Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE US GRANT
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As California moved toward statehood, the Spanish and Mexican settlers clashed with those who
came from the Atlantic Coast. The Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 was particularly brutal on
the Native Americans, who were forced to pick one side or the other—or be caught in the middle.
Due to war, disease, and an influx of settlers with claims to the land, the Kumeyaay Indian popula-
tion around San Diego Bay was reduced from 30,000 to around 3,000.
Formal statehood in 1850 saw treaties negotiated with the various Indian tribes of California,
but they were not ratified by the U.S. Senate. Twenty-five years later, President Ulysses S. Grant set
aside 640 acres for the use of the Kumeyaay Tribe. Interestingly, this would not be the last time the
Grant family would have a hand in San Diego's history. Nor would this be the end of the Kumeyaay
Indians' story.
As San Diego grew, a merchant from San Francisco, Alonzo Horton, arrived in 1867. He im-
mediately fell in love with the place and purchased 960 acres of what is now the downtown area
for the sum of $265. Following through on his dream, he laid out streets and sold lots to encourage
development in his area of town. Horton deliberately made the blocks small, thus ensuring there
were more valuable corners to sell. He built and opened the Horton House in 1870, the first luxury
hotel in town. Horton had sealed his destiny as the Father of New Town San Diego.
In 1895, the hotel and surrounding property was purchased for $56,000 by Fannie Chaffee
Grant, the wife of Ulysses S. Grant Jr. and the daughter-in-law of the eighteenth president. They
had moved to California for the economic opportunity and they hoped the weather would improve
her health.
California life was good for the Grants, and they decided that the Horton Hotel should be
replaced with a much larger structure to be named after the former president and Civil War hero.
They demolished the Horton in July 1905, with 91-year-old Horton participating in the event.
Work was immediately begun on its replacement, but the Great Earthquake of 1906 caused all
available workers and supplies in the state to go to San Francisco to help rebuild the city.
Work resumed in 1908 when financier Louis J. Wilde stepped in to help. Unfortunately, Fannie
Grant died in 1909, but the US Grant Hotel opened with great fanfare in October of 1910 at a final
cost of $1.9 million, a staggering sum at the time. Wilde went on to become one of the city's first
mayors, and used his influence to make sure that the boulevard in front of the hotel was widened to
ensure guests retained the uninterrupted view of the ocean.
