The History of Eastside

This narrative captures but a fraction of the rich history of the neighborhood we know as Eastside. I have mentioned just a few of the many notable and longtime residents and no one is left out intentionally. A larger and more in depth story will one day be written.

The original Eastside Neighborhood is made up of four small subdivisions, three of which were recorded in 1886 and one in 1887: Mingus and Overman Subdivision, Spencer, Higgins and Puls’ Subdivision, Kellogg and Sinclair’s Addition and Reece’s Addition.

One of four subdivisions that make up the original Eastside neighborhood.

Decades before the term “Eastside” was used, the area was largely referred to by the name of the subdivisions, i.e. “Reece’s Addition.”

Eastside was not a name used until 1948 when the Eastside Sewer Improvement District was formed. For decades the area had no sewer system and homes were without proper bathroom facilities, relying on outhouses.

In the 1930s and early 1940s it was called “Mexican Town” or “Spanish Village.” But Eastside is often referred to by long-time residents as “Posole” and that name is attributed to a woman who epitomizes the hardworking residents of Eastside.

1923 Map showing original boundaries of Eastside

Anita Cruz Romero came to the United States from Mexico in 1910 with her son Ralph Romero. Mrs. Romero was one of the first residents in the Eastside neighborhood and purchased property and lived in a home on Higgins Street in 1914. Romero was a widow and made a living as a housekeeper for affluent Oceanside residents. To supplement her income, she sold her home-made soup. According to Eastside resident Aurora Soto Badillo, Mrs. Romero placed her soup in a hot pot on top of a little red wagon and walked throughout the barrio, shouting “Posole, posole!”

Anita “Anna” Cruz Romero, right. Early property owner

Oceanside had a population of less than 400 persons in 1900, and the area what we know as Eastside had no homes or buildings erected and remained “unimproved.” However, by 1910 many of the lots were used for agriculture or small crops by area residents and landowners.

One of the first houses built was the Mayhew house that fronted Mission Avenue in about 1912. Two years later Anita Cruz Romero would have a house built on her Higgins Street property.

This house fronting Mission Avenue was one of the earliest homes built within the boundaries of Eastside and was owned by the Mayhew family.

The population of Eastside began to increase as Mexican immigrant families slowly begin to settle in what would be known as Eastside. The 1920 US census shows that approximately 14 Mexican families were living on or near Bush Street.

In 1930 Jemmie Berry Hayes was one of the largest property owners in Eastside. She was the wife of Fred Hayes, who was the son of John Chauncey Hayes, one of the earliest residents of Oceanside and a long-time realtor. Another large property owner was Anna Curran. She, too, was the wife of a realtor. These two women bought and then sold lots to many of the families that settled in Eastside over the years.

Early residents, settling in the 1920s and the 1930s, included Zeferino Nares, Ramon Sanchez, Victoriano Ruiz, Joaquin Vasquez, Atenogenes Magana, Jesus Valenzuela, Salvador Gonzalez, Santiago Gomez, Felipe Badillo, Jacinto Soto, Jose Lopez and others.

Guillermo Aguilera came to the US from Mexico in 1914 arriving in Oceanside about 1926. He and his wife Petra had ten children. He supported his large family by working in agriculture but also built several homes in Eastside even though he was missing a hand. They lived in a home at 402 San Diego Street, which he built.

By the late 1920s, the necessity for a proper sewer system for the areas outside of downtown Oceanside was evident. Eastside and other sections were lacking sanitary services. In the March 29, 1929 edition of the Oceanside Blade Tribune newspaper was this report:

WILL MAKE A SEWER EXTENSION.

Unsanitary conditions existing in a portion of the eastern part of the city where the subject of a communication to the city council from inspector W. P. Jensen at their meeting Wednesday evening.

It was stated that in that territory included in Spencer, Higgins and Puls Addition, Reese’s Addition, Wilder Tract, Wilson & Patton Addition, Mingus and Overman Addition, Kellogg & Sinclair Addition, portions of Butler, Groves, and Gleichner’s Addition, Boheim Tract, and Timken & O’Bear’s Addition, that the soil is of such character, underlaid by a hard pan, that the effluent from septic tanks will not penetrate and seep away, but remains on the surface and eventually creates an unsanitary and dangerous condition.

