Matthew Nye and Marilyn Carnes have both kindled their love of National City history while working in the Morgan Local History Room of the National City Public Library. Combining his degrees in History and Library Science, Nye was the librarian for the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. He is currently a librarian for the National City Public Library. Carnes has lived in National City for over 30 years while restoring her Victorian home. The vintage photographs they have gathered are largely from the collection of the National City Public Library.
Title: National City on splendid display
Author: Roger Showley
Publisher: The San Diego Union-Tribune
Date: 11/23/2008 The very year, 1868, that Alonzo E. Horton was
founding New Town San Diego - today's downtown - Frank Kimball and
his brothers were founding National City. They bought the old
26,632-acre Rancho de la Nación, a grazing ground in Mexican days,
for $30,000 (just over $1 per acre, three times what Horton paid
per acre) and set about founding industries and community
institutions. To celebrate the founding days, local history buffs
Marilyn Carnes and Matthew Nye assembled dozens of old photos into
"Images of America: Early National City," the latest in Arcadia
Publishing's paperbacks on San Diego places. The Kimballs left New
Hampshire in 1861 and settled in Oakland, where they were active in
Civil War-era construction. With post-war prospects booming and
propelled by the completion of the transcontinental railroad, they
moved to San Diego. They established a lumberyard, built homes and
farms and in the 1870s Frank was instrumental in enticing the
extension of railroad service to San Diego with National City as
the terminus. Before the boom of the 1880s went bust, Frank's net
worth soared to $1.4 million, the equivalent of $30 million in
today's money by one measurement. In the downturn, he lost
everything and had to live in an apartment and, at age 70, make a
living through manual labor, the authors said. But the Kimballs
left behind stately mansions, some economic engines of growth and a
heritage of philanthropy. Among the interesting photos in the book,
well explained in lengthy captions, are such early businesses as
Gus E. Schwenke's shoe store (the line of boots and shoes resemble
today's shoe lineups in department stores); the Otay Watch Works,
operated for only eight months in 1890, its first edition of 1,200
watches named the "Frank Kimball"; and impressive Victorian homes,
some of which are still knockouts today. The Arcadia books on San
Diego-area places and subjects are available at many local
bookstores. Information: arcadiapublishing.com
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