Did you know? Some interesting tidbits about San Clemente’s History
We’ve uncovered a fantastic article from the old Sun Post News which chronicles some interesting facts about San Clemente’s history. Originally published in June 1999, “Longtime residents offer some golden tidbits” by Patricia Hobbes Hendry. Patricia Hobbes Henry wrote a weekly column about San Clemente.
In two years of doing interviews for this column, I’ve been told that:
The first school was at 157 Serra with 12 children attending.
Oleander trees lined Del Mar all the way down the hill to the pier.
The San Clemente branch of the Orange County Free Lending Library was established in May 1928.
Bank of America owned several rental cabanas on the beach north of the pier.
There was a big watermelon patch in the Pico Plaza area.
Commercial fishing boats left from the pier.
Swans swam in a pond in Plaza Park (now Max Berg). It was filled with huge goldfish and water lilies and had large working water fountains at each end.
In the early 1950s, San Clemente had many cases of polio and four deaths.
The tall palms on the beach were moved from Ray Campbell’s motel (now Ralph’s) in the early 1960s.
Rubber plants (guayule) were raised at San Onofre during World War II and used for making tires.
In 1966, the back nine of the golf course was put in for $55,000.
Newspapers were once delivered on horseback in San Clemente.
A lumberyard stood on El Camino Real at Palizada.
In September 1939, the pier was washed away.
Eve Arden was part of the dedication ceremony for the second pier in 1940.
There were lookout posts high in the hills during World War II where citizens watched for planes and submarines.
In the 1940s, every child in town received a Christmas gift from the Men’s Club.
Floyd Ray, the golf course greenskeeper, made the first hole-in-one in November, 1934.
The first “school bus” was a 1936 Ford sedan driven by Mrs. Kale.
San Clemente once had a bowling alley with six lanes.
In the 1930s, there were so many abalone on the reef north of the pier that they were on top of each other. Commercial divers got 100 dozen a day. You could also catch lobster from the pier.
In the late 1940s, the phone number for the AAA tow truck was 330. All the numbers in town were only three digits.
In 1934, a school hot lunch of milk, soup, and crackers cost 5 cents.
A mermaid fountain once spurted water in the courtyard of the Del Mar Hotel. (The base is still there.)
The first bar and dance place in town was in the Travel Inn. (Now South of Nick’s.)
Ray Campbell had the school bus concession when buses were first used.
Trees liked all the streets in the south end of town. Each street had its own kind of tree.
Concordia School was named in a contest.
Green fees at the golf course were 50 cents in the late 1940s.
The Carrick family had chickens and horses on their four lots on Cazador.
Most of the palms on El Camino Real, the beach and the golf course were raised from seeds from the trees in Plaza Park.
Leo Smith who served as mayor from 1947-51 once made caskets for Divel’s Mortuary and was paid $1 for each.
Ray Duncan and an NBC TV crew covered the opening of Cabrillo Theater in 1966. The first play was “Bell, Book, and Candle.”
San Clemente’s first church, St. Clement’s By the Sea, was built in 1930.