Through the years, El Cajon has grown into a prosperous and beautiful City. Like any great city, it is important to preserve the memories of the past to share with future generations. With the help of the El Cajon Historical Society, this record has been preserved through photos and stories that have captured the evolution of El Cajon from before its incorporation as a City in 1912, through today.

Browse through these historical archives and enjoy learning about El Cajon and get a glimpse into what the City looked like in its early days. From the Corona Hotel at Main & Magnolia in the early 1900s, to the accelerated growth which took place after World War II, to the men, women, and families who called this wonderful place home and have helped this City of over 100,000 today still retain its small-town charm.

Agricultural Beginnings (>1900)

In the early part of the nineteenth century, Spanish Mission Padres, who had founded San Diego Mission de Alcala in east Mission Valley, discovered the rich pasture land in the El Cajon Valley. Surrounded by foothills in every direction, the "Big Box Valley" became the namesake for the City ("El Cajon" translates to "the box" in Spanish). For years, these foothills served as a barrier for straying cattle of the San Diego Mission, as well ideal terrain to capture sparse rainfall for the grasslands and fertile land for agriculture on the valley floor.

After independence from Spain in 1821, land in Alta California transferred to Mexico and the relatively new government began the process of secularizing the Roman Catholic Missions in California. In 1845, Governor Pio Pico of Alta California confiscated the lands of Mission San Diego de Alcala and granted the eleven square leagues of El Cajon Valley to Dona Maria Antonio Estudillo, wife of Don Miguel de Pedrorena. The land grant, known as Rancho Cajon, included the present communities of Lakeside, Santee, Bostonia, El Cajon, and part of Grossmont.

The Pedrorenas continued their residence in San Diego, yet their proprietorship in their newly acquired land did not foster any economic development. Scattered homes of adobe construction were erected in the area during the mid 19th century; then in 1870, a school for six children was established in a homestead at Park and Magnolia Avenues.

California became a state in 1850 following the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and after the American Civil War, migrations of settlers sought homesteads on open spaces of the American West, including California. While the Mexican land grants were honored by the U.S. Government, poorly defined boundaries of the Pedrorena's land led to legal confusion leading to pioneering homesteaders to be referred to as squatters. Eventually, real estate developments were initiated by San Francisco entrepreneur, Isaac Lankershim, who bought the majority of the Pedrorena's Rancho Cajon in 1868. Economic investments would soon arrive from New England native Amaziah L. Knox, and El Cajon's first commercial building was established at the intersection of Main Street and Magnolia Avenue in 1876.

Over the years, Lankershim subdivided Rancho Cajon, selling large tracts for wheat ranching. It was soon discovered that the soil and climate would support any crop and El Cajon valley began to flourish as a produce center for citrus, avocados, grapes, and raisins.

Gold mining operations in Julian brought a steady trek of freight traffic hauling equipment and supplies between San Diego and Julian. Teamsters traversed the route down the old Mussey grade (now covered by San Vicente Reservoir), south to El Cajon—often camping overnight at the major intersection of Main & Magnolia, then continuing west through the Grossmont Pass and on into San Diego.

Recognizing the teamsters' habit of camping overnight in El Cajon and a potential business opportunity, Knox erected a seven-room building as a combination residence and hotel on its southwest corner in 1876. Small additions were followed by a large two story annex In 1882. Knox's Corner was to be the nucleus of El Cajon's business district for the next seventy years. By the turn of the century the two blocks of Main Street, astride Magnolia, boasted two hotels, a general store, meat market, post office, pharmacy, harness shop, blacksmith shop, and smaller sundry shops and offices.

Incorporation and a Young City (1912-1945)

At the general election on November 12, 1912, 123 of 158 electors voted to incorporate a 1 1/4 square mile area centering on Main Street and Magnolia Avenue. The board of five trustees met the following week to elect a president and appoint a city attorney. Regular meetings were scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month. However, special meetings to get the administration organized and functioning were not infrequent. Committees were appointed for Streets, Alleys, Water and Lights, Finance and Licenses, and Health, Morals, and Sanitation. In addition to the elected positions of Treasurer and Clerk, appointments were made for a Marshal and Tax Collector, Engineer, Recorder, Superintendent of Streets, two Deputy Marshals, and a Fire Chief. Ordinances and resolutions were passed to fix salaries or other compensation, provide for the grading and sprinkling of streets, contract for bridge construction and mapping the City, banning cattle and hogs from the central city, and outlawing horseracing down Main Street. For the next thirty years El Cajon followed the pattern of orderly development typical of rural/ small town America. By 1940 the population had reached a modest 1,471 residents.

Post World War II Growth (1946<)

In the five years following World War II, the winds of change became apparent. While land area increased slightly to 1.67 square miles, in-migration increased the population to 5,600. In 1949 the City Council began to study the feasibility of the council-manager form of government to meet the day to day administrative and long-term planning requirements of a growing metropolitan area. The office of City Manager was instituted in 1950 in time to meet the most explosive decade of growth in El Cajon's history. By 1960 the incorporated area was to increase five-fold to 9.8 square miles and population six-fold to 37,618.

However, this remarkable growth was not accomplished without its trauma. Fiscal resources for capital investments necessary to keep municipal services meeting increasing demand became strained. Substantial capital outlays were needed in virtually every department: Police, Fire, Sewage Treatment, Public Works, Parks and Recreation and General Government. In 1959 the Council and Manager commissioned a research study to assess the present and probable future structure of the City. Given the unforeseen developments in double digit inflation and federal revenue sharing of the 1970s, the projections of this study proved remarkably prophetic.

Integrating these research findings and into projections for its master plans, El Cajon moved forward on a number of significant projects. Acquisition of additional fire fighting equipment which resulted in much improved insurance ratings; improving several key street projects that solved the increasing traffic congestion as the population continued to grow; a cross service agreement with the San Diego Metropolitan Sewer District and the construction of an extensive sewer network line eliminated the need to rely on septic tanks which were saturating the subsoil to the danger point; and the timely purchase of the property at 1050 Vernon Way facilitated the economic construction of the Public Works maintenance and storage facilities.

As the City nears the end of the twentieth century, its growth has become considerably more measured and orderly than in previous decades. Guided by a prudent and fiscally responsible civic leadership. It has weathered its rapid growth period with a balanced economy and a governmental structure which offers full municipal services. In 1976, a new civic center was opened to serve the citizens of El Cajon, reaffirming the intersection of Main and Magnolia as the heart of this great City.*

Today, the El Cajon Civic Center serves as the East County Regional Center, houses the Public Safety Center for the City that contains both Police and Fire Administration for the City of El Cajon, City Hall, the City Council Chambers, and The Magnolia: a premier 1,300-seat concert venue, operated by Live Nation, which hosts world class acts and entertainment for the greater San Diego region.

The El Cajon Valley has undergone a dramatic transformation from the agrarian farmlands of the nineteenth century to the largest City in East County San Diego with over 100,000 residents. One might wonder what Amaziah Knox would say if he knew that the intersection where he established the City's first commercial building and hotel would become the heart and soul of a vibrant and diverse community, well into the twenty-first century. 

*Acknowledgement - A very special thanks is made to the late Mrs. Hazel Sperry, former Secretary and Curator of El Cajon Historical Society, for much of the source material upon which this historical account is based.

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