stilled signed “Business Loop Interstate 8.”

I first described The Boulevard as San Diego’s version of the Mother Road. A term associated with Route 66. I’ve discovered the actual nick name. Old U.S. Highway 80, which The Boulevard was a leg of, was known as The Broadway of North America. Commissioned in 1926 until 1964, U.S. 80 ran from San Diego to Tybee Island, Georgia. Indeed, a road rivaling Route 66.


Heading east, The Boulevard’s delta is Main Street of El Cajon. Colorful jazz musician statues herald your arrival to Main Street and The East County Performing Arts Center.


From El Cajon heading west The San Diego stretch of U.S. 80 went from Main Street to El Cajon Boulevard to Washington Street onto Cabrillo Freeway (co-signed with U.S. 395) through Balboa Park to downtown San Diego and Market Street to terminus at U.S. 101, Pacific Highway.

Anyone up for a road trip? Reconnect old U.S. 80. http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/US80/index.html

The Manor


Lafayette Hotel. A former co-worker of mine Kathryn Synodinos clearly remembers The Lafayette as the site where she filed her citizenship papers after immigrating from in Greece in 1966. “The U.S. Immigration Office operated from a suite at the back of the hotel.”

In 1955 it was called The Manor. “Occupying a whole city block, The Manor is one of San Diego’s finest hotels. It offers, in one convenient location and under one hospitable management, an unlimited variety of accommodations. Luxurious hotel rooms, spacious cottage apartments, poolside cabanas, modern motel units–you’ll find them all at The Manor. Guests have their choice of facilities of a big city hotel, the excitement of a sparkling resort, or the restful quiet of their own home. The Manor’s rates, too, are designed to offer this same flexibility and wide choice. Cabana rooms are as low as $6.25 and there are suites from $15 and apartments up to $40. Special monthly rates are quoted upon request.


“The Manor is built around its heated Olympic – size Star Pool. Here guests enjoy swimming and sunbathing virtually every day of the year.

“Family applications are being received in the new Manor Summer Club. For low monthly dues, members are entitled to use the pool, outdoor play area, shuffleboard, and other sports facilities. There are children’s and adult’s swimming classes as well as instruction in most other sports. Massage, hot room and steam bath facilities are available both for men and women.

“A new chef and new management bring you food and service that will make you come back to The Manor again and again. Breakfast, luncheon and dinner are served in the beautifully redecorated Mississippi Room. A special Fashion Show Luncheon, with professional models showing the season’s newest styles in clothes and accessories, is presented every Thursday at 12:30 p.m. As an added service, guests at the Fashion Show are invited to bring their children. For no extra charge The Manor’s competent attendants care for them while their mothers ‘get away for awhile.’

“Following the Fashion Show, the guests are invited to use the pool. A complete Fried Chicken Plantation Dinner for $1.50 is a popular feature at The Manor on Sundays. After dark the Mississippi Room becomes one of San Diego’s gayest supper clubs. There is dancing every night with Mack McLean and his Orchestra.

“The Manor, located in the quiet residential heights of San Diego, is but six minutes from downtown. Out of city motorists can drive right to its door without passing through mid-town traffic. A lobby-entrance garage and a large lot solve parking problems. To reach The Manor from the North, turn right just beyond the first overpass as you approach San Diego on Highway 101 and follow the Mission Valley Freeway to Texas Street. Turn right up the hill and right again at El Cajon Boulevard (Highway 80). The hotel is but a block away.”

Related links:

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=880

http://www.urbanhousingpartners.com/projects.html  Scroll to Lafayette Residences.

Rust ‘N’ Dust

The Boulevard is a stream of constant change. An ever present “pardon our dust” sign.


Dust. The Desert Inn, photo circa 1980. A loss of Boulevard neon around College Avenue second in importance only to the loss of the Campus Drive-In Theatre.

Dust.

Dust. This Streamline Moderne dinner night club. It spent its last days as a Chinese Buffet before being bulldozed.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dust. Chuck Wagon Restaurants. There were three. Pacific Highway, Midway Drive and El Cajon Blvd.  The Chuck Wagon on Midway Drive was the largest. Besides the expansive downstairs eating area, there was a “Longbranch Saloon,” and the “Gaslamp Room.” Both sections featured live music and entertainment. Most remembered performer, Dr. Michael Dean, the hypnotist. Then a local talent at the time Regis Philbin mangaed the Gaslamp Room in the 1960’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the three only the Pacific Highway structure remains. Look for it if you will, but it bears no resemblance to its glory days pictured above.

Rust. Old mechanic’s shop.

Rust. A closed Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store. Windows blacked out and thoroughly “decorated.” (Apologies here to Mr. Hitchcock.)

Rust and Dust–must be. The proprietors descended upon me and the camera like Britney’s bodyguards. “You can’t take pictures here!” They called the police. I said “Good! I’ll be happy to hear the policeman say I can use a camera here on the side walk.” The police said as long as I’m not on private property or pointing my lens into someone’s window, I have every right to shoot pictures on a public street.  The man calmed down and disappeared. But the wife was unrelenting even after the police had left. Weird, huh?

Rust. The Boulevard is a gallery of faded, rusted signs and skeletons of signs.

Dust. Remaining portion of State Theatre’s terrazzo.

Detail, State Theatre terrazzo.


State Theatre and its space needle spire.

State Theatre Interior.

State Theatre snack bar.


