African American History in San Diego

A Testament of our Strength

Nathaniel Harrison

Nathaniel Harrison lived on Palomar Mountain for more than fifty years.

Harrison Grade Road

America Newton America

Newton owned an eighty-acre homestead west of Julian and worked as a laundress for miners who came to the area looking for gold.

Coleman Creek

Coleman, a Black rancher and experienced miner, discovered gold in the creek here while watering his horse during the winter of 1869-70.

Albert and Margaret Robinson

Albert and Margaret Robinson built the Hotel Robinson in Julian in 1887 and operated it for twenty-eight years until Albert's death in 1915. Margaret later sold it for $1,500

Hotel Robinson\Julian Hotel

Today, the hotel is named the Julian Hotel and is the oldest continuously operated hotel in Southern California.

Julian Hotel…….Present Day

Clermont Hotel

The first building ever designated an historic African American site in San Diego was the Clermont Hotel.  Built in 1887, The hotel was placed on the local register of historic African American places on December 20, 2001

Reuben “The Guide”

Reuben the Guide is seen here with his sombrero in 1897

Alan Light….. Light/Freeman House

Alan Light settled in San Diego for several years during the 1840s, operating a saloon in Old Town with Richard Freeman, another African-American, on the site where the reconstructed Light-Freeman House now stands

San Diego House

Hotel Douglas

The Douglass Hotel opened in mid-winter 1924 under ownership of Robert and Mabel Rowe and George Ramsey.

The Bray Residence/Bunk House

The Bray Residence is no longer in existence, but the 40-x-40-foot board-and-batten bunk house still stands on its original location, 300 feet east of the house site

Amos and Cynthia Hudgins Amos and

Cynthia Hudgins came to San Diego from Kansas

Hudgins Home

The Hudgins family home in Coronado

Solomon Johnson Solomon

Johnson came to San Diego in the late 1880s from Indiana..

Solomon Johnson's wife Cordelia as seen in 1887.

The Johnson Family Home

The Johnson family home was a popular meeting place for early African-American San Diegans.

Bethel A.M.E. Church

Bethel Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest church of African ancestry in San Diego