PC-000-899A

Pickwick Hotel, Heart of Down-Town San Diego, California

 

1940s

 

Pickwick Hotel, San Diego, California

Just one of the two radio towers erected on the Pickwick Hotel shows in this highly stylized version of the Pickwick Hotel in San Diego. The Pickwick Hotel was constructed in 1926 as the Pickwick Stage Terminal and Hotel, opening in May 1927. It was part of a "stage line" that was nationwide and that built hotels in connection with their passenger service. In 1927 two more towers were added (see San Diego History Center #6977, the hotel under construction), opening in 1928. Started in 1915, at one time the Pickwick Stage Lines was one of the three largest passenger carriers in the US. In 1929 the passenger service merged with Greyhound, but the hotel name of Pickwick stayed the same. The hotel was renovated and renamed the Sofia Hotel in 2006. When radio station KGB was sold to the Pickwick Stages System, the Pickwick Broadcasting System was formed, and radio towers were erected in 1928 on the two end buildings of the hotel (see also San Diego History Center photograph numbers 6861, and -1 through -4). The station remained there until 1944, and the rado towers were eventually removed.

Pickwick Hotel; Sofia Hotel; Pickwick Stage System; Pickwick Stage Terminal; San Diego; Radio Station KGB; Radio towers

132 West Broadway

California - San Diego

 

 

MS-0008

English

Elmo M. Sellers, Los Angeles, California, US

Postcard

3.5 inches x 5.5 inches

No

San Diego History Center photograph #8325 (1926, no radio towers); Journal of San Diego History July 1957, v3 #3, James Reading, "The San Diego and Escondido Stage"; PC-000-536; San Diego Historical Society "Times," XXXXVI #2 Spring 2007

[printed superimposed on illustration]
Pickwick Hotel
Heart of Down-Town San Diego, Calif.
"Tooley Operated"

 

Image

TIFF

19.64 MB