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Honoree

Louis Rose           

Honored by: Donald & Nancy Harrison, San Diego, California, July 6, 2005                     More about Louis Rose

Having written a biography of Louis Rose, I find it difficult to summarize his life in just a few paragraphs.  However,  here are some high points:  He was born in 1807 in Neuhaus-an-der-Oste, Hanover—today part of Germany.  He immigrated in 1840 to New Orleans and came to San Diego by wagon train in 1850 in the company of Judge James W. Robinson, a former acting provisional governor of Texas.  

In Old Town San Diego, he opened the Commercial House hotel, a saloon, and a butcher shop, and quietly amassed his land holdings.  In 1852, along with Robinson and William Ferrell, he was elected to the City Board of Trustees. The trustees paid off San Diego's mounting debts by selling land at public auction.  In 1853, as part of his duties as a trustee, he became a member of the first County Board of Supervisors.  During his career he also served on the county grand jury and the school board and as Old Town's postmaster.  He also was a founder of San Diego Lodge No. 35, Free and Accepted Masons.

Besides in Old Town, Rose focused his own land purchases in La Cañada de las Lleguas and along San Diego Bay.  In the former, he started the area's first tannery at what first became known as Rose's Ranch, and later Rose Canyon—property running today along both sides of Interstate 5 from approximately Balboa Avenue to Gilman.

Rose brought a nephew, Nisan Alexander, from New Orleans to run the tannery, but Alexander's untimely death discouraged Rose, who turned his attention to copper mining in the Vista area and utilizing kelp growing off Pt. Loma to stuff mattresses. Neither venture was successful, and Rose had to surrender his mortgaged Rose Canyon property and other holdings  to Lorenzo Soto to pay off his debts in 1861.

After the Civil War was over, Rose had recovered enough financially to begin the development of Roseville,  a townsite on San Diego Bay.  He purchased a key piece of land from Sarah Robinson, widow of his old friend James in 1867.  The purchase also included the Robinson's two-story home on Old Town Plaza, today known as the Robinson-Rose House.  In 1869, Rose laid out Roseville, which today is part of Point Loma.  The street known today as Rosecrans Street—after Civil War General William Rosecrans—was called "Main Street."  Today's "Avenida de Portugal" was Rose's First Street; today's "Dumas Street" was Rose's Thirtieth Street.  Depending on the curvature of the Bay shore, there were four streets on the bay side of Main Street, and four streets climbing the hills of Pt. Loma.  Rose divided his blocks into 12 lots apiece.

Although he helped stimulate interest in moving the city from Old Town to San Diego Bay, Rose's settlement was overshadowed by that laid out by Alonzo Horton, who was far better financed and more single-minded.  Although he was 62 years old, Rose was married in 1869 to Matilda Newman, 33, who had been widowed when merchant Jacob Newman died.  The Roses' first daughter, Helene, died in infancy; the second daughter, Henrietta, a school teacher, never married, so when she died in 1957, so did Rose's line.

Although Rose, Horton and the Kimball Brothers, who laid out National City along the Southern portion of the Bay, were rivals, they cooperated in their attempts to lure a railroad to San Diego to link it with the Bay. Along with  numerous other San Diegans, these city builders were  frustrated during Rose's latter life by the railroads' preference for Los Angeles, notwithstanding the obvious advantages of San Diego's Bay as a cargo port.  Their dream to make San Diego the terminus of a transcontinental railroad never were realized.  

Rose made and lost several fortunes during his lifetime, but he never lost faith in San Diego.  His famous quote about the prospects of his adopted city was, "Just wait awhile and you will see."

In 2004, cities across the nation observed the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in North America.  San Diego marked the occasion by officially naming a spot where Roseville touched the water as "Louis Rose Point."  It is on the boat channel at the foot of Womble Street, and it is here where the Louis Rose Society plans to build a monument to our city's first Jewish settler.  

To contribute to the fund, please write a check in any amount to the Jewish Community Foundation, 4950 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123.  On the memo line, please note that the check is for the "Louis Rose Fund." Contributions of $36 or more confer automatic membership in the Louis Rose Society, and the right to honor another Jewish San Diegan on this website. 
   —Donald H. Harrison, author, Louis Rose: San Diego's First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur.