William Heath Davis House: The Prefabricated Pioneer
Why is it significant?
Pause before the charming two-story yellow clapboard house with green shutters at the corner of Island Avenue and Fourth Avenue. Built in eighteen fifty, this humble saltbox structure is the oldest surviving wooden building in downtown San Diego.
Key Facts
| Place | William Heath Davis House: The Prefabricated Pioneer |
|---|---|
| Address | 410 Island Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 |
| Geo Coordinates | 32.71000, -117.16010 |
| Part of Walk | San Diego of Saloons & Sails: The Gaslamp Quarter, USS Midway, and Harbor |
| Generated | Generated |
Pause before the charming two-story yellow clapboard house with green shutters at the corner of Island Avenue and Fourth Avenue. Built in eighteen fifty, this humble saltbox structure is the oldest surviving wooden building in downtown San Diego.
Long before Alonzo Horton arrived, merchant William Heath Davis attempted the first New Town development. Because Southern California lacked timber mills, Davis had this entire pre-cut wooden house manufactured in Portland, Maine, and shipped in pieces aboard a sailing clipper all the way around the treacherous southern tip of South America at Cape Horn!
Later, Alonzo Horton lived here while developing New Town, and in eighteen seventy-three, Alonzo's wife Anna opened it as San Diego's very first hospital. Paranormal researchers consistently rank it among the most haunted historic dwellings in Southern California, with sightings of an enigmatic Victorian lady walking the staircase.
Walk one block north along Fourth Avenue to the ornate twin towers of the Louis Bank of Commerce.