It would take two more decades for Eastside to have a sewer system in place. When it rained the septic tank systems and outhouses would overflow, filling yards and running down streets.

Muddy streets, Bush Street at San Diego looking East

In 1930 the first known Black residents moved to Eastside. Orange Hinkle and his wife Irene were renting a home on Lemon Street. His neighbor was Casimiro Soto, who was a property owner.

In 1938 John and Charles Etta Mann moved to 214 San Diego Street, the first known Black property owners in Eastside and long-time residents.

During and after World War II, the Black population increased due to the military and more job opportunities. Early Black residents were told to live in Eastside. C. R. Roberts remembered that his father was a railroad worker and they first lived on South Cleveland Street when his parents were told to move to “Mexican Town.”

The Eastside Neighborhood was segregated and separated in many ways. Eastside was separated from the rest of Oceanside by a large canyon or gully (now Interstate 5). In the 1930s their children, many of whom spoke only Spanish, were sent to the Americanization School on Division Street where they were immersed in English. Pete Magana recalled that teacher Mrs. Beth French was beloved by the students.

Americanization School on Division Street (designed by architect Irving J. Gill)

In 1939 the original St. Mary’s church was moved to Lemon Street. This became an important addition to the neighborhood for Catholic parishioners.

The Mission Market, on the corner of San Diego and Mission, was established in 1937 and was owned by Manuel Castorena, who purchased the land and a small house from Leslie Carter.

Mission Market at San Diego Street and Mission Avenue, 1937

Bartolome Chavez opened a bake shop as early as 1930 on the corner of San Diego and Bush Streets. This would later become known as the East Star Market and operated by sisters Marie and Lucy.

East Star Market owned by Marie and Lucy Chavez corner of San Diego and Bush Streets.

Ygnacio and Socorro (Duarte) Adame migrated to Oceanside from Michoacan, Mexico in 1926. They moved to the “Eastside” community, also known as “Barrio Posole”, and established a home at 408 San Diego Street. In 1945 they established the La Chiquita Market next door at 410 San Diego Street where Socorro cooked and sold fresh tortillas and tamales.

La Chaquita Market at 410 San Diego Street.

These markets were important to residents because the owners were their neighbors and they sold products that were desirable by the neighborhood and not available in other local stores.

Sterling Housing was a large Federal Housing development for the military and their families built in 1948. 648 units were built on 45 acres and was nearly the size of Eastside itself.

Sterling Housing was built just to the east of Eastside, with paved street, sidewalks and sewer system.

This military housing complex impacted the neighborhood with construction work, increased traffic, etc. But even though Sterling Homes was connected to a brand-new sewer line, Eastside was bypassed altogether leaving residents dismayed.

As the Black population continued to increase in Eastside, a need to congregate and worship became paramount. In 1945 the Friendly Church of God in Christ was established at 1015 San Diego Street.

Some of the congregation of the Friendly Church of God in Christ. Charles Etta Mann top right.

Walker Chapel AME was established in 1949 on Laurel Street. Two additional Black churches were founded in Eastside: St. John’s Missionary Baptist and Shiloh Church of God in Christ.

Walker AME Chapel on Laurel Street circa 1949

These four houses of worship attested to the growing Black population, and their roots in the Eastside neighborhood.

In 1948, Charles Etta Mann opened a restaurant at 214 San Diego Street. It would later become a small market which doubled as a meeting place for Eastside’s Black residents. (After her first husband’s death, Charles Etta would later remarry to Wesley Allen and most remember her as Charles Etta Allen.)

Mann’s Food Shop on San Diego Street, owned by Charles Etta Mann, first Black owned business in Oceanside

In 1948, Lucy Chavez, an advocate for the neighborhood formed the Eastside Association. At a city council meeting she argued that “east side” taxpayers had paid taxes on sanitary facilities for 20 years, but they still had no sewage facilities. She alleged that a fund that was once set aside for the work was used elsewhere.

In June of 1949 Joaquin Vasquez, president of the Eastside club, implored the council with the urgency and said that nearly every lot in the east side had “13 holes dug in it, and we can’t dig anymore.”

