San Diego became a part of the newly formed First Mexican Republic during the Mexican Empire’s formation. Following the Mexican–American War, California became part of the United States in 1848 and was admitted as a state in 1850. Businessman Alonzo E. Horton founded the city of San Diego in 1867, and its growth was supported by its salubrious climate and the arrival of the Santa Fe Railway in 1885.
Due to overspending on a poorly designed jail, San Diego got into financial trouble quickly. San Diego became a state-controlled three-member board of trustees in 1852 after the state repealed its charter, effectively declaring it bankrupt. Trustees controlled the city until 1887, when a mayor-council form was introduced as a new city charter. Although the Mexican-American war ended in Mexico City, San Diego remained vulnerable after the United States administration inherited Kumeyaay control of nearby inland regions. Native American tribes in San Diego County were taxed $600 by the American-led San Diego County in 1851 and faced confiscation of land and property if they failed to pay up. The payment of Cupeño and Kumeyaay was in a currency they weren’t familiar with, which led to a revolt.
During the 1878 gold rush, San Diego’s trading port was predicted to compete with San Francisco’s. The Central Pacific Railroad manager Charles Crocker foresaw that too much trade would be diverted from San Francisco if an extension was built to San Diego. By 1890, San Diego had reached 16,159 people, thanks to the opening of the transcontinental railroad line.
Below are some stunning historical photos that show what San Diego looked like in the late 19th century.
#1 Unidentified Victorian house, 1890
#2 The exterior of the Yuma Building at 631 Fifth Street, between G Street and Market Street, 1891
#3 Water flowing through a flume in the San Diego backcountry, 1895
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Just a little FYI: This Flume is in Lakeside, CA @ Los Coches Rd. About 25 miles east of San Diego, CA
#4 Group of African American men seated at tables in a Masonic Hall, 1895
#5 Japanese sailors from a training ship drilling onshore, 1899
#6 San Diego from Santa Fe Wharf. 69., 1898
#7 San Diego scenery, 1890
#8 View of the Stingaree district of downtown San Diego, 1895
#9 The monitor U.S.S. Monadnock in San Diego Harbor, 1895
#10 Celebrating the driving of the last railroad spike in La Jolla, 1894
#11 Children and adults in bathing suits on the rocks at La Jolla beach, 1897
#12 Miss Littlefield standing at the entrance to a cabin in Pacific Beach, 1899
#13 People standing on and below bluffs in Ocean Beach, 1892
#14 View of the Beacon Hotel in Ocean Beach, 1897
#15 Four men standing in front of a San Diego Soda Works delivery wagon at the San Diego Soda Works, 1898
#16 People seated on a double-decker San Diego Electric Railway streetcar at Fifth and Market Street, 1892
#17 Flume construction workers under the Los Coches trestle, 1893
#18 San Diego Mission was founded in 1769 by Father Junippero, 1890
#19 Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, 1898
#20 Two women standing at the top of windmill overlooking the residence of Matthew Sherman, 1895
#21 Bernard W. McKenzie seated at a desk in the Western Metal Supply office, 1893
#22 San Diego Bay 1890
#23 San Diego, 1895
#24 San Diego and bay, 1890
#25 Fifth St. San Diego, Calif. north from ‘E’ St., 1892
#26 Ship Chandlery store, San Diego, 1898
#27 Ship Chandlery store, San Diego, 1893
#28 San Diego Bay, Point Loma, 1892
#29 Estudillo residence stagecoach, 1890
#30 Estudillo Adobe, 1890
#31 Fifth Street, San Diego, elevated view, 1890
#32 J.O. Snyder standing with a bicycle on the outskirts of San Diego, 1896
#33 San Diego lumber yard on the bay, 1890
#34 La Jolla Cove, 1897
#35 Downtown San Diego from Seventh and Beech Street, 1897
#36 A small stone dam and reservoir in San Diego County, 1895
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Is this the dam at Mission Trails?
#37 Native American students and nuns at the Mission San Diego de Alcala, 1895
#38 View of the piers and wharves of the San Diego Waterfront looking northwest toward Point Loma.
