A vision, a house, and a Hawaiian in downtown San Diego 

Last month the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation Board staff participants museum members and esteemed guests gathered in Pantoja Park to honor and celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of California pioneer William Heath Davis Jr with the unveiling of a monument dedicated to him The event was sponsored by the Kanaka Davis Trust Group and GQHF Mr Davis affectionally called Kanaka Bill was born in Honolulu Hawaii and through his grandmother Mahi was descended from Hawaiian nobility His grandfather was Oliver Holmes a governor of Oahu in the early s Kanaka Bill was born in the son of William Heath Davis Sr a ship s captain and Hannah Kalikolehua Holmes Oliver Holmes and Mahi s daughter Holmes William s grandfather had come to the islands from Boston and served as Governor of Oahu under King Kamehamea I His father died shortly after he was born and Hannah subsequently married his stepfather John Coffin Jones Jr who was the only real father young William knew William first sailed to California as a cabin boy on the ship Louisa when he was nine years old He traveled again to California in and conclusively in he returned to California to remain permanently in Yerba Buena San Francisco He went to work for his uncle Nathan Spear to learn the merchant skills of business and trading One year later because of his skill in navigating he led John Sutter up the Colombia River to the area where gold was discovered and the California Gold Rush began With his newfound wealth and his brother Robert as his partner William was able to operate a thriving trading business between California and Hawaii dealing in a substantial amount of military supplies He acquired land in San Francisco and subsequently became a member of the San Francisco Town Council In this position Mr Davis became a prominent businessman and civic leader One of his a large number of accomplishments was to build the first population and Catholic schools in San Francisco He was even approached to run for Governor but he declined the offer to pursue a Mexican American partnership with three other business leaders Building a new town on the San Diego waterfront Their intention was to build a new town on the waterfront in San Diego Mr Davis wife Maria de Estudillo was the niece of Jose Antonio Estudillo prominent civic leader and one of the first alcaldes or mayors of Old Town San Diego Davis was familiar with the area because of his visits to Maria s family One of Davis partners was Andrew B Gray a surveyor for the National Boundary Survey between Mexico and the United States He was joined by Jose Aguirre Miguel Pedrorena and T D Johns The partners purchased acres from the City Trustees for The purchase included the area bounded by Broadway Front Street and the waterfront Although he was only years old Davis was the wealthiest of the group so preponderance of the maturation of the property fell on him Davis promptly built a wharf and warehouse at the foot of Field St He additionally imported modest saltbox-style prefabricated houses to serve as homes for the anticipated residents of Davis s New Town The buildings had been brought around Cape Horn from Portland Maine to be used for housing by the Gold Rush miners Among the buildings originally erected was a home at the corner of State and F Streets for Davis where his first child was born An identical building was built at the corner of State and Domain Streets This structure was later moved to th Street and completely in to its current location at Island Avenue where it houses the Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House Mishap indirectly strikes a fledgling town Everything was going well until catastrophe indirectly struck Davis fledgling town A large fire destroyed the San Francisco warehouse where he kept his exchange goods The loss was in excess of As he was now short of time and money Mr Davis was forced to abandon his dreams and the once promising town evolving around Pantoja Park became a ghost town Mr Davis went on to manage his father-in-law s large cattle ranch and also laid out largest part of the city of San Leandro He additionally sold real estate and appraised real property as he was considered a recognized authority on land titles Because of his various years in California under both Mexican and American rule he was required to write his memoirs Sixty Years in California which was published in William Heath Davis died on April in Hayward California at the age of In fate smiled upon the sleepy little hamlet of San Diego in the form of Alonzo Horton another San Francisco businessman He was also determined to build a new city by the water However timing is everything and the Civil War was over the Gold Rush had cooled and people were coming west in droves looking for sunshine a warm context and new opportunities Horton purchased an additional acres for returned to San Francisco to promote his new city and prepared his wife Sarah to move to San Diego When they arrived they purchased the little house on State and Realm and lived in it until the first of their five mansions was built This modest house remains the only home that Horton lived in that is still standing It is a living history museum a tourist attraction and a region pool The two-story structure has nine rooms three fireplaces and a modern basement gallery and offices Each room is decorated in period appropriate antiques and each room celebrates the different inhabitants of the home San Diego has grown to become America s eighth-largest city and a worldwide tourist destination Because of the vision of Davis and later Horton we can all enjoy America s Finest City