Dust. The very first Jack In The Box, 63rd and El Cajon Blvd. Dull, bland commercial architecture is there now.

All is not rust or dust fortunately. The outstanding Featheringill Mortuary and Fairlane Cleaners do survive at 63rd and El Cajon Boulevard.

From Dirt Road to Premier Strip

Dedicated to the ease of automobile access The Boulevard was San Diego’s premier commercial strip until 1960 and 1961. That is when Interstate 8 was completed. The malls of College Grove, Mission Valley and Grossmont Center were built. The traffic and customers El Cajon Boulevard once saw went to those areas.


Pearson Ford. The jingle is true, “They stand alone at Fairmont and El Cajon,” as the only remaining new car dealership of the strip.

Many of the old lots remain, but now dealing used cars.

The Schwinn Bicycle Center once occupied the purple building, left side. Also of note is the United Car lot and the little Queen Anne house at this site.

3747 El Cajon Boulevard today.

The Emma Schnug residence, 1910. The little house knew The Boulevard when it was still El Cajon Avenue and only a dirt road.

Ben Hur

From Interstate 5, outside downtown San Diego, you can see a Ben Hur. He won’t be thundering along at 95 miles per hour though. He’s stayed put there at 800 W. Ivy since way back in the 1920’s as Ben Hur Coffee, Tea and Spice Products, Inc. They were based out of Los Angeles in a building that also remains. However there the original art work is gone. Only a faded trace of the letters “Coffee.” Another sign “Angeles Desk Company” was painted over it. Luckily, this handsome display in San Diego survives and adorns the urban landscape.


Ben Hur Coffee, Tea and Spice had its day though. With plants also in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. They had a good contract going with Lucky Markets as producer of their store brand.


Six years after buying A. Schilling and Company of San Francisco, McCormick and Company then acquired Ben Hur Products, Inc in 1953. Schilling lived on in brand, but Ben Hur fell by the wayside.

ebay

You may find an old Ben Hur coffee tin on ebay selling for a hundred bucks. Or maybe a spice tin is more budget friendly.

ebay

Echoes and Remnants

Unknown boarder.

Mrs. Burbidge’s Boarding House at Ingraham Street and Union Avenue near downtown Los Angeles is where Gunhild and Bill Soderberg lived after Gustav Soderberg left the country, late 1920’s. It is apparent from the photos this was a most pleasant neighborhood with fine old homes. This is where Keith Teter met Gunhild.

Ingraham Street no longer exists at Union Avenue. A school yard completely covers the grounds of the former street block.

Of the few remaining blocks of Ingraham Street, this was the only old house I found. All the rest are ramshackle apartment buildings or commercial type of structures. Not far from Union Avenue, Bill and Gunhild must have passed this house numerous times.

After Gunhild and Keith were married, they and Bill moved to a house on Shatto Street. As with Ingraham Street, little remains on Shatto that resembles a residence. In his extreme old age Bill went back to this neighborhood. He lamented not finding familiar sites. Little evidence of the world he knew as a child in Los Angeles. This landmark, however, remains. The Commodore. Gunhild worked here as a housekeeper when they lived on Shatto. They were still at Shatto when Greta was born.

Only 3 or 4 blocks from the former site of Mrs. Burbidge’s Boarding House stands this outstanding Queen Ann home of 1894 called the Mooers House. It is located on Bonnie Brae Street. Mr. Mooers made his wealth from the discovery of placer gold, a mountain of it, which became the claim known as Yellow Aster. It was one of the largest gold producers in southern California and one of the noted mines in the State. Mr. Mooers enjoyment of his wealth was unfortunately short lived and tempered by ill health. He died in 1900.

I’m intrigued with the peak enclosure there above the second floor. That paisley swirl opening. Almost a beach wave motif.

All that ornamentation.

Next door is another gorgeous home. Both homes stand in sharp contrast to their surroundings of ugly dirty commercial structures and slum dwellings filled with lay-abouts or druggies. Save for two or three exceptional structures this fine old neighborhood was completely discarded.

Keith and Gunhild’s house on Cheviot Drive in Cheviot Hills is still up and well. With additional structure added in back.

August 2007

World War II. Keith, Milo Foster, Greta, Bill and Jeanne. The shutter design to the right is also on the kitchen window (behind Keith). Later photos show the addition of a flagstone retaining wall, but the shutters removed from the kitchen window.

The added flagstone features. House numbers moved to the right of the spot in previous photo. Zack and his catch of the day.

Sam, a four leg friend and Noah’s Ark (on the table) about where the additional structure or add on seems located today.

Zack (right), Sam and tortoise. That sun room in back may now be joined with the added room.

Related Links:

http://homepage.mac.com/danielsoderberg/TeterEasterof63/

Marstrand, Pt. 2. A life in Los Angeles.

Rudford’s

There’s Eatin’ to do on The Boulevard. The water is iced. Milk is chilled. Windows are portals. Only times changed; the diner has not.

Flower shirts on Sunday. Father and son breakfast. As it was in 1949, it is today.

Is your preference salami or hash? Over-easy may be your style. Bacon too. Let there be no doubt.

A check to pay. Ham Hocks and Lima Beans topped off with a sprig of parsley, perhaps. Slice of pie, a la mode if you would.

Copyright Notice: All photography is copyrighted. Getting permission is easy, just ask. Email: danielsoderberg@cox.net
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