Tent City Seaside Resort Opens on Silver Strand

In the spring of 1900, sugar magnate John D. Spreckels introduced an innovative summer recreation concept that would define Coronado summers for nearly four decades: Coronado Tent City. Situated along the narrow sandy neck of the Silver Strand just south of Hotel del Coronado, Tent City was designed as an affordable, festive seaside vacation colony for middle-class California families who wanted to enjoy ocean breezes without the expense of luxury hotel suites.

The resort colony featured hundreds of neat canvas cottages with red-and-white striped awnings, wooden floorboards, and authentic palm-thatched roofs. Over the decades, Tent City grew into a self-contained summer city complete with its own electric streetcar station, post office, general grocery store, bakery, barbershop, and ocean bathing pavilion. Families swam in the gentle waters of Glorietta Bay, enjoyed carnival amusements along the boardwalk, and rented rowboats and sailboats.

Central to Tent Cit’ immense popularity was its open-air music pavilion, where world-class military bands and orchestral conductors, including the famous Liberati and Ohlmeyer brass bands, performed afternoon and evening concerts. For thousands of Southern Californians, summer in Coronado was synonymous with the ocean breezes, brass band marches, and carefree communal living of Tent City.