Higgins and Santa Barbara Street, dirt streets, outhouses and homes on cement blocks to help prevent mud and sewage in homes.

Even after a proper sewer system was approved and installed in 1949, three streets were left out, Dubuque, Shoshone and Marquette. These streets were largely inhabited by Black residents. Gilbert Woods petitioned the City Council in 1954 to get the needed sewer lines installed which was approved that October…. but they had to wait an additional five years for equal facilities!

Gilbert Wood and son. Gilbert petitioned for sewer system for last three remaining streets in Eastside.

In 1953, a new subdivision was built just northeast of the original Eastside neighborhood. 200 two-and-three-bedroom homes, built for military personnel and civil service workers at Camp Pendleton by the Mongollon Construction Co. opened that year. This new subdivision included sidewalks, paved streets and a sewer system. However, residents had to drive on dirt roads through Eastside to arrive at his new subdivision that was connected to their neighborhood. The dust and dirt construction crews and passenger traffic would fill the homes of residents, coat their vehicles and even the laundry that was left out to dry on clotheslines.

Map of Eastside, showing Sterling Housing as well as the “new” Eastside neighborhood (Lorreta, Kraft, Langford Streets and more.)

As late as 1954, the Eastside Neighborhood did not have paved streets or sidewalks.

Construction for Laurel Elementary School began in 1954, which opened in 1955. Prior to this, elementary students went to what was called Mission Road School.

Laurel Street looking west, Laurel School being built to the right.

Before Laurel School could be built the Kosaka house and farm had to be removed from the site. The Kosaka family had been interred in camps during World War II and settled in Eastside in the late 1940s. There were many Japanese families living in and around Oceanside before and after the War.

Eastside continued to diversify with addition of Samoan and Filipino residents. Florrie and Amio Faumuina came to Oceanside in 1958 and were among the early Samoan families to live in Eastside. Samoan families lived in homes in the “new” Eastside in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Junior Seau and his family lived in this home at 1424 Zeiss Street.

Faumuina family first settled in Eastside when coming to Oceanside.

In 1957 Eastside dedicated its own community center. It was noted that the building was “begun by a group of people – not officials, not councilmen, not rich men, not poor men, but citizens who lived in the neighborhood.” Residents took it upon themselves to build, plaster, pour cement and raise funds to make the center a reality.

In April of 1969 a groundbreaking was held for the new $300,000 Eastside Neighborhood Center. It would become the Balderrama Recreation Center.

At the request of the American G.I. Forum, the name of the park was changed by the city council on Aug. 9, 1967 from the Eastside Recreation Park, to the Joe Balderrama Recreation Park in honor of John “Joe” Balderrama who was killed in action during World War II on October 13, 1944.

Dedication of new Balderrama Recreation Center

Dedication of the new rec center was held in January 1970 with a diverse and inclusive program featuring “rock music, an Afro-American Club program, a karate demonstration, a Polynesian show and a program presented by the Golden Age Club.”

The Gobbi family opened El Charrito Restaurant in 1966 at 1426 Mission Avenue and about a year later moved it to 218 San Diego Street. This restaurant was a neighborhood focal point, much like the new recreation center, but it also brought customers from outside the boundaries of Eastside, for the authentic food and welcoming atmosphere.

In 1968 Roosevelt Campbell had this retail building built at 401-409 San Diego Street. It originally housed three Black owned businesses: The Progressive Barber Shop, The Progressive Café and the Progressive Beauty Shop.

401-409 San Diego Street, built by Black businessman Roosevelt Campbell.

Roosevelt Campbell and two other Black businessmen, George Mitchell and Oscar Culp, joined together to open GEBS and later CMC Furniture.

George Mitchell, top, Roosevelt Campbell and Oscar Culp

Along with community advocates such as Lucy, Marie and Joe Chavez, Eastside had a number of devoted residents including Concha Hernandez Greene, who became one of its most dedicated residents known for her community activism.

