Alonzo Horton - New Town San Diego

New Town San Diego

In 1867 Horton sold off his merchandise in San Francisco and journeyed to San Diego. There he bought 960 acres (3.9 km²) of land on San Diego Bay for just 27½ cents an acre ($67.95/km²), which became known as "Horton's Addition" or "New Town". At first there was much opposition from the residents of the former site of the town, which became known as "Old Town" and still is to this day. But new businesses began to flood into the new tract due to its greater convenience for ships arriving from the East. Eventually the new addition began to eclipse Old Town in importance as the heart of the growing city. Local land exploded in price throughout the 1880s, making Horton a success yet again. Horton helped to establish San Diego's Chamber of Commerce in an effort to further expand the developing city. In 1867, Horton was the first person to ask for a public city park to be developed, which later became Balboa Park. When the U.S. Congress withdrew it's proposed aid to bring the Texas Pacific Railroad into San Diego, the progress of the city froze. Many of the workers in the city had paid Horton a large down payment on their property of 1/3rd the value, and offered to surrender the sum along with the property if Horton would only release them from the contract. Instead, Horton is said to have canceled the contract of anyone who asked, and returned all the money paid, at a great personal loss. Eventually, the California Southern Railroad (now a part of BNSF Railway) became the first line to connect the city with the rest of America's rail network in 1885. But land values crashed in the late 1880s, devastating much of Horton's fortune. By the time he died in 1909, he had lost much of his former wealth.