The Construction
The Middle 1900's
In the 1920's Spreckels wanted to increase the popularity of
his development so that it would be successful. He took three steps
to make this happen. First, he sold a lot more residential lots. This was
easy because once again, real estate was cheap back then. By getting people
to move into the area, it promoted more investors and businesses. Next,
because of the influx of people, he improved transportation. Money was put
toward things like the street car and bridges. The street car now made
access easy to the area. And finally, he had an idea of creating an
amusement center in the middle of the beach. The picture to the right is a
picture of Mission Boulevard and the the street car tracks that used to go
down the middle. This is just one of the means by which people flocked to
Mission Beach. 1201
The general history of Mission Beach really didn't
change too much over this period. One thing was built to its
completion was the Mission Beach Amusement Center. It was grand place where
families could bring their children for an outing. The street car was also
built and in fully service by then. Mission Beach started to become a huge
tourist attraction with many visitors. The beach would often be very
crowded. The pictures above show what a typical summer day would look like
at the beach. 1202
In the 1940's and 1950's, Mission Beach became a fully
established community in San Diego. It also had one of the fastest
growth rates anywhere. This could have been made possible by the huge growth
rate of San Diego at the time. Once again, San Diego experience a huge
increase in its population. Between 1940 and 1948 the size of San Diego
doubled from 256,000 to over 500,000 people. All these people made Mission
Beach flourish again. The picture to the right shows that businesses started
coming to Mission Beach because of the increase in population. In addition
to rows of houses farther down, the street also has many businesses. 1203
This was also about the same time the Mission Bay Aquatic Park
began to be constructed. This was a big deal in San Diego at the
time. The City really didn't know what to do with the lower part of the San
Diego river at the time. There were a variety of plans of what to do with
the bay including building several amusements parks and resorts. However,
the idea of converting it to a recreational park won out and Mission Bay
became a relaxing place right next to Mission Beach. In order for the park
to be built, dredging of the bay had to be done. This wasn't completely
finished until 1961. In addition to building the bay, the extra sand was
used to build an airport on the south side of the bay. Now even more people
came to San Diego. 1204
One of the most famous events in San Diego and Mission Beach of
the time was the flight of Charles Linbough in 1927. His plane, "The
Spirit of Saint Louis," passed directly over the Mission Beach Amusement
Center as seen here to the picture on the right. This picture represents all
the good times and prosperity of the area at this time. Everyone was happy.
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