An old tradition has been revived in Crown Point: Christmas caroling.

Started by 50-year Crown Point resident Pat Walter during the early ’90s, the community re-lived that memorable experience this past holiday, renting out two Old Town trolleys to go caroling throughout their community.

“A neighbor, Pat Walter, used to rent the Old Town Trolley and go caroling through Crown Point,” said Sandy Gade Algra. “Almost 30 years later, I revived that tradition. For me, the tradition was all about the music. The trolley was a way to get members of the Mission Bay Dixieland Jazz Band (the name then) to play live for all the caroling.”

Added Gade Algra: “Pat Walter was the first person to have cookies and cocoa at her house and to have MBHS’ jazz band playing live on the trolley driving around Crown Point and singing. I have amazing memories of that. The last year was 1993. It was always a big thing back then to do something special.”

Gade Algra credits neighbors David and Tina Salinas and Liz Garcia as being “a huge part of this event. They (Salinas) were hosts this year and did all the red carpet and photo booth decoration at their home. And Liz holds annual holiday block parties on Halloween and Christmas. I just added on the caroling.”

Festivities began Saturday, Dec. 17 with an hour-long Santa/cookie/cocoa party on Yosemite Street, followed by another hour spent caroling on a 2.5-mile Old Town Trolley jaunt through the neighborhood.

“People were walking along with us as we sang all the classics and kid’s songs,” said Gade Algra, noting it was an all-inclusive secular holiday happening involving folks of all ages including people in their 80s.

David Salinas, aka Santa, said Gade Algra’s passion for caroling and reviving old neighborhood traditions was infectious. “It was nice to get the neighborhood together and just meet and get to know everybody,” he said adding he “didn’t know about the (trolley) tradition until people started telling me about it. So I decided to have it (cocoa) at my house, the side of which we decorated to look like Santa’s Village. I played Santa and the kids sat on my lap and got candy canes. Then about 40 people got on the two trolleys to go all around the neighborhood Christmas caroling. People wanted to make it a yearly tradition. Now that’s really cool.”

Gade Algra talked to caroling founder Walter and this is how Walter remembered the Crown Point trolley tradition: “The trolleys back then had names like Molly Trolley and Ollie Trolley, and it (experience) wasn’t about people riding the bus and singing – almost everyone walked. Santa would knock on doors, neighbors would come out and enjoy and maybe join along in the parade. The band members – keyboard, saxophone, flute, clarinet – would play the classics as the trolley crept through the streets.”

Although Walter said she enjoyed the revived caroling tradition in 2022, GadeAlgra said Walter “missed the live music and wished someone had been knocking on doors as carolers used to do. She hopes the tradition continues and that the crowds caroling grows even bigger next year (this year was 78 on the buses and another 20-30 walking).

Gade Algra said Walter commented on “how, if anything, the Crown Point community is even more tight-knit than they have been ever before, perhaps thanks to community outreach, a community hub like Crown Point Coffee, apps like Nextdoor, and organizations like the Crown Point Ladies Association.”

Gade Algra said Christmas caroling in Crown Point will return in 2023. “I’ve been ‘voluntold’ we’re going to do it again,” she quipped.

HISTORY OF CROWN POINT
The peninsula extending south from Mount Soledad into Mission Bay, dividing the northern portion of the bay into Sail Bay on the west and Fiesta Bay to the east, is generally known as Crown Point. It references the subdivision occupying the southernmost portion of the peninsula, including both sides of Moorland Drive and the residential blocks to the south. Like other PB subdivisions, Crown Point began as a pueblo lot, No. 1802, part of the legacy of the Mexican Pueblo of San Diego, which was inherited by the City when California became a state in 1850.
In 1869, Charles B. Richards, perhaps imagining a future community on Mission Bay (then called False Bay) purchased Pueblo Lot 1802, 92 acres, as well as Pueblo Lot 1801, another 31 acres that extended north and west around Sail Bay. Richards paid $150 in gold coin, a little more than $1 per acre. In 1887 a group of San Diego bankers and real estate operators formed the Pacific Beach Company, bought a number of pueblo lots north of what became Pacific Beach Drive, and created the Pacific Beach subdivision.
The map of Crown Point, a subdivision of Pueblo Lot No. 1802, was accepted by the San Diego City Council in March 1926. The issue of reserving the waterfront for the people was satisfied with a 60-foot public boulevard at the edge of the bluffs surrounding the point: Crown Point Drive on the east and The Riviera (now Riviera Drive) on the west. Crown Point streets were narrow, 50 feet wide compared to the 80-foot streets of Pacific Beach and 75-foot streets of the Fortuna Park additions, and there were no alleys.
However, despite its beauty and perfection, early-on real estate activity in Crown Point was disappointing. Only 39 of the original 470 subdivision lots were sold and only six houses were built in the Crown Point subdivision in its first two years. But by the end of World War II in 1945, Crown Point had grown to include over 300 addresses, most of them Palmer-Bilt Homes. Home construction continued after the war and Crown Point, like the rest of Pacific Beach, was essentially built out during the 1950s. The 1950s also saw the dredging of the bay and the development of Mission Bay Park into a popular recreation area, greatly increasing the desirability of Crown Point real estate.
Since then, many of the original homes have been remodeled to reflect their added value, but Spanish, Cape Cod, and Blue Ribbon homes from the 1920s and 1930s, and rows of the Palmer-Bilt Homes of the 1940s with their distinctive square chimneys, can still be seen along the narrow streets. E. G. Anderson’s 1927 Spanish-style home, one of the first in Crown Point, is not one of them, however. After standing for 90 years it has been torn down, except for its chimney, and is destined to become one of the latest remodeled homes in Crown Point.