Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [243]
Free weekly Offshoot tours (Map; www.balboapark.org/info/tours.php; 10am Sat Jan to Thanksgiving) depart the Balboa Park Visitor Center.
Mission Valley
Although it would often dry up in late summer, the San Diego River was the most reliable source of fresh water for the crops and livestock of the early missions. The river valley, now called Mission Valley, flooded frequently until dams were completed upstream in the mid-1950s. The I-8 now runs its length. The restored Mission San Diego de Alcalá is worth visiting, but Mission Valley’s most touted feature is its triad of shopping centers Click here.
The San Diego Trolley runs the length of the valley, from Downtown to the mission, with stops at Qualcomm Stadium and all the shopping centers. The trolley’s route cuts through a scenic corridor of riparian land (and golf courses) not seen from the freeway.
MISSION SAN DIEGO DE ALCALá
Although the site of the first California mission was on Presidio Hill (opposite), in 1774 Padre Junípero Serra moved it about 7 miles upriver to its present location, closer to a water supply and more arable land. In 1784 the missionaries built a solid adobe and timber church, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1803. The church was promptly rebuilt, and at least some of it still stands on a slope overlooking Mission Valley. With the end of the mission system in the 1830s, the buildings were turned over to the Mexican government and fell into disrepair. Some accounts say that they were reduced to a facade and a few crumbling walls by the 1920s.
Extensive restoration began in 1931, with financial support from local citizens and the Hearst Foundation, a philanthropic organization funded by one of California’s most influential families. The pretty white church and buildings you see now are the fruits of that work.
The visitors center (Map; 619-281-8449; www.missionsandiego.com; 10818 San Diego Mission Rd, cnr Friars Rd; adult/child/senior $3/1/2; 9am-4:45pm) inside the mission has a friendly and informative staff. The mission sits north of I-8, off the Mission Gorge Rd exit; from the Mission trolley stop, walk two blocks north and turn right onto San Diego Mission Rd.
Old Town
Under the Mexican government, which took power in 1821, any settlement with a population of 500 or more was entitled to become a ‘pueblo.’ Since the Presidio’s population was about 600, the land below became the first official civilian Spanish settlement in California – the Pueblo de San Diego. A plaza was laid out around Casa Estudillo, home of the pueblo’s commandant, and within 10 years it was surrounded by about 40 huts and several houses. This square mile of land (roughly 10 times what remains today) was also the center of American San Diego until the fire of 1872, after which the city’s main body moved to the new Horton subdivision (now Downtown).
John Spreckels built a trolley line from Horton’s New Town to Old Town in the 1920s and, to attract passengers, began restoring the old district. In 1968 the area was named Old Town State Historic Park, archaeological work began, and the few surviving original buildings were restored. Other structures were rebuilt, and the area is now a pedestrian district (with parking lots around the edges) of shade trees, a large open plaza, and a cluster of shops and restaurants.
Today’s Old Town is primarily a shopping and eating destination, but interpretive rangers give tours and the Old Town State Historic Park Visitor Center ( 619-220-5422; www.parks.ca.gov; admission free; 10am-5pm) has an excellent American-period museum in the Robinson-Rose House at the southern end of the plaza. (Native-American pieces are in the Museum of Man at Balboa Park.) The center has memorabilia, a video