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16
Chapter 4: Early American Period
massive undertaking. Unfortunately for the
city, the Butterfield Stage Coach line did not
reach it, passing instead through the Warner
Hot Springs area in the north of the county.
The city of San Diego waited eagerly for a link
to the transcontinental rail
way to break its iso-
lation and bring more people. The outbreak of
the Civil
War in 1860 stalled any rail
way
expansion though, and the economy of the
San Diego region remained slow.
5
After the Civil
War, the pace of econom-
ic development and population growth
quickened. In 1867, Alonzo E. Horton,
a “Connecticut Yankee” who had settled
in San Francisco, saw San Diego’s harbor
and thought it
must be “heaven on earth.”
He thought the existing town near the plaza
was a bit shabby, however, and decided to
develop a new subdivision, which he called
“Horton’s Addition.” As people moved in, they
began calling the new area “New Town,” and
the existing area “Old Town.”
6
Thus began
the trend of developing land to attract
more
people — and needing more water to keep
them there.
Even with their li
mited water supplies, some
San Diego citizens started creating lush land-
scapes. In 1869, a homeowner dug a well in
his yard, installed a windmill and created the
first irrigated garden for a private home in the
city. A fad had begun. Horton followed suit
with a garden that the newspaper heralded as
“the most i
mposing edifice in San Diego,
[taking water from] a never-failing well of pure
water on the premises [which is] carried all over
the building by means of
machinery.”
7
In 1873, the city of San Diego sank a new well,
but citizens were repulsed by its poor quality.
Some used its water for bathing, but none
used it for drinking. Townswoman Hattie
Dougherty described the brackish water at the
corner of Twelfth and K: “When you put soap in
San Diego skyline view
looking southwest from 24th and Market Street,
Sherman House at 22nd and Market Street, 1888
Alonzo E. Horton portrait
both from The San Diego Historical
Society
Alonzo E. Horton