If only the walls could speak… Solana Beach Homes would have a lot to say. Full of history and character these homes are beautiful and absolutely modern in every sense of the word.

The area today known as Solana Beach was originally occupied, like much of the United States, by Native American tribesthe first of these in known history were the San Dieguitos. They came around 9000 BC from eastern California and Nevada on the trail of the animals they hunted: mastodons, bison, and camels. The San Dieguitos were replaced in the Solana Beach area by the La Jollans which eventually must have followed their prey on down to Mexico who lived on seafoods and seeds. The La Jollans, in turn, were either replaced or simply absorbed by the Kumeyaay, who hailed from the Colorado River region and also liked their fish, as well as acorns and nuts.

Then came the Spanish, arriving in 1769. Control of the land passed from the Spanish to the Mexicans and eventually to the United States; California was officially admitted to the Union in 1850, but the Solana Beach area was still largely dominated by the old Mexican land owners, known as the Californios, until the 1860s. Solana Beach, originally dubbed “Lockwood Mesa,” had its first Anglo settlers, the George Jones family, in 1886. Oldest remaining house in Solana Beach is the Stevens house. The house was built in 1887 or 1888. Grandma Susannah Stevens lived there until her death at just short of 105 years of age in 1927. She wasn’t the first historical resident of the Solana Beach area to live to a ripe old age; another settler, Grandpa Frank Knowles, lived to be 104. Maybe it’s that sea air.

Today, the Stevens House is located in La Colonia Park and is the home of the Solana Beach Heritage Museum.

The building of the Lake Hodges Dam in 1917-18 and the 1918 creation of the 12,000-acre Santa Fe Irrigation District spurred the rapid development of Solana Beach. It began to boom in the ’20s, and in 1922, Colonel Ed Fletcher bought 140 acres from George H. Jones to develop the town of Solana Beach. Solana Beach became known as a center for growing avocados.

In 1925 Independence day, access to the beach was needed for development so hydraulic water pressure was used to create the local favorite Fletcher Cove Beach.

Late 1960s and throughout the 1970s other changes have made their marks through the years from the Depression and World War II to the construction, with the revival of the money market, of hundreds of premium Solana Beach homes. The Solana Beach Women’s Club, which became the Civic and Historical Society in 1989, renovated the central plaza and installed the “Sun Burst Fountain,” among other beautification projects. Solana Beach was officially incorporated in 1986, and it has since acquired two community centers and a train station.

Solana Beach homes have history; don’t you want to be a part of it?