Centennial Celebration Saturday : Capistrano Beach--Years of Aliases

One hundred years ago, it was called San Juan by the Sea.

In the ensuing century, the south Orange County coastal enclave also was known variously as Serra and Doheny Park. But when the community celebrates its centennial Saturday, it will be as Capistrano Beach, a name historians say was given in 1948.

The century mark comes as residents are facing what may soon be another identity change: cityhood with the adjacent oceanside community of Dana Point. An election to decide on incorporation with Dana Point is expected to be held next spring.

This weekend, however, it will be time for a look back at the last 100 years for the lovely beach and ocean bluff land.

When the land was barely settled, Indians from Mission San Juan Capistrano, just inland, farmed the land and raised cattle, according to Pam Gibson, a local writer and historian. In the early 1800s, two shiploads of pirates passed through the tiny settlement on their way to raid the mission.

When Mexico gained independence from Spain a few years later, Gibson said, many land grants were given, one of which was Rancho Boca de la Playa, which included all of what now is Capistrano Beach, as well as part of San Clemente.

Seaman-author Richard Henry Dana Jr., gazing inland from the brig Pilgrim in 1835, saw the rancho’s main adobe building and mistook it for Mission San Juan Capistrano, much of which had been leveled by an earthquake in 1812, and which wasn’t visible from the sea anyway, Gibson said.

Later, it became San Juan by the Sea, which originally began as “a boom town founded as a tourist center in 1887,” Gibson said. When that boom busted, it reverted to farming under the name of Serra until the early 1920s, when Los Angeles oil millionaire Edward L. Doheny Jr. began to construct what he referred to as a Spanish village atop the bluffs and an elaborate beach house on the sands below, with a winding stone staircase leading down the 100-foot cliff between them.

End to Dream

The Depression, a family tragedy and other events ended Doheny’s dream. But the community was named Doheny Park in 1931. And beachfront acreage that Doheny donated to California still is known as Doheny State Beach.

At present, Gibson said, incorporation with Dana Point appears imminent, although she noted that several previous attempts at cityhood have failed in recent years.

Saturday’s centennial picnic will be held at Pines Park on the palisades overlooking the sea, starting at 11 a.m. and ending about 3 p.m. New and old residents and the general public are invited. Gibson said they should bring their own lunches, although lemonade and cookies will be provided.

Acting as master of ceremonies will be Larry Buchheim, whose family farmed in the community when it still was known as San Juan by the Sea.