Isabel and Jesus Hernandez with daughters Julie and Concha on Bush Street 1950s

Pete Magana, born 1928, was a lifelong resident of Eastside. He founded the local chapter of the American GI Forum, a group comprised mainly of Latino veterans who raised scholarship funds for needy students. He was twice named Oceanside Citizen of the Year, first in 1972 and again in 1983. For 15 years he was the Laurel Elementary School PTA President.

Beloved Eastside resident and civic leader Pete Magana

Two of Oceanside’s mayors have roots in Eastside, Terry Johnson and Esther Sanchez, and Laurel Elementary School has a Hall of Fame which celebrates the achievements of Eastside students who have excelled, even in the hardest of times of inequity.

Refugio, Lupe and Baleria Magana and Genny Gobbi Magana making tamales at their hone at 306 San Diego Street, circa 1965

Eastside is a unique neighborhood with its own history within and apart from Oceanside. It reflects the diversity and tenacity of its residents, who were separated from a quality-of-life afforded others, but lived their lives in dignity and determination, often unseen, but who have their rightful place in our history.

History of the Blade Tribune Building, Irving Gill’s Last Design

Brothers Paul and Harold Beck arrived in Oceanside in 1929 from Iowa. Their father had arranged to purchase the local newspaper and eventually merged it with a weekly publication, the Oceanside News, creating the Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune. With this purchase, they became the youngest newspaper publishers in the State of California. Paul Beck was just 24 years old, Harold 26.

Paul wrote about himself: “[I] as a young man, with a degree in Journalism from Stanford University, barely three months experience as a cub reporter on the “San Jose News,” and with an ardent desire to make a success of my first business venture. It had long been my desire to become a newspaper publisher. A desire that had been instilled in me by my Dad, who published the “Centerville, Iowa Daily Iowegian” since 1903, and by my Mother, from a famous Iowa newspaper family with all four of her brothers publishers of different newspapers in that state.”

Their newspaper office was located on Second Street (Mission Avenue) and Tremont Street in a building that used to house the Ladies Emporium. In a 1977 article Paul wrote: “The staff of the “Blade-Tribune” consisted of Harold as editor, myself as business-advertising manager, Stuart Langford, shop foreman, Ken Stanley, linotype operator, Ora Magee, society editor, Betty Maxwell, office clerk, Bill Spencer, who formerly published the “Blade,” office manager, a part time high school boy as press room helper and about 12 carrier boys. High schooler, Lionel Van Deerlin, now a U. S. Congressman, sports editor was a “stringer,” which means he was paid 5c a column inch for published material.”

Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune newspaper office at Mission and Tremont Streets in 1931

Both Harold and Paul were actively involved in the community. Harold served as President of Oceanside Chamber of Commerce in 1931 and Paul in 1934.

As Oceanside grew, so did the newspaper and soon the building they occupied was too small to accommodate a growing operation. In 1936 the brothers hired architect Irving Gill to design a new building for their newspaper plant at Tremont and First Street (now Seagaze).

Irving Gill was born in New York in 1871. He came to San Diego in 1893 where he practiced his field. He designed homes and buildings in San Diego as well as Los Angeles, where he later relocated. Gill’s architectural style evolved to eliminate ornamentation, with a decidedly modern style. In fact he was considered “one of the first of the moderns” and combined modern with Spanish architecture. Gill biographer Thomas S. Hines wrote: “In his own lifetime, Gill saw himself and was seen by others as a maverick, an innovator, and a modernist.”

His modern and simple designs fell out of favor in the 1920s when the Spanish Revivalist style became popular. Under appreciated and with little work, Gill left Los Angeles and resided in Carlsbad by 1930. However, Los Angeles’ loss was Oceanside’s gain, as Gill would go on to design a total of five buildings in Oceanside.

The first Gill designed was Oceanside’s Fire and Police Station in 1929. Originally, plans were for a larger civic center complex. But due to lack of funding, only a portion of it was built. Located on the corner of Pier View Way and Nevada Street, the Fire Station is still in use today, but the building has been modified several times to accommodate the growing Fire Department and to house larger equipment and engines .

Gill’s second work in Oceanside was the Americanization School on Division Street, completed in 1931. The school was built at a cost of $4,400 and featured a domed rotunda. Gill took advantage of the southeast exposure giving the building large windows providing natural light. The building was saved from the wrecking ball and restored. It is presently used as a neighborhood community center. Also built that year and designed by Gill was the Nevada Street School, located on the 500 block of South Nevada Street. It was dismantled in the 1970s.

