San Diego, CA
The Spreckels name is big in San Diego history. A new book looks at the man behind the money
Longtime San Diegans likely have heard the name. It graces a historic theater downtown and is in the full title of the iconic Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.
The Spreckels surname has been a part of local lore since the late 1800s. The family once owned all of Coronado, including the Hotel del Coronado, Belmont Park in Mission Beach and every single downtown lot from the ferry landing to Horton Plaza. And the ferry. John D. Spreckels renamed D Street as Broadway and brought the first koalas — on his own steamships — to the then-new San Diego Zoo.
In her new book, “Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels,” local author and historian Sandee Bonura explores the life of Spreckels’ father, the man behind the family wealth: patriarch Claus Spreckels. The man immigrated penniless to the U.S. from Germany in the mid-1800s, then made his fortune in the sugar trade in California and Hawaii.
Claus Spreckels at one point was the richest man in California and one of the richest in the country, Bonura said. When he died in 1908, he left a fortune worth more than $850 million in today’s dollars.
Bonura shared highlights of her newest book during a presentation Saturday at the Rancho Bernardo History Museum. The title comes about four years after she penned “Empire Builder: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego.”
The historian said John Spreckels spent much of his life emulating his father. “Most people do not realize this, but a lot of the things his dad did, he did,” Bonura told the crowd.
A few examples: The Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego’s Balboa Park is rather reminiscent of the Music Concourse (also known as the Spreckels Temple of Music) in Golden Gate Park, which Claus Spreckles donated to San Francisco. In 1880, the patriarch bought the newspaper that would become the Honolulu Advertiser. Ten years later, son John bought the San Diego Union, then picked up the Evening Tribune in 1901. (Before the end of the century, they would become The San Diego Union-Tribune.) He also built a railway, as his father had.
“The Sugar King of California” traces the older man’s rise to wealth and the later fracturing of his family. There are several interesting tales along the way, including a lucrative late-night deal with the king of Hawaii, which was still a sovereign nation.
Claus Spreckels grew sugar cane and sugar beets, and his name is legacy throughout California. At one point, the man owned all of Aptos (near Santa Cruz) and created five railroads, including one with denim legend Levi Strauss. He built and named a small town after himself in Hawaii. One in California, too.
At the end of her talk Saturday, Bonura got a bit of a surprise. One of the attendees had stuck around, a smiling North County resident waiting to introduce herself. She said the presentation taught her a thing or two.
Her name? Torry Brey, granddaughter of John D. Spreckels and great-granddaughter of Claus.
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