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Guide to San Diego Bay Region. Containing Reliable and Valuable Information Concerning the Products and Prospects of the Country [cover title].

Chicago, [IL]: Rand, McNally & Co., Printers and Engravers, [1888]. 12mo (7” x 4.875”), pictorial wrappers with text in red and black. 27 pp., 1p. ads., 1 double-page color map, numerous b&w illus. Contemporary pencil annotations on last two pages. CONDITION: Very good, light wear to cover and minor stain to edge of lower wrapper and last pages, rust at centerfold staples.

An engaging promotional brochure for the brand new town of Chula Vista, with a map of the San Diego Bay region.

This very engaging brochure promotes the land, climate, crops, and cost of living in the San Diego Bay area and, particularly, the San Diego Land & Town Company’s newly-built town, Chula Vista. “First,” it opens, “we have no cheap lands” by eastern reckoning, but rather “cheap for Southern California.” Once purchased, however, you may “make yourself…a home without malaria, lightning rods, cyclone caves, or mosquito nets…a place to live year round instead of running away on the first day of spring…” And, thanks to the company’s construction of the Sweetwater Dam and the National City and Otay Railroad, Chula Vista comes ready-made “with water, roads, railroads.” All of these amenities have been constructed “in the present California style—in advance of settlement.” Lots are advertised for sale “ONLY to those who will build thereon a modern style house, costing not less than two thousand dollars, within six months from date of purchase, placing the same 125 feet from the street line.”

The map depicts the San Diego Region, from Selwyn in the north to Tia Juana and “Lower California” in the south, with the Bay of San Diego and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Holdings of the San Diego Land & Town Co.—National City, Chula Vista, and Rancho Otay—are in pink. Railway lines of the California Southern and the National City & Otay are shown. The Sweetwater river, dam, and reservoir appear in the far east of the map, along with the “30 Inch Water Pipe” bringing its contents into Chula Vista. Relief is shown by hachure.

The San Diego Land & Town Company originated as a joint venture between the ranch owners Frank and Warren Kimball and the California Southern Railroad, and their privatized water supply became a matter of life and death to the region’s orchards during the protracted drought at the turn of the century.

Item #7662

Price: $475.00