Local News in Brief : San Juan Capistrano : Centennial Ceremony for Arrival of Railroad
A special ceremony Sunday will mark the 100th anniversary of the completion of a railroad line through San Juan Capistrano, the final link between Los Angeles and San Diego.
“Rails had already been laid as far south as Santa Ana and as far north as Oceanside,” said Pamela Hallan Gibson, San Juan Capistrano historian. “After a delay in getting right of way through the Irvine Ranch, the link was finished in 1888 by the San Bernardino & San Diego Railroad, a subsidiary of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe.”
At the same time, a wooden station building was opened. That original station was replaced in 1895 by the present domed adobe depot, Gibson said.
Sunday’s ceremony, part of the Orange County Centennial observation, will begin at 1 p.m. The celebration will include an open house in the 212-year-old Los Rios neighborhood near the depot, tours of other historic adobes and a slide show on railroad history at the nearby O’Neill Museum.
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