Transit Company Collection, 1884 – 1969

Printable guide [HTML]

Summary

Title:
Transit Company Collection
Dates:
1884 – 1969
Creators:
Abstract:
The Transit Company Collection consists of 4 parts: - Part 1: Spreckels Companies - Part 2: San Diego Electric Railway Company - Part 3: San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company - Part 4: San Diego Transit System In 1967 San Diego Transit System, wholly owned by City Transit System, donated to the San Diego Public Library records of the operations of the San Diego Electric Railway Company (SDERC), the San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company (SDCFC), and other Spreckels controlled businesses in San Diego County. The impetus for the gift came with the dissolution of the San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company and the sale of the San Diego Transit System (SDTS) to the city of San Diego. Current operating records of the SDTS (successor to the SDERC) were passed along to the public corporation formed by the city. The majority of the materials deals with the SDERC and the SDCFC during the 1930s and 1940s. In the case of the SDCFC, records extend into the 1960s. The Spreckels Companies materials came into the possession of the City Transit Systems at the time of purchase of the SDERC and the SDCFC from the J.D. and A.B. Spreckels Company in 1948. At one time, such enterprises as the Hotel del Coronado, the Coronado Beach Company, and the Mission Beach Company, along with the SDERC and the SDCFC, formed the southern division of the Spreckels business empire. Although these entities were separate companies, they were all under the direction of the same executive staff and were operated in quasi-support of the ferry and the electrical railway. This collection of materials seems to have had its origins in the office of the vice president and general manager of the SDERC and the SDCFC. The files of correspondence are mainly those of Sam E. Mason and Robert F. MacNally, both of whom held the position. The other items are records one might expect to find in the office of a managing executive. It is not known what became of the records of the other departments. Haugh Enterprises (770 B Street, Suite 201), successor to City Transit Systems, retains the minutes of the meetings of the board of directors and of the stockholders and the by-laws and the articles of incorporation for SDERC, SDTS, and SDCFC. Also, in Haugh Enterprises’ possession are records of the Coronado Water Company. In an early 1976 interview, Mr. Waldo Greiner, counsel for Haugh Enterprises, suggested that certain papers might still be in the offices of Morris and Foester, the San Francisco law firm handing Spreckel’s companies legal affairs. (The firm operated as Morrison, Hohfeld, Shuman & Clark for the period under consideration.) This simple guide to the collection is just that. It is not a detailed analysis of the contents of the collection. When the initial sorting of the materials took place, it was immediately apparent that only a very general arrangement had been followed in packing the items. Some boxes contained files from only one company while others combined correspondences, contracts, account books, etc. from several businesses. The materials in this collection were inventoried as they stood in the boxes. But since it was the general policy of the California Room at that time to catalog separately items which by their physical form were capable of being shelved in standard library fashion, the collection as donated is not intact. The user is advised to check the RCC card catalog under the name of the business for items separated from the collection. In arranging the SDERC materials, the original order is preserved as determined by the file indices found in the collection. The folders of correspondences were rearranged with the oldest date first. Many of the individual papers have a penciled notation corresponding with the number of the folder; it was obviously added by the donors while sorting at the items. It was assumed that these individual papers belonged with that folder. Items without numbers were left in the folder housing them. A small number of duplicates and papers of no interest to the operational history of the company were discarded. Due to privacy and the lack of pertinence to the collection, all records of war bonds purchased by SDERC employees were eliminated completely. Contracts and secretary’s file booklets form the remainder of the SDERC collection. The SDERC collection is incomplete with large gaps in the numbering sequence. These gaps were also noted within the entire collection before it was separated by companies.
Extent:
85.9 cubic ft.
Language:
Preferred citation:

Transit Company Collection. San Diego Public Library

Background

Scope and content:

Partial Inventory of Companies Noted in Collection: - Bay Shore Railroad Company - Coronado Beach Company - Coronado Tent City - Coronado Water Company - Hercules Oil Company - Hotel Del Coronado - Hotel San Diego - J.D. and A.B. Spreckels Company - S.D. and A.B. Spreckels Investment Company - J.D. and A.B. Spreckels Securities Company - Jamacha Irrigation District - John D. Spreckels Building Company - Mission Beach Company - Mt. Tecarte Land and Water Company - Otay Water Company - Pacific Commercial Warehouse, Inc. - Point Loma Railroad Company - San Diego and Coronado Ferry Company - San Diego and Coronado Transfer Company - San Diego Electric Railway Company - San Diego Land and Town Company - San Diego Streetcar Company - San Diego Union-The Tribune Company - Savage Tire Company - Seventh and Hill Building Corporation (Los Angeles) - South Park & East Side Railway Company - Southern California Mountain Water Company - Spreckels Brothers Commercial Company - United Light, Fuel and Power Company

Acquisition information:
San Diego Transit System, City Transit System
Processing information:

Matthew Nye, Dustin Vogel, and Kayla Beard, 2025

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid created by San Diego Public Library staff.
Date Prepared:
1884 – 1969
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:54 p.m.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

San Diego Public Library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Permission to copy or publish any portion of San Diego Public Library's collection must be given by the San Diego Public Library.

Preferred citation:

Transit Company Collection. San Diego Public Library

Location of this collection:
330 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92101, US
Contact:
(619) 238-6668
speccoll@sandiego.gov
Website