A Blast From The Past

Oceanside’s origins date clear back to the 1800’s, with its incorporation on July 3, 1888. Starting off as a meager coastal town in close proximity to Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside developed fairly rapidly opening both the Oceanside Library and Oceanside High School before 1910; with the Oceanside Pier already on its third iteration. In addition to the city projects, locals were establishing their own roots by building their businesses in this new city they called home. Fast forward over a century and Oceanside is doing better than ever, with new developments located alongside buildings dating back to the 1880’s! These historically significant, story-telling buildings are standing proud throughout downtown Oceanside and you’d often be hard pressed to pick them out among the crowd of neighboring structures. Fortunately the City of Oceanside and the Oceanside Historical Society have taken important steps in preserving and honoring these pieces of history. You can even go on your own self guided tour to see Oceanside’s historical gems using the provided map at the bottom of this page.

More: History of Tourism in Oceanside

Though there are many more to see than just these, the following downtown landmarks hold special historical value to the City of Oceanside. Both visitors and locals alike should take the time to visit these places, take in their history, and honor these time capsules as well as recognize Oceanside’s unique system of incorporating the history while continuing to look forward towards the city’s future.

One of the more recognizable historical landmarks in downtown Oceanside is the Graves House, or as most know it, the “Top Gun House.” Built in 1887 by Dr. Henry Graves, this Queen Anne Victorian cottage is one of the oldest houses still standing in Oceanside today. Located on its oceanfront location, this home is significant for a number of reasons. First and foremost the building has folk Victorian architecture which, as John Daley Vice President of the Oceanside Historical Society notes, is extremely rare by the beach. In addition, of those similar buildings that exist it is the best one of its kind in San Diego County making it very special historically. The other significance has to do with it being featured in the cult classic blockbuster movie Top Gun.

Almost a century after being built, the Graves House was selected to be the home of character Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Blackwood, the love interest of Tom Cruise’s character Maverick in the 1986 mega film Top Gun. The house got plenty of screen time in the film and has become a favorite tourist spot to visit, so much so a fence was built around it to help preserve the 130+ year old building. As time has passed, nature took its toll on the Graves House which resulted in mini-restorations and improvements over the years to keep it standing. 

 

The Graves or Top Gun House illustrates a perfect example of Oceanside’s unique attitude towards not only maintaining those remaining buildings from the city’s early years, but going beyond that and incorporating them as special additions to Oceanside’s downtown landscape for the foreseeable future. With construction of the Seabird Resort and Mission Pacific Hotel, the Top Gun House was carefully lifted and relocated so that it could be restored to it’s former glory, and given new life within the completed resort grounds as the HIGH-Pie Dessert Shop.

The Bunker House is another building in downtown Oceanside with a past that dates back to the 1800’s. Built a few years prior to the Schuyler Building in 1886, this large two story structure was built by Theodore Bunker and was declared the ornament of the town at the time by the San Diego Union. Despite going through many hands, the building lived on eventually being named the Travelers Hotel in 1947 by its owner Ralph Rogers.

 

 

The most visible but often overlooked historical landmark in the downtown neighborhood is the Oceanside Pier. Like the other historical sites mentioned, the first iteration of the pier was built in the late 1880’s. The first version was built by the American Bridge Company entirely out of wood reaching a reported 1,200 feet out from the shore. Not long after its completion, a storm in 1890 destroyed nearly all of the pier requiring a major rebuild. This rebuild eventually took place in 1894 utilizing iron pilings to strengthen the pier with an extension added on in 1896, but eventually that too was destroyed by heavy storms in 1902. It wasn’t until 1926 that the fourth pier was built, which famously drew over 20,000 people from all over Southern California to celebrate the grand opening. For the entirety of the pier’s life storms have taken a toll, but regardless of the damage done the pier has always been rebuilt as a testament to the strength and steadfastness of the City of Oceanside.

Roberts Cottages is a community of individually owned cottage residences located in Oceanside. The vacant property was initially purchased by A.J. Clark in 1925. A few years later, he secured a permit to build 24 beach cottages for a projected cost of $25,000. The cottages were designed and built by the Whiting-Mead Company and were completed in July 1928. Around this time, Oceanside was on its way to reaching new heights in development and growth. Detached garages in the rear of many downtown homes were converted to small houses or apartments to accommodate the growing population. Trailer parks that were once used by tourists and summer visitors now were used as permanent homes due to the housing shortage. 

In 1941, Harry and Virginia Roberts acquired the iconic double row of (mostly) pink cottages and gave them their present name. They passed through a few owners until 1952 when H. D. and Rush Forquer took over. The Forquers attempted to sell all the cottages as a single unit and failed, however, real estate agent Wilma Stakich suggested that the 12-by-24 foot cottages be sold individually to various owners. This was supposedly one of the first times this type of condo concept was used in the state of California. 

These quaint buildings represent an important part of Oceanside’s history. They are remnants of a time when Oceanside figured prominently on motor Route 101 running directly through the city, as well as being walking distance to the railroad and thus attracting many part-time residents from Los Angeles. Today many of them are available for week long rental.

The above image showcases Cottage City in the 1930’s at 600 N Strand. Even though it looks similar, this is not the current Roberts Cottages! Cottage City was built with wood and Roberts Cottages are built with stucco.