1958: A Dream for Broadway Gets Downsized

A look back at Lemon Grove, 54 years ago this week.

Talk of the Town: Many Lemon Grove business owners envisioned Broadway as a 150-foot-wide, sweeping boulevard lined with trees and adequate parking on either side, and no center islands, running from College Avenue to Sweetwater Road. That was such a Western concept—wild, free, untrammeled, giving the adjacent, new freeway a run for its money. Enter the county road department with its scheme to build an 18-foot wide center island with left turn lanes, running from College to Sweetwater and reducing Broadway to a 100-foot-wide thoroughfare. Each side would have 12-foot-wide travel lanes, eight-foot-wide parallel parking shoulders and five-foot-wide sidewalks.

La Mesa was all for it, proclaiming such thoroughfares get motorists from here to there quicker and safer, and, notably, up Massachusetts to the University Avenue shopping area.  But Grovians were cheesed as their dream of a local Champs Elysées was gradually squelched. Drive the length of Broadway today and see what you think.

And the Waters Flowed: Spring Valley rejoiced as the valves of the La Presa Water District pump were turned on and Colorado River water flowed into a million gallon tank, supplying homes in the La Presa area for the first time. The $58,000 tank with its $325 valves was masterminded by Fred J. Hansen (see our May 14 column for more on Hansen). Four more million-gallon tanks were in the planning stage as area population projections rose.

Polish Princess Progeny Packs Pub:  Michael's Restaurant & Pub, 7828 Broadway, was jammed with Lemon Grove Men's Club guests when Mrs. Thaddeus Sledzinski, descendant of Polish Princess Filomena Sledzinski, related her experiences as a prisoner in a Siberian gulag, where she was forced to labor with other youngsters in the coal mines of the Ural Mountains.  

While Michael's trademark steaks sizzled, guests were aghast as she declared that $26 million awaited the family in Russia if they proved their direct family links and dared to go to Russia to claim the loot.

At the time, Princess Filomena was still buried in Lemon Grove in a plot sanctioned as a cemetery by state and federal agencies. With U.S. and Polish flags flying overhead, the plot stood at College Avenue and Broadway—today, the onramp to Route 94. With the new freeway almost completed, the princess was slated for exhumation and removal to Greenwood Cemetery. In 1939, she and husband, John Sledzinski, had purchased a home on six acres at 6810 Broadway, which included the future burial plot. But the princess lingered only briefly in the best climate on earth and died in 1941, age 65.

The Sledzinski descendants never did take on the Russian Bear, who, in 1958 was former Stalin confidante Nikita Kruschev, himself no slouch in the get-thee-to-the-gulag policy.  

Pizza Parlor Unplugged: Pernicano's Pizza, 7810 Broadway, narrowly averted disaster when Sam Pernicano arrived for the early morning dough tossing only to smell gas in the kitchen. After calling the fire department, Sam found a wine cork plugging an old gas line at floor level. The previous tenant's do-it-yourself effort included painting over the entire area.

"It was camouflaged," Pernicano said.  "I could smell gas leaking, but didn't pop the cork in case the place blew up."

An SDG&E inspector said the pizza ovens, which remained lit all night, would have caused an explosion had Sam not arrived in the nick of time. All gas in the northeast quadrant of Lemon Grove's business district was shut down for several hours while the leak was fixed. 

Moppets' Matches Wreak Havoc: A brush fire started by the nine-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Barrett burned nearly 900 acres three miles east of Lemon Grove. Some 200 firefighters, 20 trucks and a crew with bulldozers slowed the blaze in the area between the Sweetwater Bridge and Route 94. Barrett Junior had been playing with matches behind the family's Jamacha Junction home, causing tinder-dry brush to erupt in flames. It would be days before the area was safe to enter according to Ranger James Fenlon.

At midtown there was double trouble when more moppets decided to discover fire.  As a garage at 3809 Harris Street burned down, a grass fire at 7355 Beryl Street began spreading through the neighborhood.  In those early days, only Captain Alexander was on hand to cover the garage blaze, while Engineer Noah Tubbs had to call in off-shift men to quell the grass fire aided by neighbors with hoses.  Today, the local fire station has a Deputy Chief/Fire Marshall, six firefighters, six engineers, six captains and two fire prevention specialists (Thom Rosenberger and Charlie Lewis).

Soprano's Chops Clogged:  Ruth Neilson, Costabella Street, sued Helix Irrigation District for $13,456, charging that her singing voice was damaged by dust from a sandblasting operation aimed at removing paint from a four million gallon water tank.

"I can't sing anything, not even a lullaby," said Neilson.

Hubby Earl Neilson, a real estate broker, said the sandblasting went on for six weeks next to their property.  Ruth couldn't sing in church, much less in local glee clubs and opera societies. "Lucia Di Lamoormoor" was out while her lungs were clogged with leaded dust.

The Neilsons sued for $3,000 for vocal damage, $5,000 for lung and eye damage, $2,156 for damage to their home, grounds, trees and furnishings, $3,000 for lost business and $300 lost rental income when a tenant moved due to dust.

No word on who won what.  But in 1958, there were few laws governing excessive dust from "industrial operations" and no laws on removal of lead paint. Sounds like the Neilsons had a major beef.

Happily Ever After: Verity Construction, 562 El Cajon Boulevard, offered to build a Regent II Gingerbread "Hansel and Gretel" home on your level lot for $5,895. The 852-square-foot cottage featured two bedrooms, a 13 x 20 foot attached garage, Formica countertops, aluminum windows, copper plumbing, natural birch cabinets, wall-to-wall closets, lath and plaster walls, composition shingle roof and decorator colors. You can see homes like this in Lemon Grove today, survivors of a time when solid construction involved two-by-fours that were actually two by four.