La Mesa’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of La Mesa. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Before European colonization, the area that is now La Mesa was home to the Kumeyaay. The Kumeyaay were a Yuman-speaking people who practiced horticulture and hunting and gathering. The Kumeyaay organized themselves into a federation of self-governed bands, or clans. Beginning in 1769, the Kumeyaay of La Mesa and the larger San Diego County region were enslaved by Spanish colonists or later forcibly relocated to reservations.
La Mesa in Spanish means "the table", or alternately "the plateau", relating to its geography. La Mesa was part of a larger tract, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and was used by Spanish missionaries.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart La Mesa’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how La Mesa’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewFMIB 33142 La Mesa Reservoir Rese…, 1902: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10La Mesa, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as FMIB 33142 La Mesa Reservoir Reservoir (1902) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.