When Ole Hanson saw our beautiful stretch of Pacific coastline, he began to dream of building a “Spanish Village by the Sea.” He imagined it would be “a painting five miles long and over a mile wide. Its foreground is the sea, its background the hills. We will use for our pigments flower … and red tile and white plaster. The streets will follow the natural contour of the land.”

Hanson named the town after the offshore island originally called “San Clemente” by Spanish explorer Vizcaino in 1603. On a clear day, San Clemente Island is perfectly framed at the top of Avenida Del Mar and El Camino Real.

In 1925, Hanson’s vision became reality with the help of H.H. Cotton, a wealthy financier, and Thomas Murphine, who later became San Clemente’s first mayor. Construction quickly began on the first two thousand acres situated between El Camino Real and the ocean. Average lots sold for $300 and by 1928, one thousand people lived here year-round. They had all agreed to Hanson’s stringent requirements: all homes and buildings were to be Spanish in design with red-tiled roofs and white-stuccoed walls. Interesting details showing a Spanish influence included deeply recessed windows and doors, arches, balconies, courtyards, towers, painted tiles, and decorative chimneys.

San Clemente was one of the country’s first master planned communities. It was also one of the wealthiest cities per capita in civic adjuncts in America. This was because all amenities were publicly owned without encumbrance. San Clemente residents were joint owners of community amenities that were unprecedented at the time: 3,000 feet of public beach, a 1,200 foot municipal fishing pier, a public school, a 4-acre park, a baseball field, 17 miles of bridle trails, a golf course, and an Olympic-size public pool, all built in the same Spanish architectural style. San Clemente was lauded around the world as an American achievement in city planning and building. 

Just as Ole’s vision was being realized, unfortunately, the stock market crash of 1929 devastated our young city. Development was halted and the town’s middle-class residents were forced to move elsewhere for job opportunities, resulting in a sixty percent population decline in a single decade. Many of its remaining residents went bankrupt, including Ole Hanson himself; Ole lost all of his holdings, including his beloved mansion, Casa Romantica, and was forced to leave San Clemente and his dream behind. Following the Depression, the town removed Hanson’s original decree that all buildings must be constructed in the Spanish style in an effort to promote an economic recovery and attract new residents. This ushered in a new era for the “Spanish Village.” 

Around 500 original Spanish style structures were built in the founder’s era but only 203 remain today. In the 70s, after President Richard Nixon bought one of San Clemente’s historic mansions to serve as his Western White House, San Clemente saw renewed interest and popularity. As a result, the charming casitas as well as the large mansions on the bluffs started to be demolished by bulldozers or mysterious fires to make way for larger apartment complexes. The landmark Bartow Mansion, which sat on the bluffs just south of the pier and was the town’s finest example of Spanish Revival architecture, was even covertly bulldozed in the middle of the night in 1972 after the owner was denied permits to replace it with a 45-unit condominium. Its demise instigated a campaign by local residents to preserve the remaining historical structures, which led to the creation of the San Clemente Historical Society. 

Today, San Clemente is most widely known for its many epic surf breaks, with Trestles at San Onofre State Beach bringing visitors from all over the world. Surfing aside, the town itself is unlike any other on the California coast. It has 5 miles of sandy beaches, a 1,200 foot long fishing pier, and a historic downtown with a charming ambience and Spanish style architecture that evokes images of the Mediterranean.