The Americanization School designed by Irving Gill

Gill’s fourth project in Oceanside was in 1934, that of a new city hall building. While Oceanside Councilman Charles Hoegerman prepared preliminary plans for an addition to the civic center, (which comprised the fire and police station), they apparently were similar to Gill’s earlier design from 1929. Gill then changed and revised them to conform to earthquake standards. The new city hall was located at 704 Third Street (Pier View Way) and dedicated December 19, 1934. This building is now the home of the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Gill’s last project was the Blade-Tribune Building at 401 First Street Street (Seagaze Drive). Designed in 1936, the building is a mix of Modern and Art Deco. Designed to look both modern and glamorous, Art Deco architecture features rectangular, or block forms often arranged in geometric fashion with curved ornamental elements. Building materials include smooth exteriors made of stucco, concrete or stone, with flat roofs adorned with parapets or spires. Gill died just one month before the building’s grand opening.

Louis Gill wrote of his uncle: “To my mind Irving Gill was much more than a pioneer architect in California. He was an innovator, constantly devising new ideas, not only in exterior design, but in hundreds of details, always considering such fundamental things as cost and materials and methods of construction, and always abhorring anything done for show. An indefatigable worker, never satisfied and quite willing to sacrifice anything to his art. In fact, to me, he seemed obsessed with the idea.”

Congratulatory flowers filled the newspaper building for its grand opening. Note view of second floor offices.

Built at a cost of $10,000, when the Blade-Tribune building was formally opened on November 24, 1936, it was flooded with telegrams and congratulatory flower arrangements which lined the counters, stairway and desks. Among the many dignitaries and public officials which sent their regards, none was higher than President Roosevelt who sent a message to the Beck Brothers: “I am glad to learn that the Daily Blade-Tribune and the weekly Oceanside News have shared in the return of prosperity as evidenced in your acquisition of a new building. Please accept my hearty congratulations and extend to all of your readers my hearty felicitations.”

The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper described the building: “The new building is situated at the corner of First and Tremont Streets. It is of reinforced concrete and fire and quake proof. The editorial, news, business and circulation offices are on the main floor. The second floor contains an auditorium suitable for civic gatherings. The composing room, metal and stereotyping room are so situated as to make them easily accessible to the news room.”

The building was expanded in 1953 and the Becks sold the Oceanside Blade-Tribune newspaper in 1954 to Tom Braden, due to Harold Beck’s failing health. However, Paul and Harold maintained ownership of the building. Harold Beck retired to Palm Springs and later died at the age of 58 in 1963.

Paul remained active in civic and business affairs as a member of the Oceanside Elks Lodge, supporter and benefactor of the Oceanside Boys Club and chairman of the board of the Oceanside Federal Savings and Loan. In a 1986 interview Paul said, “I would like to think I helped make the city what it is.” He died in 1991 at the age 84.

In 1978 the building was purchased by Roosevelt Campbell, Jr. and Oscar and Ruth Culp. They together, with George Mitchell, formed CMC Furniture and for over three decades the former newspaper building was used as a furniture store and warehouse. In addition, a portion of the upstairs was made or converted into apartments.

Building at 401 Seagaze Dr (formerly First Street) when it was CMC Furniture in 1991

It is worth noting that both George Mitchell and Oscar Culp, upon joining the United States Marine Corps in 1943, were assigned to the Montford Point Marines, an all-Black division of the Marine Corps. Both men were recognized for their service when Congress bestowed our nation’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, along with more than three hundred other Montford Point Marines.

One of the most notable features of this historic building is a stepped motif parapet upon which is “engraved” the name of the two newspapers owned by the Beck Brothers in the smooth cement finish. This, however, had been covered for decades in a blocky (or even splotchy) stucco pattern. When the building was being remodeled and restored just a few years ago, that stucco finished was removed revealing Gill’s original design and the name of Oceanside’s longest published newspaper, the Blade Tribune.

Today the building is the home of the Blade 1936 restaurant, a name given as an ode to its history.