Ocean Beach

In 1907, David Charles (D.C.) Collier—attorney, real estate promoter, and civic leader—began to promote undeveloped Ocean Beach. Within a two-year period, Collier transformed a seaside outpost with only a handful of year-round residents into a thriving community connected to the rest of San Diego by a modern streetcar line. For this achievement, he has often been called “The True Father of Ocean Beach.” (Courtesy of San Diego History Center.)

Collier’s fascination with Ocean Beach began in 1884, when he came with his family to San Diego and quickly fell in love with Ocean Beach’s picturesque rock formations and cliffs. In 1887, the Colliers bought a lot from Billy Carlson, and 16-year-old D.C., then known as Charlie, set about building a beach house on the bluff at the end of Coronado Avenue. Over the years, his simple dwelling, called “Collier’s Shack,” was transformed into a substantial home complete with one of San Diego’s first swimming pools. D.C. and his wife, Ella May (Copley), lived there year-round during Ocean Beach’s formative years. Collier left San Diego for Chicago in 1918; the following year, a Midwestern family purchased his spacious dwelling and converted it into the Alligator Rock Lodge and Tea Room. This fancy establishment featured a glassed-in porch overlooking the Pacific, six furnished rooms, hot baths, an open-air plunge, and a restaurant that served breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. The lodge was advertised as “a quiet retreat” for “nice people who are tired of noisy lobbies, cabarets, and jazz bands.”

Alligator Rock Lodge continued as an inn until the early 1930s and then spent several decades out of the limelight. This 1969 photograph was one of the last taken of the building before it was demolished. A fourplex condominium project now stands on this site at the end of Coronado Avenue. (Courtesy of Steve Rowell.)

This view of sparsely populated Ocean Beach was taken from the cliff near Collier’s Shack, looking north. The unpaved road stretching across the center is Bacon Street. The ice plant in the foreground, although common in California, is not native. Originating in South Africa, it may have been introduced to the Pacific coast as early as the 1500s, arriving in sand used as ship’s ballast.

In 1907, as president of Ralston Realty, D.C. Collier oversaw the purchase of a large tract of land in the northern part of Ocean Beach. This area, called Ocean Beach Park (upper right), was bounded by Brighton Avenue on the south, Froude Street on the east, and the ocean and bay on the west and north. Between 1907 and 1909, Collier improved his property by leveling the lots, providing city water, grading the streets, putting in curbs and sidewalks, and planting ornamental trees. When he advertised his subdivision as the “Nob Hill District” of Ocean Beach, prospective residents began snapping up lots for as little as $225 ($45 down and $12 a month). In 1909, Collier reorganized and began doing business as D.C. Collier and Company, with three sales offices in Ocean Beach and one downtown. By the end of the year, more than 100 homes had been built in the San Diego neighborhood of Ocean Beach.

D.C. Collier’s most important contribution to Ocean Beach was bringing in a streetcar line to connect the fledgling community to downtown San Diego. Its seven-mile route is indicated by the solid black line on this map. Collier secured the franchise for this venture and was president of the Point Loma Railroad throughout the building of the line (1908–1909). This was an important development, as having a reliable form of transportation made it possible for people to work downtown and live in Ocean Beach. Following the line’s dedication on May 1, 1909, it was turned over to the San Diego Electric Railway Company, owned and operated by John D. Spreckels. During the time Collier was making Ocean Beach a livable place, he was also busy developing other parts of San Diego, including University Heights, Normal Heights, North Park, Encanto, and Point Loma, just up the hill from Ocean Beach. In 1907, two of Collier’s companies, Ralston Realty and the Point Loma Syndicate, owned 900 acres of land between Ocean Beach and Roseville.

D.C. Collier also pushed to have a schoolhouse built for the children of Ocean Beach. On December 15, 1909, a two-room stucco school for grades one through eight was dedicated on the corner of Santa Monica Avenue and Defoe Street (now Sunset Cliffs Boulevard). The architect for the $5,000 building was William S. Hebbard, who four years earlier had designed the Marston House in Balboa Park with his then-partner Irving Gill.

The original two-room Ocean Beach School was replaced in 1935 with a modern earthquake-proof building at a cost of $40,000. Among the special features of the Spanish-style school were beautiful tiled entryways, a 360-seat auditorium, and a heating system that kept the entire facility warm on chilly days. Some eight decades later, the school still serves the children of Ocean Beach.

In 1909, Ocean Beach Elementary was a swinging place! Even though the play yard was pretty basic, students were happy they no longer had to travel to Roseville or downtown.

Ads for the Pelican Inn, which opened on July 4, 1909, claimed it was “the finest restaurant on any beach near San Diego.” Located at West Point Loma Boulevard and Abbott Street, the eatery’s specialty was fish dinners. In 1913, it changed its name to the Sunset Inn and was well known for many years for its music and entertainment, as well as its tasty meals.

In 1909, D.C. Collier petitioned the City of San Diego to establish a 60-acre park in the eastern portion of Ocean Beach (center right). The city agreed after Collier promised to not only pay for the landscaping, but to build a road through the park as well. Appropriately, the site was named Collier Park in his honor. Unfortunately, the city failed to develop the land, and as the years went by, its link to Collier was forgotten. In 1915, the Door of Hope, a facility for unwed mothers, was built on parkland and remained there until 1962, when it relocated to Kearny Mesa. Collier Junior High School, built within the confines of the park in 1959, is still there, but it was renamed Correia Middle School in 1984. Also located on the original 60 acres of parkland are Bill Cleator Community Park (15 acres), a church, several large apartment complexes, the Ocean Beach Community Garden, the Pt. Loma Native Plant Garden, and a small patch of land at Greene and Soto Streets that still bears the name Collier Park.

In 1936, two years after Collier’s death, this commemorative plaque was erected in Balboa Park. The plaque was appropriately placed, as D.C. Collier had been pivotal in the park’s development. At the same time he was building Ocean Beach, Collier had served as director-general (and later president) of the Panama-California Exposition, a world’s fair that was held in Balboa Park in 1915–1916. During his six years in these positions, Collier served without pay, gave $500,000 of his own money to the exposition, and paid his own travel expenses while promoting the fair across the country. By March 1914, burdened by debt, he found it necessary to resign as president, just months before the fair opened to the world. When he died in 1934, Collier was on the verge of bankruptcy. His obituary described him as the “man who gave most, who achieved most, and who received least among all of the builders of San Diego.”

In 1909, a few months after the debut of the Ocean Beach streetcar line, a two-story, 20-room hotel opened for business on Newport Avenue between Cable and Bacon Streets. Originally known as The Pearl, its name was changed to the Newport Hotel (as shown here) in 1914 to better reflect its location on Ocean Beach’s main street.

In 1995, a major refurbishing transformed the Newport Hotel into the Ocean Beach International Hostel, providing travelers from around the world the chance to experience a quintessential beach town. (Courtesy of Steve Rowell.)

When early residents needed fresh foods, the Ocean Beach Grocery was there to help and even offered free delivery. Opening in 1913 in the 5000 block of Newport Avenue, the store was owned and operated by Guido Faber and his wife, Christine. By 1923, the Fabers owned three grocery stores in Ocean Beach—two on Newport Avenue and one on Bacon Street.

Christine Faber (left) enjoyed outings to Sunset Cliffs to exercise her horse Dolly and her dog Carlos. In 1913, horses were still a common sight in Ocean Beach and several local businesses, including the Fabers’ grocery store, used horse-drawn wagons to deliver their goods. Not much was happening on unpaved Newport Avenue when the photograph on the right was snapped of grocer Guido Faber and Carlos making a gentlemen’s agreement. (Perhaps over dog biscuits in the family store?)

In 1913, Ocean Beach—now beginning to have an identity of its own—entered this horse-drawn float in a downtown San Diego parade. Not much is known about the theme of the event or the occasion, but it may have been connected to the September 25 citywide celebration of Balboa Day, during which floats and marching units paraded down C Street.

In 1915, the Bayshore Railway Company erected a 1,500-foot wooden bridge connecting Ocean Beach with undeveloped Mission Beach. The 50-footwide structure at the foot of Bacon Street could be crossed by walking, driving, or taking a trolley. It was also a great place to stop and fish, and old-timers were saddened when the structure was torn down in January 1951. (Courtesy of San Diego History Center.)