The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
January 1955, Volume 1, Number 1

Note: Members of the San Diego History Center, seeking specific data on matters of California history, are invited to submit their requests to the Quarterly, for publication; the same privilege is extended also to the other historical societies throughout the state. Information requests should be addressed to the editor and, if from other societies, should be forwarded through that society’s office.

A “B & B” HOUSE – Historical data on a story-and-a-half board and batten house which stood on Columbia Street, between F and G (facing on Pantoja Park) is requested. It has been hinted that the building, torn down in the summer of 1954, may have dated back to Davis’ time.

A “FIRST” FOR NEWPORT BAY: The Orange County Coast Association has asked for any information available regarding a vessel named Vaquero (presumably a schooner) which was the first one to enter Newport Bay. She is supposed to have been built in San Diego in 1869, but no substantiating data has been found.

HORSE-AND-BUGGY DAYS: What became of all of the old cement or stone “carriage blocks” which used to grace the sidewalks in front of the homes of – shall we say the elite? The family name generally was incised in the outboard side, and we recently have run across a photo showing one with the name Capron. Such a block would be a fine thing on which visitors might stand to peer into our old stagecoach. Considering John G. Capron’s fame as a stage-driver, the Capron carriage black would be most appropriate. Ail right – who knows where it is? All we want is the facts, ma’am!

A BIG, GREEN JUNK: Does anyone have any information on the big Chinese junk, painted green, which anchored just west of the Fifth Street Wharf as late as around 1908? She was the last of the larger junks, of which there once was a sizeable fleet operating out of San Diego Bay in the fishing and (if the truth be known) the smuggling trades.

THOSE FABULOUS CABLE-CARS: If you run across a U-shaped bar of steel, about three feet across and two feet deep, with slots in its upper edges, it probably is one of the “yokes” which secured the rails for the cable-car line which ran out to The Bluffs – later Mission Cliff Gardens – in the Nineties. And if it is, we would like to have it.

AT THE FOOOT OF H STREET: When did the Army move its local troops from the Old Mission Barracks to the Quartermaster Depot at the foot of H (Market) Street? The information is needed for a proposed marker on the Site of the old buildings.

SAN DIEGO’S EARLY SCHOOLS: Information is sought regarding a building at the comer of Wallace and Juan Street, which was rented for a school-house in 1862. To complete a file of County Superintendents Of schools, the following pictures are needed: Eugene Pendleton (ex-officio) 1855-56; Frank Ames, 1856-58; Henry H. Dougherty, 1869-71; John Henry S. Jamison, 1873-75, and Walter J. Bailey, 1895-98.