Who remembers houses selling for $31,000? Thrifty and Safeway? University Gardens and University Village subdivisions? Gas stations at Regents? San Diego Trust and Savings? The early days of Curie Elementary? A time without Standley Park or the Library on Governor? Cars with wood paneling? Wide open fields and construction vehicles? That’s University City history.
Take a look at University City street videos of Governor Drive, Genesee Avenue and Regents Road from 1970 courtesy of the San Diego City Clerk’s Office. This collection consists of film created by the Transportation and Storm Water Department from January to October 1970. Described as a “Photolog” by the department, each reel of 35mm color film was taken by a camera attached to a car driving down the street or highway, producing street level views. The individual reels were converted to a digital version by the City Clerk’s Archives.
Links to 250 San Diego street videos including Governor, Regents, Genesee, Eastgate Mall, Gilman, L J Village Drive, Miramar Road, and Torrey Pines Road are available at https://www.sandiego.gov/digitalarchives/film-audio/street-videos
Links to local street videos; viewing on YouTube gains access to settings to reduce the playback speed.
- Eastgate Mall: https://youtu.be/Apc_B5Q7jqs
- Genesee Avenue northbound: https://youtu.be/8nJOucIJVMo
- Genesee Avenue southbound: https://youtu.be/c86uaX_cLPk
- Gillman: https://youtu.be/4WNaS-rQS2g
- Governor Drive: https://youtu.be/mJicIJoKDRI
- La Jolla Village Drive: https://youtu.be/CX3NQIqz9rI
- Miramar Road: https://youtu.be/FV8Qqns92rc
- Regents Road: https://youtu.be/KgysSmXZ-zM
- Torrey Pines southbound: https://youtu.be/PrxAjXdd5Gc
- Torrey Pines northbound: https://youtu.be/HVu_661EhAc
For related posts, visit https://www.universitycitynews.org/category/university-city-history/