San Clemente

San Clemente: “People Love the Beautiful Things”

In 1925, the former mayor of Seattle, Ole Hanson, put some of his wealth to work by purchasing a 2,000-acre tract of coastal land between Los Angeles and San Diego. He believed that the area's pleasant climate, beautiful beaches and fertile soil would serve as a haven to Californians who were tired of urban life. He named the city San Clemente after neighboring San Clemente Island, southernmost of California's Channel Islands.

As you enjoy the town, remember the lengths that Ole went to to create it. His initial plan submission to the Orange County Board of Supervisors was rejected because the Board couldn’t imagine funding public streets when no building had yet been built. Undeterred (and in a stroke of marketing genius/deception) Hanson whitewashed the unpaved roads to make them appear as clean, new concrete in the aerial photos he commissioned for his marketing brochures.

Hanson envisioned his new project as a Spanish-style coastal resort town, and added a clause to all deeds requiring that building plans be submitted to an architectural review. The result is a beautiful little town that is dotted with old buildings in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.

Hanson later said “I get credit for building San Clemente. I am doing my best, but San Clemente’s development was as natural as a well-watered and fertilized tree to grow. It is on the coast. Its climate is superb. It is far enough from San Diego and Los Angeles to fill a real necessity. Besides, people love the beautiful things.”

Our walk will take you through the middle of town, down a side street with a panoramic ocean view, along the San Clemente Beach Trail to the pier, past the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens (formerly the home of…you guessed it, Ole Hanson), and back to the middle of town with its quaint shops and restaurants.