Midway, San Diego
The Midway area, also called the North Bay area, is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located at the northern end of the Point Loma peninsula, northwest of Downtown San Diego and just west of Old Town. It is often considered to be part of Point Loma, although the city treats it as a separate Planning Area.
The boundaries of the Midway community plan are the San Diego River and Interstate 8 to the north, Interstate 5 to the east, Laurel Street to the south, and Lytton Street and the bluffs above Kenyon Street to the west. In addition to the core Midway area, the community plan includes portions of the historic neighborhoods of Five Points and Middletown. The planning area encompasses approximately of mostly. The area is primarily commercial and industrial, plus a few small pockets of multi-family residential development.
History
Historically the area was part of the San Diego River delta, comprising the flat land between the hill of the San Diego Presidio and the hills of Point Loma. Historically the San Diego river switched back and forth between emptying into Mission Bay and emptying through the Midway area into the San Diego Bay. Historically the river switched its course from False Bay to San Diego Bay sometime during the 1820s. Because of fears that San Diego Bay might silt up, the river was confined to its present course north of Point Loma by a levee built by the city in 1877. This exposed the flat, marshy areas of Midway for development.Rosecrans Street, a main thoroughfare through Midway and Point Loma, follows the route of the historic La Playa Trail, the oldest European trail in the Western United States. It connected the settlements in Old Town and Mission San Diego with La Playa, the beach in Point Loma where ships loaded and unloaded cargo. A plaque near the southeast corner of Rosecrans Street and Midway Drive recognizes the historic importance of the La Playa Trail.
In 1850, approximately of land in the area was conveyed to a group of ten would-be developers, who subdivided the land in hopes of developing it. The names of some of the original ten investors are remembered in the existing street name system along Pacific Highway, including Emory, Sutherland, Noell, Estudillo, Wright, Banini, Couts, and Witherby. However, the area was still marshy, and little development occurred until the 1930s, when commercial, industrial, and residential development could be found in some areas.
By the early 1900s central Midway was known as Dutch Flats and still included a lot of standing water. Dutch Flats was also the name of a small dirt airstrip in the area used by the Ryan Aeronautical Company, located near what are now Midway and Barnett streets. Dutch Flats became famous when Ryan built a specially designed aircraft for Charles A. Lindbergh, who tested it at Dutch Flats and then used it to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927. In 1929, pioneer aviatrix Ruth Alexander, a graduate of the Ryan Flying School, established a new world record for women in light aircraft on a flight from Dutch Flats. A post office now located on the site contains several historic plaques commemorating Dutch Flats and Lindbergh.
In 1921 the Marine Advanced Expeditionary Base was built in the Midway area on Barnett Avenue, lending a boost to the area’s economy and setting the stage for future military development. The city of San Diego opened San Diego Municipal Airport/Lindbergh Field in 1928 on land located between the Midway area and San Diego Bay. As a result, aircraft-related industries and businesses continued to be important for the Midway area up until the present day.
During the 1940s the Midway area experienced a boom, with numerous war-related industrial sites and a large housing complex for defense workers known as the Frontier Housing. Areas along Pacific Highway became wartime factories, and later provided the hub of the city’s aerospace industry.
During the 1950s the neighborhood became a mecca for then-popular establishments such as a drive-in restaurant, two drive-in theaters, and a bowling alley. The only remaining structure from that era is the Loma Theater on Rosecrans St., which opened in 1944 as a 1188-seat movie palace in the Arte Moderne style; it is now a bookstore with some of the Arte Moderne architectural features retained, including the neon sign. From the 1960s to the present the area became less industrial and more commercial. It is now mainly known for large region-serving retail establishments and multi-lane traffic arteries.
building on Pacific Highway, built in 1912, is now on the National Register of Historic Places|thumb|right
During the 1990s the city proposed to build a “bay to bay” water link between San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, which would have run right through the Midway area. However, the plan received little community support and was abandoned after a consultant’s report deemed it not economically feasible.
The area contains two sites that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Mission Brewery, a five-story brick building on Hancock Street dating from 1912, originally a brewery but now used for offices and retail; and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Historic District. Additional sites listed as historic by the San Diego Historical Resources Board include the site of a Hebrew cemetery on Kenyon Street, and Dutch Flats/Ryan Field.
Geography
The area is entirely flat. It consists mostly of “fill” land built up over formerly marshy areas and river sediment deposits. Nothing remains of the former wetlands except Famosa Slough State Marine Conservation Area and the San Diego River bed itself.Most of the area is commercial or industrial in nature, but there are some residential areas, including the seniors-only Orchard Apartments, a Navy family housing complex between Rosecrans and Barnett, and some private apartment and condominium developments in the Pacific Highway corridor near the San Diego Trolley.
Economy
The area now consists primarily of medium-to-large strip malls with region-serving stores such as groceries, drugstores, and general and discount stores. There are a few remaining small industrial businesses such as boat repair yards and trucking firms. There are also many airport-related businesses such as long-term parking lots and car rental companies.A major employer in the area is the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, known as “SPAWAR". SPAWAR is a major Navy Acquisition Command, as well as the parent organization to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center - Pacific, a research laboratory in Point Loma. In February 2019 the name of the facility was changed to Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. The Navy has indicated it would like to move its facilities elsewhere and lease the site out for redevelopment, possibly as a regional transportation center.
Midway is also known for a concentration of adult establishments such as strip clubs, partly because city laws regulating such establishments make the area favorable for them, and partly because of the proximity of large military bases full of young recruits. Homeless people are very visible in the area, partly because of illegal but tolerated encampments along the San Diego River, and partly because of the presence of numerous establishments such as Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and the San Diego Veterans Village.
Midway was included in the North Bay Redevelopment Project area until it and all other redevelopment agencies were dissolved by the state of California in 2012.