THE CROWD IN CORONADO, CALIFORNIA

 

So, what were all these spectators seated in cars or milling around on foot expecting to see there at the Coronado ‘Country Club’?  Were they there to view a golf tournament?

A few golfers of the times out for a bit of exercise and challenge on the Coronado ‘County Club’’s original 9-hole golf course.  I think the great crowd in the photo above was too large and perhaps too congested to be there for a golf tourney?  Especially those seated in their cars.  Maybe they were there to watch airplanes fly over the club and perhaps land there?  Nearby North Island was leased by a famous aviator by the name of Glenn Curtiss.  He used the island as a place to experiment with his newly developed seaplane.  Eventually he convinced the Navy to establish their first aircraft squadron making North Island the "Birthplace of Naval Aviation."  He often flew his planes in the area.  

Byplanes in flght over Coronado ‘Country Club’ in 1911.

Curtiss's Pusher Plane lands there.

Curtiss’s successful Seaplane on the beach.

Perhaps neither of the above ideas were the reason for all those people gathered at the ‘country club’?  I tried my best to find out, for certain, what had lured them there, but had no luck.  Obviously, there was a reason, but I was unable to sleuth it out.  Also, take note:  I have put the words ‘country club’ in italics because while the Coronado Golf Club may have been popularly referred to as a “country club” at the time, the actual Coronado Country Club boasting its own 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, clubhouse, swimming pool, etc. etc., is a privately owned affair, and did not exist until 1957’.

About Coronado, California:  In 1885 Elisha Babcock Jr., a telephone executive, and Hampton Story, a piano company founder, together with partners, bought a large portion of Coronado for $110,000. with the idea it could be turned into a beautiful ocean-side community with a grand luxury hotel.  Designed by James and Merritt Reid, the hotel has the look of the Victorian era with its Queen Anne-style architecture.  Ground-breaking for the hotel was held in January, 1888 and the Hotel Del Coronado was completed and opened an amazing 11 months later!  Unfortunately, the project was far more expensive than had been expected and ran into heavy debt.

Along came John D. Spreckels, son of San Francisco “Sugar King” Claus Spreckels, along with his brothers, and in 1889 they  purchased all of Elisha’s & Hampton’s “Coronado Beach Company” holdings for $500,000.  Except for privately owned lots, the Spreckels now owned just about all of Coronado, North Island, the hotel, the ferry, the trolley, water systems, and the local newspaper!

In 1890, while the Hotel del Coronado was undergoing revisions, Spreckels came up with the idea of creating something called “Camp Coronado” later known as “Tent City”.  It was a self-operating city of several hundred tents and thatched roof cottages south of the hotel.  It had all the comforts of a well-organized resort and featured rows of tents, complete with wooden floors, electricity, and running water.  For $4.50 a week guests could have a canvas roof and walls, bed, dresser, washbasin and flush toilets!

Tent City in 1914

It also boasted Japanese gardens, a public library, a band pavilion, tennis courts, a Ferris wheel and a children’s carousel which, today, can be found in San Diego’s Balboa Park.  The tent resort attracted 10,000 guests a year from across the country at its peak, and lasted for the better part of 40 years until it was closed in 1939 to make way for the new ocean-front highway and with it, the advent of Tent City’s replacement: ‘the motel’.

Guests of “Tent City” stroll along the tent resort’s beachfront promenade.

The original Coronado Golf Club was formally established in 1899.  It featured a 9-hole course laid out by T.W.Tetley, a golf expert, and covered 2730 yards which included natural bunkers, road hazards, twice over a fence, through eucalyptus and pepper trees, beginning and ending at the single-story clubhouse. The course became exceedingly popular in a short period of time and by 1901-02 playing twice around a 9-hole course definitely needed improvement.  So a new 18-hole course was designed.  It played through a fenced horserace track with 4-8 foot fencing, four times, each time using the fencing as a hazard forcing golfers to hit their balls in the air to get to the green on five of the holes.  The single-story clubhouse on the 9-hole course was moved to the new 18-hole course and redesigned into a two-story affair with wide covered verandas on both levels.

The new two-story Coronado Golf Club clubhouse.

Ladies playing on the new 18-hole course with the new two-story clubhouse in the distance.

As for the massive and elegant Hotel Del Coronado, highly recognizable to many for its unique style – which happened to be the inspiration for the design of San Francisco’s famous ocean-side Victorian-style Cliff House, it’s still going strong – recently receiving a $555M renovation.

:->

La Nightingail

San Francisco’s famous “Cliff House” designed with the Hotel Del Coronado’s Victorian style in mind.  It survived the great 1906 earthquake, but burned down the following year.  Bummer!