Old Town
San Diego &
Cosoy Village
History

We hope this section provides an excellent historical resource about Old Town San Diego and valuable information concerning Old Town's endangered future.  Please bookmark this site for future reference.

An 1850 sketch of Old Town with Point Loma in the distance.
(from the Bancroft Library)

Old Town San Diego is the birthplace of the State of California, and is both a State and Federal Landmark.  Historic Old Town was partially preserved by the citizens and City of San Diego until 1967, when it became a California State Historical Park.

The little town of San Diego began below a Spanish Presidio, by the mouth of the San Diego River and near the edge of San Diego Bay.  It was around 1810 when the very first houses of Old Town were built down the hill from the Presidio, 40 years after Spanish settlers had arrived in 1769.  As the Presidio was gradually abandoned, the community grew and officially became a pueblo (town) under the Mexican government in 1835.  When California became part of the United States in 1850, San Diego received a city charter under the new State government.  After Alonzo Horton started "New Town" in the 1860's (where downtown is today) there was a struggle as to where the town center would be.  San Diego's center was relocated from Old Town to New Town in 1872.  Since then, Old Town's historical significance has grown, as well as the desire by many people to see San Diego as it was, when it was a little pueblo by the river, on the edge of the bay.

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Historical and Informative Page provided by

California History & Culture Conservancy

A Non-Profit Organization
Dedicated to the Care and Preservation
of Our Cultural Heritage