40 Years Old but Too Modern for San Diego’s Old Town State Park : Mom-and-Pop Store Has to Age--and Fast

Long before Old Town became famous as a state park offering souvenirs and Margarita specials to 4 million tourists a year, Wilhelmina Manlo’s General Store stood in its heart.

Manlo and her husband Sam opened the store in 1946 and operated it together until his death in 1980. Since then, she has continued to run the business with her two children and still lives in the small house behind the store, making her the only remaining Old Town State Park shopkeeper to reside within the park’s boundaries.

But, like many long-lived “mom-and-pop” businesses, Manlo’s General Store is living on borrowed time. It doesn’t risk being replaced by modern, shiny supermarkets, however. Rather, Manlo’s store, old though it is, is too modern for state Parks and Recreation officials.

‘De-Modernize’ the Store

Park officials have told Manlo that before she can renew her lease, which expires in February, 1987, she must agree to “de-modernize” the store on San Diego Avenue.

To be considered an “interpretive” historical site, the store must conform to the park’s motif of San Diego, circa 1821. At her own expense, she will have to install wood floors, period wall paper and “appropriate” shelving.

“They say I have to go to an interpretive period or they’ll put (the store) up for public bid,” said Manlo, 69. “I don’t think that after 40 years I should have to go to a public bid. Everything’s all modern--how can you go back and make it old?”

Edward Navarro, who as district supervisor for the state park system oversees Old Town concessions, said the state does not want Mrs. Manlo to lose her store. But Navarro said the state will only pay for alterations at designated historical sites.

“The store’s only 40 years old,” he said. “As far as it getting a nomination as an historical landmark, I don’t think it would fly.”

Although she is annoyed at having to pay for the “renovations” herself, Manlo said she is willing to make the changes. She just wants something in return--a 10-year lease. The state has offered a five-year lease.

“I’ve given every indication I’ll do whatever they want if they give me a substantive lease,” she said. “Without a long-term lease, you can only do so much.”

The store has never had more than a five-year lease since 1968, however, when the area known by residents as “Old San Diego,” located about three miles northwest of downtown, was designated a state park to commemorate the bicentennial of San Diego’s founding.

“They determined they were going to make this a state park and they went around buying people’s property, even ours,” Manlo said. “They gave you a price and if you didn’t like it, you had to fight in it court. Otherwise, they took it by eminent domain.”

Navarro said the fate of Manlo’s store is sealed by the inexorable march toward realization of the park’s general plan, which requires all “non-historical” buildings to be demolished.

“At some point in time, the park’s general plan is going to call for historical reconstructions of the buildings that stood there originally,” Navarro said. “The department is not really in a place to make any exception. In a case like Willy’s store, we’re willing to wait a period of time. But at some point, that building is going to have to come down.”