San Clemente, California - A Brief History of the California Beach Town

San Clemente, California is perhaps best known for one of its most famous residents, 37th President of the United States Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974). Nixon bought a Spanish mansion in the town in 1969, an event that suddenly thrust the small community of fifteen square miles of coastline and scenic foothills into the global limelight. When Nixon needed some rest and relaxation, his preferred retreat was his Southern California hacienda. He may have spent more time at Camp David in Maryland than his five predecessors combined, but that was primarily due to its close proximity to Washington, D.C. He also held many historic meetings at his Orange County home, causing it to become known as "The Western Whitehouse."

With an average of 342 days of sunshine per year, who could blame President Nixon for wanting to get close to the beautiful San Clemente beaches and high-cliff, scenic view coastline?

Oddly enough for a town with so much sunshine, San Clemente, CA was founded by the 33rd mayor of Seattle, Washington, Ole Hanson (or maybe not so odd, considering Seattle has an average of 226 cloudy days per year). After Hanson finished being mayor in 1919, he made an unsuccessful attempt at becoming the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1920, and then headed for California. Weary of politics or the rain-or both-Hanson purchased the land and designed a 2,000-acre community designed to resemble a Spanish village.

Hanson named the city after San Clemente Island, which in turn was named by the explorer Vizcaino in 1602 after Saint Clement, who was executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea, and who is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on November 23, the day Vizcaino arrived on San Clemente Island.

The city was officially named on November 23, 1925, and officially founded on December 6, 1925, the day Hanson erected a tent off El Camino Real and Del Mar and held a sale to parcel off pieces of his dream community-a day when the "best climate in the world" turned to rain and mud. Still, everyone knows that into each life a little rain must fall, and by the end of that day he had sold more than $125,000 worth of property. In 15 months he had sold $3,100,000 and more than $4,600,000 in less than two years. By the time of its incorporation on February 21, 1928, the town was considered the richest city per capita in the United States. Even so, when Hanson first presented his plan to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, they turned it down because the concept of a planned community was too new and too foreign an idea to them at the time!

Today, San Clemente boasts some of California's finest beaches, a community center, libraries, miles of horseback riding trails, a 1200-foot fishing pier, golf courses, tennis courts, parks, schools, businesses, and some of the regions finest hotels and restaurants. It is home to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton, and world-famous surfing beaches such as San Onofre Beach and State Park (home to Old Man's and Trestles), T Street, North Beach, San Clemente City Beach, San Clemente State Beach and Calafia State Beach, San Clemente State Park and San Mateo State Park. San Clemente beach, condo, and vacation rentals are some of the most desirable destination properties in the United States, if not the entire world.