Market: Never Easy Street

To anyone under 70, Market Street has always been Market. At least until last Tuesday, when the San Diego City Council decided quite properly to rename it Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in honor of the slain civil-rights leader.

But Market hasn’t always been Market. In fact, it has had several incarnations and more than one home.

San Diego Historical Society records show that in the late 18th Century, the bay end of Market, which had no name, was a burial ground for hapless adventurers and was known as Dead Men’s Point.

It was graded in the early 1870s, when it was called Commercial Street. But that lasted only until April 20, 1886, when it was renamed H Street--almost 100 years to the date of the most recent change, for those who care about such curiosities.

Historians differ on when it was named Market. Historical Society files variously show 1911, 1913 and 1915.

No matter. Because before it could be named Market, the city had to get rid of the original Market Street, now Pennsylvania Avenue, in what is now Hillcrest.

To get that Market Street renamed took some guile, however. According to Jerry MacMullen, a past director of the Historical Society, to free up the name Market meant that everyone who lived on that street had to agree. (And the present City Council thinks it has it tough!)

Luckily, that was only Levi Bostwick, a gripman on the old 4th Street cable-car line.

The man who approached Bostwick told him that if H Street were renamed Market, it could become a thriving commercial strip, similar to San Francisco’s famous Market Street.

Bostwick wasn’t convinced. So the promoter reached into his bag of tricks. “Would you object,” he said, “if we agreed to rename it Bostwick Street?” That convinced Bostwick, and H Street was free to become Market, though it still has not fulfilled the promoter’s dream.

Needless to say, Bostwick Street never happened. Market became Pennsylvania instead.

And H Street became Market.

Now it will become Martin Luther King Jr. Way, a move we applaud along with the council’s decision to name a freeway after King. But Martin Luther King Jr. Way, with its conglomeration of restaurant-supply houses, eateries, gas stations, freeway entrances and homes, certainly will be the more well-known of the two and, with downtown redevelopment and the Gateway industrial parks in Southeast, promises to take a step closer to that clever promoter’s promise.