Old La Playa

Ships could not get to San Diego, so San Diego came to the ships. Hide houses stood on this beach because deep water reached it and the town four miles inland had none. Dana loaded hides here in 1835 and 1836, and Americans ran a flag up over the Brookline's hide house six years earlier without any authority to do it. The Navy took the ground later and used it in turn for coaling, for quarantine, and now for research. The town moved; the landing never did.

What the plaque says

Old La Playa From 1770 to 1870, this was San Diego's port. Over the Brookline hide house, Americans unofficially raised a U.S. flag in 1829. At that time La Playa was a thriving trading and shipping village. Richard Henry Dana's account of the hide business in Two Years Before the Mast is based on his hide-droghing experience here in 1835-6. The U.S. Navy later acquired the site and operated a coaling station and a quarantine station here. It is now a Navy research center. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 61 First registered December 6, 1932. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Navy and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, April 3, 1989.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery — 1.1 mi
• Cabrillo Landing Site — 1.4 mi
• Ballast Point Whaling Station Site — 1.5 mi
• Site of Fort Guijarros — 1.5 mi