Carlsbad started as a whistle stop on the new California Southern Railroad. As we know, in the 1880s a former sailor named John Frazier dug a well in the area. He began offering his water at the train station and soon the whistle-stop became known as Frazier's Station. A test done on a second fresh-water well discovered the water to be chemically similar to that found in some of the most renowned spas in the world, and the town was named after the famed Spa in the Bohemian town of Karlsbad.
To take advantage of the find, the Carlsbad Land and Mineral Water Company was formed by a German-born merchant from the Midwest named Gerhard Schutte together with a few other men: Samuel Church Smith, D.D. Wadsworth and Henry Nelson. The naming of the town followed soon after, along with a major marketing campaign to attract visitors. The area experienced a period of growth, with homes and businesses sprouting up in the late 1880s.
This Craftsman cottage, the Magee House (or Shipley Magee) was built from pre-cut lumber, ordered from a Midwestern catalog of pre-designed homes. It is still standing today much as it did in its early beginnings. The Magee Home was originally built by Samuel Church Smith, one of the founders of the Carlsbad Land and Water Company in 1887, and is listed as one of the first homes built in the area according to the historical registry.
The Smith Family remained in this home until the 1890's when the California land bust forced them into selling their Carlsbad real estate holdings and relocating to National City. By early 1890, land prices fell throughout San Diego County. However, this community survived on the back of its fertile agricultural lands.
Alexander Shipley, a retired foreign service diplomat, searching for a temperate climate to recuperate from numerous illnesses, purchased the home in the 1890's, and relocated his wife Julia and daughter Florence for the climate.
The Shipley Family, descendants of the Wilmington Delaware Shipley's, were ardent supporters of St. Michaels Episcopal Church. In 1912, Florence married Hugh Magee, a descendant of an original California Estudillo Family, and moved to Pala. She returned to Carlsbad in the 1940's after the death of her father and husband. As sole inheritor of her parent's estate and having no children of her own, Florence left Magee house to the City of Carlsbad as a Historic and recreational park upon her death in the 1970's.
The historical gardens feature a nationally registered Rose Garden that earned Carlsbed the covet American Rose Society's "An American Rose City" in 2002! It's hard not to notice the beautiful gardens surrounding. A qualitative garden of about 225 rose bushes representing 15 families of the rose. One garden is modern roses and the other garden contains Old Garden roses and shrubs. A new miniature rose garden was planted in 2003. This magical garden is maintained by the members of the California Coastal Rose Society.
I would recommend a visit especially now with all the blooming. However be mindful that parking can be challenging if there is an event. Also there can be transient activity early morning and evening. It's not a large park, however the garden alone is worth touring the grounds. There is no cost to enjoy. read more