University City is now known for UC San Diego, research institutions, planned neighborhoods, and its location near the Pacific. But the landscape looked very different before the community took shape.
The area included ranches and agricultural land, military training grounds, open mesas, and railroad tracks. Marines trained on land that would later become part of UC San Diego, while another military installation occupied the Torrey Pines mesa. Within a few decades, universities, research centers, and planned neighborhoods transformed the area.
Here are nine lesser-known chapters in University City’s history.
1. Rose Canyon was a ranch, vineyard, and industrial site
Rose Canyon is a familiar San Diego landmark, but its history goes well beyond its natural landscape.
The canyon was used by Indigenous people for generations. By the 19th century, the area had also become associated with ranching and agriculture.
In 1853, Louis Rose acquired 650 acres in the canyon. He established a ranch there and operated a tannery and vineyard. Coal and clay were also mined in the canyon.
The area eventually became known as Rose Canyon. In 1882, the California Southern Railroad completed a line through the canyon, adding another important layer to its history.
The result was a landscape shaped by Indigenous use, ranching, agriculture, industry, and transportation.
2. Marines trained on land that became UC San Diego
The land now occupied by much of UC San Diego once served as a U.S. Marine Corps rifle-training facility.
Camp Matthews was established in 1917, and more than 1 million Marine recruits eventually trained there. The facility remained active through World War II and continued operating into the postwar years.
By 1949, the camp had 15 active gunnery ranges, with some extending 1,000 yards.
In 1962, the federal government transferred 436 acres to the University of California. The military had completely left the site by 1964.
The next time you walk across the UC San Diego campus, you are walking across land that once echoed with rifle fire and military training.
3. Some Camp Matthews buildings became part of early UC San Diego
The transition from military base to university did not happen by simply clearing the land and starting over.
Some Camp Matthews buildings remained and were incorporated into the early UC San Diego campus. Curved Quonset huts and one-story wooden structures that had served military purposes were repurposed for university use.
Some housed classrooms and other activities, while others were used for offices and workshops. Military-era structures stood alongside the university’s new buildings as the campus developed.
The buildings were a physical reminder that UC San Diego had inherited a landscape with a military past.
4. Camp Callan occupied the Torrey Pines mesa
Another major military installation once occupied the Torrey Pines mesa.
Camp Callan was established after the Army leased hundreds of acres from the city of San Diego for anti-aircraft artillery training. The camp opened in January 1941 and closed in November 1945.
At its height, the installation included a substantial collection of military buildings and facilities and trained thousands of servicemen during its wartime operation.
After the war, the camp was dismantled. Lumber, plumbing, and electrical equipment were sold, and some of the lumber was used for veterans’ housing.
Very little of the former military installation is obvious today.
5. Torrey Pines Golf Course occupies former Camp Callan land
The former Camp Callan landscape did not remain vacant for long.
In 1956, San Diego voters approved the use of about 100 acres of the former camp site for a public golf course. The remaining acreage was transferred to the state.
Torrey Pines Golf Course opened in 1957.
Today, the course is one of the most recognizable features of the Torrey Pines area, but its grounds were once part of a World War II military installation.
6. University City was planned before it looked like a city
University City did not simply grow around UC San Diego. Much of the community was deliberately planned.
In July 1958, the University of California Regents called for a master plan for the university and surrounding area. The San Diego City Council subsequently directed the preparation of a plan for the developing community.
The original University City master plan was completed in January 1960.
City planning records envisioned a large residential community, including 15,000 single-family homes. By September 1960, grading, roadwork, and utilities were underway in the first 600-acre section known as University City.
The community was being laid out even as much of the surrounding landscape was still open land.
7. University City’s first neighborhoods featured modernist homes
Some of University City’s earliest neighborhoods reflected the modernist architecture popular in postwar Southern California.
Architect William Krisel was among the designers associated with the early development. The City’s historic survey identifies University City West A and B as 1960 developments associated with Peñasquitos Inc. and Palmer & Krisel.
The survey also identifies a William Krisel model home dating to 1960.
Early houses featured elements such as butterfly roofs, clerestory windows, and concrete shadow blocks. Their designs reflected the era’s emphasis on modern architecture, indoor-outdoor living, and mass-produced housing.
8. General Atomics helped turn Torrey Pines into a science center
University City’s transformation was not only residential or academic.
General Atomics was established in San Diego in 1955 as a division of General Dynamics. The company became part of the growing concentration of scientific and industrial research on Torrey Pines Mesa.
In 1956, San Diego voters approved transferring land in the Torrey Pines area for facilities. The John Jay Hopkins Laboratory was dedicated there in 1959.
Other institutions and companies followed, helping establish the mesa as a major center for scientific research, medicine, biotechnology, and technology.
Land that had once been associated with military training and agriculture was becoming part of San Diego’s emerging research corridor.
9. The Salk Institute became a landmark of the new University City landscape
The Salk Institute added another defining piece to the changing Torrey Pines landscape.
Jonas Salk founded the institute in 1960 after the city of San Diego provided 27 acres overlooking the Pacific. Salk selected architect Louis Kahn to design the campus.
Construction began in 1962, and the main laboratory buildings opened in 1965.
The resulting complex became an architectural and scientific landmark, helping establish the Torrey Pines Mesa as an internationally recognized center for research.
The military ranges, barracks, and open mesas of an earlier era had given way to laboratories, universities, and planned communities.
University City’s modern identity was taking shape.
University City’s history is layered beneath the community seen today.
Rose Canyon carries a history of Indigenous use, ranching, agriculture, industry, and the railroad. The mesas once held military camps and rifle ranges. Then came UC San Diego, planned residential neighborhoods and a growing concentration of scientific institutions.
Old photographs, aerial views, historic maps, surviving structures and planning documents help reveal how dramatically the landscape changed — and how many earlier chapters remain embedded in the University City we know today.
Read more history stories here. Do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.
Sources:
- City of San Diego, “University Community Plan Area Historic Context Statement,” December 2022.
- City of San Diego, “Cultural Resources Constraints and Sensitivity Analysis for the University Community Plan Update,” May 2020.
- City of San Diego, University Community Plan planning studies and reports.
- City of San Diego, “Torrey Pines Golf Course History.”
- City of San Diego, “Rose Canyon Open Space Park.”
- City of San Diego Digital Archives, “1967 Aerial View of General Atomics Headquarters.”
- Salk Institute, “History of Salk.”
- San Diego History Center, University City Opening, 1960.
- University City News, “The Development of University City,” March 5, 2017.
