Guide to the San Diego and Coronado Ferry Collection
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5500 Campanile Dr. MC 8050
San Diego, CA, 92182-8050
URL: http://library.sdsu.edu/scua
Email: scref@rohan.sdsu.edu
Phone: 619-594-6791
Guide to the San Diego and Coronado Ferry Collection 1907/1937
Special Collections & University Archives
Collection Title: San Diego and Coronado Ferry Collection
Dates: 1907-1937
Identification: MS-0200
Creator:
San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company
Physical Description: 3.20 linear ft
Repository:
Special Collections & University Archives
5500 Campanile Dr. MC 8050
San Diego, CA, 92182-8050
URL: http://library.sdsu.edu/scua
Email: scref@rohan.sdsu.edu
Phone: 619-594-6791
The San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company provided ferry service for pedestrians and vehicles from San Diego to North Island
and Coronado. It was incorporated by H. L. Story and Elijah S. Babcock on April 14, 1886 and was a subsidiary of the Coronado
Beach Company. The company's first function was to transport workers building the Hotel del Coronado and to promote the development
of the island as a health resort and spa.
The company terminated service on August 2, 1969 at 11:59 p.m. The Coronado Bridge officially opened one minute later. The
last owners of the company, a firm owned by Jesse L. Haugh, bought it from previous owner John D. Spreckels, who had taken
it over from Story and Babcock. At the time of its closing, the ferry company was a subsidiary of the San Diego Transit System
and a partner to the San Diego Electric Railway.
This collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Organizational Records
Ferries -- California -- San Diego Bay
Local transit -- California -- San Diego County
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the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
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of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
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but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
This collection is open for research.
Identification of item, folder title, box number, San Diego and Coronado Ferry Collection, Special Collections and University
Archives, Library and Information Access, San Diego State University.
Hotel del Coronado Collection
The small
San Diego and Coronado Ferry Collection consists of five items, and documents selected financial operations of the company from early in its long history. It consists
of three financial ledgers, one report, and one broadside. The first ledger dates from 1907 to 1916 and includes detailed
information on capital, payrolls, expenses, dividends, cash charges, and taxes. Part of this ledger is devoted to bookkeeping
for specific jobs and projects, such as "Coronado Turnstile," "Painting the Steamer Ramona," and "New Safety Gates." The second
ledger dates from 1920-1935 and is organized much like the first. These ledgers give a clear record of the company's priorities
over several owners, and provide useful information on partnerships with local companies for infrastructure, improvements
based on customer needs, and problems arising from the company's growth and expansion. This financial picture of the company's
activities is supported by a 1924 valuation report which offers considerable detail about revenues and expenditures. The broadside,
showing tariffs for bay passage in 1910, documents the transportation habits of people and companies in the growing city.
A third ledger, dating from 1935-1937, documents the financial activities of a partner business, the "Exposition Transportation
Company," which existed solely to serve visitors to the California-Pacific Exposition in Balboa Park during those years. It
offered luxury and charter bus tours of the city, rollerchairs and rickshaws on the grounds of the Exposition, and transportation
to other local stations of transit (including the Ferry Company terminal) for tourists. The ledger details revenue and expenses,
taxes, assets, and liabilities of this short-lived but active company.
Detailed List of Contents
Box 1
Ledger, 1907-1916
Box 2
Ledger titled "Appropriation Record," 1920-1935
Box 2
Box 2
Ledger, "Exposition Transporation Company," 1935-1937
Broadside, "Tariff Rates," 1910