One of my favorite summertime activities in the past few years involves trekking south for 45 minutes to Coronado Island for a Sunday night free concert in Spreckels Park on Orange Avenue, the main drag of this beach community. John Diedrich Spreckels (August 16, 1853 – June 7, 1926) was an American businessman who founded a transportation and real estate empire here in San Diego in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His legacy to this community is a combination of local beauty and community spirit that flowed from his various business ventures including the famous landmark, Hotel del Coronado and the railroad that runs from Arizona to San Diego, crossing the treacherous southernmost portion of the Sierra Mountains, called the Peninsular Range. It was these two ventures, along with his support of the 1915 exposition which created Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo, which are credited with helping San Diego develop into a major commercial center and one of the loveliest communities in America.
Spreckels Park is just a large, one-block city park that sits a few blocks from the the distinctive century-old red-roof of the Hotel Del. There is nothing special about the park and, indeed, it looks like any other community park in America with a playground and gazebo center pavilion. A number of years ago, someone decided that a summer concert series would be a pleasant local activity. The Coronado summer concert series was born and now typically draws over 5,000 people to Spreckels Park. According to the city’s Public Services department, “some 5,000 people had been partying in the park the night before” and that’s a typical concert attendance figure they plan for. These are the popular “Concert in the Park” series that run every Sunday evening from Memorial Day to Labor Day, featuring various bands and musical acts. The concerts are held at the gazebo bandstand in the 8-acre Spreckels Park and they’re known for being one of Coronado’s most beloved summer traditions. People bring picnics, blankets, and chairs to enjoy the free outdoor concerts.
We have some wonderful friends who summer on Coronado. Steve is the cousin of our dear friends from Woodstock Vermont, Barbara & Frank. We met Steve twenty-five or so years ago by virtue of Barbara’s inclusion of him on one of our motorcycle rides in the great Southwest. Steve lives in Phoenix (Scottsdale actually) and a few years after we met, found and married Karen. The two commute like reverse snowbirds from Phoenix in the winter to Coronado in the summer. Between that routine and visiting Steve’s daughter and family in San Sebastián Spain, they are one of those couples that we always ask first “where are you” when we get them on the phone of text. They are a young-at-heart pair (Karen contributing the young and both contributing to the heart) who have woven themselves into the fabric of the Coronado community. I’m not altogether sure all of their connections to that traditional and very special community, but I do know that their participation on the board of the summer concert series and their annual sponsorship of one of the Sunday night concerts has certainly given them a special role in that beach town.
Coronado Island has a rich history spanning from indigenous peoples to its development as an exclusive resort destination. The area was originally inhabited by the indigenous Kumeyaay people, who lived along San Diego Bay and the Pacific coast for thousands of years before European contact. Spanish explorers first arrived in 1542 when Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay. The peninsula was later named “Coronado” (meaning “crowned one” in Spanish), though the exact origin of the name is debated – it may have referred to four men who were crowned for their service or been named after the Coronado Islands offshore. After Mexican independence, the land became part of various Mexican land grants. Following the Mexican-American War and California statehood in 1850, the peninsula (it’s technically not an island since it connects to Imperial Beach to the south by the thinnest of isthmuses called Silver Strand) remained largely undeveloped ranch land. The transformation of the island began when Elisha Babcock Jr. and H.L. Story purchased the entire peninsula in 1885 for $110,000. That may have been a better deal than the purchase of Manhattan in 1626 for $24 in trinkets. In fact, with Coronado having 7.5 square miles to Manhattan’s 305 square miles, it’s current value is $2.67 B/square mile versus Manhattan’s $2.42 B/square mile. Based on the purchase prices, Manhattan property has yielded 7% compounded over 399 years where Coronado property has yielded 9% compounded over 140 years. That’s potentially a flawed analysis based on the relative growth cycles of the early 259 years versus the last 140 years, but its still fair to say that while Coronado doesn’t approach Manhattan’s astronomical $700+ billion valuation, it’s remarkably valuable for its size. The island’s exclusivity, beachfront location, and limited developable land create a concentration of wealth that makes it one of California’s most expensive real estate markets per square mile. And yet, many of the residents have been there for generations. Also, in 1917, the U.S. Navy established North Island Naval Air Station, making it the birthplace of naval aviation. The military presence expanded significantly during both World Wars. Today, Coronado balances its role as a military community, historic preservation, and upscale resort destination while maintaining the vision of its founders as a unique coastal paradise.
Steve & Karen invite us to join them at the Sunday summer concerts and this week they were sponsoring the band The American Flyboys, which seemed like an all-too appropriate group to play Coronado. We loaded up our camp chairs and our special wagon that turns into a table. Our sponsors provided us with a parking pass to park right on the park’s east side. Kim and Carolyn made a picnic of chicken cutlets and potato salad (my version of the perfect picnic…so let’s say that was to accommodate my likes). We set up in the roped-off sponsor section right in front of the bandstand, thank’s to Steve & Karen’s community-minded generosity. And as the band started playing and the banners and bunting in red, white and blue waved in the mild sea breeze, Kim and the girls went up to start jitterbugging in the grass in front of the gazebo. Coronado’s finest in their flip-flops and ball caps were lounging in their chairs, mingling amongst themselves and generally enjoying the perfect summer evening. The fare ranged from huge pizzas to the noodle salad that Jack Nicholson talks about in As Good As It Gets. And this little spit of land sitting between the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay was simultaneously as good as it gets for a summer evening and a perfect slice of Americana Maximus.