A CENTURY OF HISTORY & STORIES IN SAN DIEGO

The Sofia Archives

The Sofia Hotel is proud to introduce The Sofia Archives — a new series exploring the people, places, and events that shaped both San Diego and the historic hotel that has stood at its center since 1926.

Beginning on Thursday, September 3, we'll share a new chapter each week, uncovering stories from a city that has continually reinvented itself while remaining deeply connected to its past.

Some stories take place just steps from our front door. Others reveal the larger history of the neighborhoods, landmarks, waterfront, businesses, and individuals that helped shape San Diego over the last century.

18 episodes. More than a century of stories. Episode 1 premieres Thursday, September 3.

New Episodes Every Thursday

a group of people standing in front of a building

Where the Story Begins

Episode 1

The year was 1926, in San Diego, California. Prohibition was law across the United States, though downtown San Diego remained active long after midnight — behind late-night restaurant doors, inside upstairs clubs, and in crowded bars where nobody asked questions.

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a group of men standing in a line at a bar

Broadway After Dark

Episode 2

After midnight, Broadway belonged to a different crowd. The theater crowds had gone home. But downtown San Diego was still alive. Taxi horns and barroom doors echoed through the streets long after the marquees went dark.

The Overnight Route

Episode 3

Long before commercial flights connected California, travelers crossed the state aboard Pickwick “Nite Coaches” — built for overnight journeys. Passengers read beneath small lamps, unfolded sleeping compartments, and drifted through the night as the California landscape disappeared beyond the windows.

Room 410

Episode 4

In his first season as a bellman, Matteo had learned to read a guest in the time it took the elevator to arrive.
The woman in Room 410 had come in on the late Pickwick from Los Angeles — hat box, leather trunk, no one waiting for her at the desk.

On the Air

Episode 5

By the late 1920s, radio still felt like the future. Inside the Pickwick Hotel, KGB Radio broadcast music, news, and voices across Southern California — reaching families gathered around their sets each evening, adjusting dials through static to find something worth hearing.

The Talking Pictures

Episode 6

By the late 1920s, moviegoing had become one of America’s great obsessions. Downtown Broadway was growing quickly beneath glowing marquees as audiences lined up outside the Balboa and Spreckels theatres each evening.

a drawing of a man and woman walking in a courtyard

Saving Balboa Park

Episode 7

The exhibition halls, sculpted towers, and tiled arcades built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition were never meant to last. City officials had designed them as temporary structures — expecting most to be torn down once the fair ended and the visitors went home.

a group of people standing next to a boat

Before Sunrise

Episode 8

By the early twentieth century, word had reached fishing towns across Sicily and Southern Italy — there was work along the California coast. Some immigrants arrived by steamship, then continued south by rail toward San Diego, drawn by rumors of an expanding Pacific fishing industry.

a group of people standing in front of a train

Smokestacks or Geraniums

Episode 9

As San Diego grew through the Pickwick years, the city became locked in an argument over what it wanted to become. Some pushed for factories, shipping, and smokestacks rising above the harbor. Others believed the city’s future lay in parks, architecture, and the natural beauty drawing visitors to Southern California.

A CENTURY OF HISTORY & STORIES IN SAN DIEGO

The Sofia Archives

New Episodes Every Thursday

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