Spanish rule gave way to Mexican rule in 1821, and the surrounding ranchos shaped a generation of life before California passed to the United States in 1848. San Diego incorporated as an American city in 1850, but the old settlement clustered around the presidio in what is now Old Town. The modern downtown is the work of one man's gamble: in 1867 Alonzo Horton bought the bayfront flats and laid out a 'New Town' close to the water, betting that a city should sit beside its harbor. He was right, and the center of San Diego has faced the bay ever since.
Our San Diego logo carries the California Republic bear and star above '1850,' the year of statehood — the shared retro emblem of every Merlin Classics California place. Rendered in a worn black-and-white that recalls a WPA poster or an old crate label, the bear-and-star is California in shorthand: tough, independent, and sun-bleached. The bear is the through-line that links San Diego to every other California place we make. What makes this one San Diego is everything around it — the bay and the fleet, Balboa Park's towers, the mission and the presidio, and the Coronado roofline across the water.
Why People Visit San Diego
San Diego rewards visitors with a rare mix: deep early-California history, a working Navy harbor, world-class parks and museums, and miles of Pacific coast, all under a famously mild sky. People come for Balboa Park and the bay, for the beaches and the sunsets off Point Loma, and for the layered story of the city where California began. It is historic, easygoing, and unmistakably Californian.