#39 Water flowing from the Sweetwater Dam spillway, 1890
#40 Horse-drawn coach in front of the San Diego Excursion Bureau, 1895
#41 Coronado Ferry Company’s Ramona arriving at the company landing in San Diego, 1899
#42 First National Bank located at 867 Fifth Street, 1892
#43 Exterior of the A.B. Smith house in Old Town, 1895
#44 Two mission bells on display in Old Town, 1895
#45 View of Horton Park and Horton House looking northwest, 1895
#46 View of the Stonewall Mine in the Cuyamaca Mountains, 1895
#47 San Diego from upper 7th St, the 1890s
#48 Harper Ranch Photographs, 1898
Two mounted photographs of Harper Ranch, probably the property of Dr. Eli Harper, an early settler in the Cuyamaca area. The first image depicts three people standing in front of a small wooden house, and the second shows another home or farm building. The Harper Ranch was located in Cuyamaca in eastern San Diego County
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#49 San Diego from Sixth and E Street looking north Sherriff, J.A. (John Alexander), 1828-1903
#50 Group of Indians at a Cabrillo celebration Patterson, F.E. (Francis Elliotte), 1852-1931
#51 Downtown San Diego looking west from 18th and Market Street, 1890
#52 View of San Diego Mission de Alcala, 1898
#53 A Native American band standing near the Mission San Diego de Alcala, 1895
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This looks like stolen children in an American Indian residential school.
#54 Exterior of the power station for the San Diego Cable Road at Fourth and Spruce Street
#55 L.N. Skinner Furniture Store, 1890
L.N. Skinner furniture store located on the southwest corner 6th & Market; shows a one-story brick building, tall arched windows at left, furniture along the sidewalk, three men posing at the center; horses hitched to buggies or wagons left and right; street with railroad tracks in the foreground.
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#56 The yacht Point Loma in San Diego Harbor, 1895
#57 Railroad tracks leading to the San Diego Brewery, 1897
#58 Construction workers building the municipal wharf in downtown San Diego, 1895
#59 Exterior of Jim Lee’s Laundry in downtown San Diego, 1895
#60 People riding in a Comstock’s Stagecoach in the San Diego mountains, 1899
#61 Coronado Ferry Company’s ferry Ramona preparing to dock in San Diego Harbor, 1895
#62 Two women standing at the Ballast Point Lighthouse, 1899
#63 San Diego County Courthouse, 1895
#64 First National Bank at San Diego, 1890
#65 Father Gaspara’s House at Old Town, San Diego.
#66 Street Scene, San Diego, 1892
#67 San Diego Mission and olive trees.
#68 U.S. ship “Monterey” in San Diego Harbor, 1898
#69 Smith Pirnie Marble and Granite Works, 1899
#70 Residence of U.S. Grant, Jr. 283, 1893
#71 Grantville Schoolhouse, 1898
#72 San Diego-Julian stagecoach on display outside a building, 1895
#73 Theosophical Society buildings in Point Loma.
#74 A man standing in the doorway of the Santa Ysabel Dairy, 1895
#75 Large number of For Sale signs on a vacant lot with houses in the distance, 1899
#76 View of Old Town’s adobe chapel, Don Rafael’s cabin, stone jail, and graveyard, 1895
#77 A man and two women at the Sweetwater reservoir, 1895
#78 A man seated in a horse-drawn Bay City Market delivery wagon at the northwest corner of Fifth and G Street, 1895
#79 People aboard the Pacific Coast Steamship Company’s train at the company’s station, 1895
#80 Entry gate to the Theosophical Institute, 1895
#81 Dairy cows at the Duncan Brothers dairy farm in the Chollas Valley, 1895
#82 Queen of the Pacific, 1890
#83 Palm Trees at Old Town, 1890
#84 Horton House, 1892
#85 House, San Diego County, 1895
#86 Farmland, San Diego County between, 1895
#87 View of Rancho San Bernardo with ranch house in the distance, 1895
#88 San Diego Bay and City from Coronado Ferry Slip, 1895
View of San Diego Bay and city from Coronado Ferry slip, Orange Street terminus; shows double-decker ferry "Silver Gate" parked in slip (center), smaller "Coronado Ferry" approaching from left; building with three cupolas, Gothic-shaped windows and one dormer in the foreground on the right; railroad car parked on railroad tracks right of building; San Diego City beyond active Harbor in the distance.
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#89 Exterior of the Casa de Carrillo at Old Town, 1895
#90 View of the Guajome Ranch in Vista, 1891
#91 Union Building at Third Street and Broadway, 1896
#92 Employees of the Equitable Life Insurance Company standing outside their office at 1318 D Street, 1895
#93 View of the Hotel Brewster lobby at Fourth and C Street, 1890
#94 Four women in the back yard of a home, 1895
#95 Group of men and women posing for a portrait in the backyard of a house, 1895
#96 San Diego Harbor from Court House. 70., 1898
#97 San Diego looking northwest from Seventh and Beech Street, 1897
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Pretty sure that is looking southwest. Point Loma is seen in the distance. From that location that would be southwest.