By Jake Romero | Gaslamp History
[Editor’s Note: Each month the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation (GQHF) will share with our readers information about the many historical buildings found in the Gaslamp Quarter.]
National City and Otay Railroad building
A Mission Revival structure, the National City and Otay Railroad building was built in 1896 and is located at Sixth Avenue and L Street.
The depot was designed by William Sterling Hebbard, a notable architect who often collaborated with famed architect Irving Gill. Hebbard had previously worked in Los Angeles with the firm Curlett, Eisen and Cuthbertson.
William Cuthbertson, who had a passion for the old California Missions, influenced Hebbard and this shows in his independent San Diego work.
Even though Hebbard used other creative styles and designs in his buildings during the 1890s, he continued his exploration with what become known as Mission Revival.
This style enjoyed its greatest popularity between 1890 and 1915, especially in numerous institutional buildings. Due to its accessible and recognizable regional imagery of old California missions, Mission Revival was favored by the big rail lines for their depot building programs in California and throughout the Southwest. Defining characteristics include simple smooth stucco or plaster siding, low-pitched hipped or gabled tile roof, roof parapets, large square pillars, arched entryways, covered walkways or arcades and a single round or quatrefoil (star shaped) window.
This particular structure was built to accommodate passengers and freight serving as the northern terminus of the San Diego and Otay interchange with various San Diego rail lines and the Pacific Coast steamship line and Fifth Avenue wharf. Extremely popular “theater trains” brought visitors Downtown for performances and “picnic trains” took residents down the line to the Sweetwater Valley extension for events at Linwood Grove near Bonita and Sweetwater Dam.
Prominent features in the National City and Otay Railroad structure include the Mission gabled roof embellished with the quatrefoil window and two arched entryways. At one time, the L Street side featured an elaborate Mission Revival parapet motif with two arched passenger entries. This feature would be lost in a remodel post 1920.
This depot, likely the first structure of its type in San Diego, is Hebbard’s only existing building of such an early architectural style and one of the earliest depots of this style in California.
Much of the original brickwork, as well as the parapet motif on L Street, were restored in a recent reconstruction. The structure has been incorporated into the design of the Hard Rock Hotel and now serves as a bar and entertainment venue.
—Jake Romero is the operations and marketing manager of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation, located at 410 Island Ave., Downtown, in the historic William Heath Davis House. For more information visit gaslampquarter.org.
