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Portrait painting of John D. Spreckels by Arthur Cahill

John D. Spreckels owned much of San Diego and built a railroad to Arizona

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Photo: Arthur Cahill, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

John Diedrich Spreckels was born in 1853, the eldest son of Claus Spreckels, the sugar baron of San Francisco and Hawaii. He came to San Diego in the late 1880s, first to build a wharf and coal business, and stayed to invest in nearly everything.

The holdings

Spreckels took control of the Hotel del Coronado and the Coronado land company. He bought the San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune. He owned the streetcar system, a water company and much downtown real estate, including the Spreckels Theatre, which opened in 1912. For a time, he was the largest property taxpayer in the city.

The railroad

His biggest project was the San Diego and Arizona Railway, which ran east through Mexico and the mountains to connect San Diego with a transcontinental railroad in Imperial County. Construction through Carrizo Gorge was so difficult it was called the impossible railroad. It was completed in 1919.

Gifts and influence

Spreckels gave the outdoor organ and pavilion in Balboa Park for the 1915 exposition. It remains one of the largest outdoor pipe organs in the world, with free concerts on Sundays.

His influence over politics and the press drew critics who called San Diego his company town. He died in 1926 at his home in Coronado, and much of downtown San Diego still bears traces of his investments.

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