Fallbrook Timeline – Fallbrook Historical Society

8000 BCE

1769

After Junipero Serra’s death the last California mission was founded La Misión de San Luis, Rey de Francia (The Mission of Saint Louis, King of France). At its prime, Mission San Luis Rey's structures and services compound covered almost 950,400 acres, making it the largest of the missions, along with its surrounding agricultural land. Native Americans in this area came to be called the Luisenos by the Spanish.

Early 1800s

133,000 acres of Santa Margarita Rancho granted to Pio and Andres Pico. Most of the Rancho is now Camp Pendleton; a small portion is now included in Fallbrook
Monserate Rancho granted by Mexican Governor Pio Pico to Ysidro Maria Alvarado.
California becomes a U.S. Territory
Gold Rush begins

1850s

California becomes 31st U.S. State
Alvarado and Pico families raise cattle on Rancho Monserate and Rancho Santa Margarita

1860s

William Pittenger fights in U.S. Civil War
Vital Reche settles in Fallbrook, takes up commercial bee-keeping and brands his honey “Fall Brook”, after the town of Fallbrook, PA.
Vital Reche donates land at Live Oak Park and Reche Rd. for the first Fallbrook School, The Fall Brook School.

1870s

Second school built
Fallbrook Depot, originally built in the Santa Margarita Canyon, connected San Diego with points north. Fallbrook is known as the lunch stop for runs to Los Angeles or Yuma, Arizona
Non-ranch land opened for homesteading
First school district formed

1880s

1882:
The California Pacific Railroad was formed to build a railroad from National City to Oceanside, east through the treacherous Temecula canyon and then in a northerly direction toward San Bernardino, 211 miles distant. At Oceanside, a line running east up the Santa Margarita River was built with mostly Chinese laborers. From Barstow, trains would connect San Diego to the rest of the country. The railroad reached Fallbrook in March 1882. The Fallbrook station opened with a telegraph station and a Wells Fargo office at the intersection of today’s De Luz Rd and Sandia Creek Rd.
1885:
Two land speculators; William M. Scott and his son in law Francis W. Bartlett arrived in 1884, formed the Land and Town Company to buy acreage up the hill from the train station in Santa Margarita canyon. F.W. Bartlett applied to the County of San Diego to create “West Fallbrook” under the State Townsite law. The County surveyor Charles Sanford arrived to officially lay off 75 acres of Bartlett’s property with street names that we still use today.
Eleven subdivisions added, yards, 2 hotels and a bank
Real estate boom in Fallbrook
Fallbrook’s first newspaper, the Fall Brook Review
First church, the Methodist Episcopal Southegation
First lodge, The Good Templars, which evolved into the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
First Fallbrook Festival, the Strawberry Festival held in April
Irrigation District organizes and brings water from the Santa Margarita River
Fallbrook Water and Power Co. surveys for a dam and an aqueduct
Cates Hotel built with 60 rooms. Later named The Naples and then the Hotel Ellis

1890s

Economy declines. Bank closes, newspaper editor moves again. Irrigation District fails.
The second block on Main St. burns to the ground, the volunteer bucket brigade was the only firefighting organization at the time
Fallbrook Irrigation District organized
3rd school built
Fallbrook Masonic Lodge founded
Second school burns down, Reche School rebuilt the same year
Directors of Fallbrook Irrigation District vote to dissolve the company

1900s

Pratt Olive Packing Plant
(Now Fallbrook Feed & Fertilizer)

Olives become more important crop than honey
First telephone service begins
Saturday Afternoon Club established, later to be known as the Fallbrook Women’s Club
Fallbrook telephone directory lists 19 subscribers

1910s

Citrus Association builds lemon packing plant to take advantage of new rail line into town
Bank reopened
Chamber of Commerce organized
Inland auto route to Los Angeles passes through Fallbrook
The Fallbrook Enterprise newspaper established
First avocados planted
Fallbrook High School built
First library established
World War I
Floods permanently close railroad station near De Luz
First burial in the Masonic Cemetary, following sever flu epidemic
First Girl Scout troop west of the Rockies founded
Farm Bureau Center in Fallbrook
New railroad depot was built on Alvarado Street

1920s

Fallbrook is on the major north/south road between Mexico and Canada, route now known as U.S. 395
Live Oak Park dedicated as County Park
First white line painted on Main Street
First sidewalks built on Main Street
Road paved between Fallbrook and Oceanside
Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) formed
Road between Fallbrook and Bonsall paved
Order of the Eastern Star organized
Fallbrook Irrigation District is revived
Tomato product cannery opened
Bonsall Bridge opens
First Safeway grocery store opens
Hotel Ellis ceases operations

1930s

Great Depression, and the Civilian Conservation Corps creates the rock channel for the stream in Live Oak Park
San Diego County stations a fire truck in Fallbrook, a Model A Ford
Fallbrook Garden Club began
The C.D.F replaces the Model “A” fire truck with a 1932 Chevrolet fire truck
Reche Community Service Club organized
First Fallbrook Hospital opened
3rd annual Future Farmers Day parade and show
World War II begins

1940s

U.S. enters WWII
Avocado acreage increases dramatically
Dial telephone service introduced, bypassing the Operator
U.S. Government purchased land for Camp Pendleton
Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce incorporated
Rotary Club organized
American Association of University Women (AAUW) organized
U.S. 395 moved inland by 1948, thus Fallbrook is no longer on the “Inland Route”
First Fallbrook High School condemned as structurally unsafe to earthquakes, and a new one is built

Navajo Code Talkers marching at Pendalton 1942

1950s

Fallbrook Community Hospital established
Fallbrook Hospital District approved by voters
Fallbrook Little League organized
Optimist Club established
Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society (FGMS) founded
Hotel Ellis demolished

1960s

Fallbrook Hospital opens on Elder Street
James E. Potter School built
Boys and Girls Club incorporated
First Avocado Festival. Avocado Festival Excursion Train brought attendees from Los Angeles to Fallbrook Depot
Friends of Fallbrook Library formed, sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Art Club began
Pala Mesa Golf Course built
Fallbrook Airpark opened with a dirt landing strip, and construction of hangars begins
Boys Club received becomes affiliated with Boys Clubs of America
New Safeway store replaces the old one
New building for the Library is built