La Mesa History Center Instagram
Happy 100th Birthday Rolando! The original Rolando subdivision opened for sale on June 27, 1926. A group of Los Angeles and San Diego-based developers had big plans for their 505 acre project set between the State, and then US Highway 80 (El Cajon Blvd) and the recently paved University Avenue extension from East San Diego to La Mesa. The early years of Rolando (1926-29) would see five subdivision units graded and paved. Designed by Los Angeles landscape architect Theodore Meier, the tract featured cutting-edge suburban design with sidewalks, street lights, curved streets and pedestrian walkways of the "rolling lands" (in actuality cut-canyons on a mesa) that is the origin of the name Rolando = "rolling lands-o." Although only a dozen or so houses were built in the 1920s, (then after a decade in foreclosure), the Rolando Village Company re-opened the tract in 1939. Thus the generalization that Rolando features 1920s streets and 1940s houses. The story of course is far more interesting, and also features small tract house sections and other highlights of the evolution of this stable and comfortable suburban neighborhood. Historian Jim Newland's Rolando Centennial History Lecture of May 18th covers much of that legacy and will be posted soon on the La Mesa History Center's YouTube page.
