Dan Soderberg Photography

The Hinterlands

As the Boulevard stretches past La Mesa a different look emerges. Earthen roadside, orange trees and pepper trees.


Interstate 8 seems to lop off one stretch of The Boulevard into a lonely and not particularly busy stretch of road.

A Motel is about all there is on this sliver of The Boulevard.

The Boulevard winds below the Interstate then dips into El Cajon.

On the El Cajon stretch of The Boulevard is one of the last old motor and trailer camps. Under the shade of pepper trees.

Dan Soderberg Photography

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.

Dan Soderberg Photography

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.

Dan Soderberg Photography

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

Dan Soderberg Photography

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.

Dan Soderberg Photography

Happy Hour

It is drinkin’ time on The Boulevard

The gals at Crickets Cocktails

“Hey Bartendah…” turn your sign around.

Drink ‘Em at the T P Lounge.

“Midnight at the Oasis. Bring your camel to bed.”

Second Wind. Of course.

Liquor

And more liquor.

Architecture

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.

Dan Soderberg Photography

Keeping “Kewl”

Kids of The Boulevard.

Staying “kewl” on a summer’s day.

Being “kewl.”

Kewl and on the move.

Breakin’

Grand Breakin’ Master.

The Boulevard as play yard.

81º at 7 p.m. Being “kewl” in sweats.

“It’s not called a scooter. It’s a RAZOR.”

Dan Soderberg Photography

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.

Architecture

Signage Of The Times


1950’s architecture exemplified ideas associated with bringing the future to present day. It was an era of test pilots, sonic boom, sputnik and the atom. The Boulevard saw roof lines that seemed to lift off and soar. Signs had aeronautical features.


I remember it as Fosters Freeze or Dairy Queen. They saw the slanted roof line as the perfect style befitting their soft ice cream treats.

The Flying Wing of the day was never quite successful. However something about the design resonated with architects.

The Flying Wing as motel architecture.

The Flying Wing was reincarnated later as the Stealth Bomber.


Or was it as a funeral parlor? The term for this futuristic mid-century style of architecture is Exaggerated Modern.

The signage of the times shared the same ideals as the architecture. One saw boomerang and trapezoidal signs, and huge arrows pointing towards the best place to go. No sign on The Boulevard had more style at shouting “shop here!” than this Honda landmark. A whirling arsenal of boomerangs speeding across a bow. As car dealerships relocated to Mission Vally and elswhere, Honda abandoned its Boulevard sales venue. The sign was taken down.

La Cresta Motel was once among the cream of The Boulevard motel crop.

An ordinary square sign would have been considered both ordinary and “square.” With a touch of neon, this was a most respectable offering.

Good signage was especially important to liquor store owners. This could either be viewed as a jet wing or arrow feather.


The building (right) is nearly all in one with the sign itself.

Neon was an essential element of the era.

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