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 Photo by Sandé Lollis
Rediscovering Calle Judeo: Lecture and Guided Tour
March/April 2024
Did you know that Old Town San Diego State Historic Park once contained a cluster of primarily Jewish-owned commercial businesses from 1850 to 1872? Clustered along a long-forgotten dirt alley known as Calle Judeo, as well as facing the central plaza, they included many dry goods and hardware stores, restaurants, bars, and possibly San Diego’s first ice cream shop as well as kosher meat markets.
SOHO is pleased to present a journey into the history of San Diego's pioneer Jewish business community with retired California State Parks historian Alexander D. Bevil. Through his one-hour Zoom lecture, discover how these hardworking individuals sought to integrate themselves into the commercial, social, and political fabric of mid-19th century Old Town San Diego, all while navigating the complexities of preserving their religious and cultural traditions.
Then, on the following weekend, join Alex as he leads an immersive one-and-a-half-hour walking tour through the state park. Equipped with a map and a tour handout, you will embark on a quest to uncover more than two dozen sites along Calle Judeo and throughout the park, associated with the Jewish men and women of enterprise, who helped transform Old Town from an agrarian-based Mexican pueblo into a market-driven American frontier town.
While researching the history of the former Caltrans District 11 Office Building in Old Town in 2012, he discovered that beneath its walls lay the remnants of a store and residence once owned by a Louis Strauss, half-brother to the renowned San Francisco-based Levi of riveted denim fame. Since then, his research has revealed an additional 23 sites and more than 35 individuals associated with this once dynamic segment of Old Town's diverse mid-19th-century pioneer community.
Alex hopes that by bringing the relatively unknown story of Old Town’s pioneer Jewish community to the general public lecture and tour, he might learn of descendants of San Diego’s first Jewish families that are still in the region, to add to this important history.
Zoom Lecture - April 7, 11am • Guided Walking Tour - April 14, 11am
Advance Tickets Required
Lecture alone $10 for SOHO members • $20 for non-members
Lecture & Walking Tour Package $25 for SOHO members • $45 for non-members (limited to 25)
Purchase tickets online • Held at will call
Phone (619) 297-9327
No in-person ticket sales available
A retired California State Parks historian, Alex Bevil, first became aware of Calle Judeo and its Jewish men of enterprise in 2012 while researching the history of the former Caltrans District Office Building which contained the site of a store and residence once belonging to a Louis Strauss (half-brother to Levi, of the famous jeans). Ten years later, he submitted an updated report listing some twenty-eight sites and over thirty individuals associated with this underrepresented segment of the town’s diverse mid-19th century pioneer community.
Alex is a past SOHO board member, and has helped to create and produce two excellent tours for SOHO that can be found at our website, at no cost: Tiki: A Guide to San Diego's Tiki Modern Architecture; and Clairemont, the Village Within a City: Self-Guided Driving Tour.
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