Existing comment:
A deal was soon struck on behalf of the Marine Corps for the Navy Department to purchase Dutch Flat from San Diego Securities Company, composed of Kettner's friends and fellow Chamber directors (to which the city added 500 acres of semi-submerged tidelands at no additional cost). But a deal for a separate Naval Training Station would have to wait, although not for long. When the Exposition closed at the end of 1916, San Diegans tried hard and succeeded well at accommodating the Navy during the rest of the World War I years.
They gave over all of Balboa Park to the service in March 1917, and all of the park's land and buildings became a training station for naval recruits. Marine, and naval aviators. Then, in 1919, the Chamber of Commerce led the charge to create a permanent Naval Training Station at Loma Portal, next to the Marines at Dutch Flat.
San Diego Securities owned some of the Loma Portal property while other portions were in the hands of private individuals. The Chamber of Commerce led a "subscription" campaign to raise the money needed to buy all the land; once the organization had purchased it, they deeded it to the city, which then donated it to the Navy. The city's voters had to ratify the gift of the land to the federal government, which they did nearly unanimously in a special election later that year. |