The Linda Vista Shopping Center is one of the oldest planned shopping centers in the country located on Linda Vista Road between Comstock and Ulric Streets.  The original Shopping Center was built for the Government Housing Project that served the defense workers including the Reuben Fleet Consolidated Aircraft workers and shipyard workers in World War II. It was dedicated in 1942 by the nation's First Lady at the time, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, and is the model for today's shopping center giants.

The community of Linda Vista was built almost over-night by the Federal Government under the Lanham Defense Housing Act of 1940 to house World War II defense workers.

At the time the Linda Vista Housing Project was built, it was the single largest defense housing project and the  largest low-income housing development in the world with projected occupancy of 13,000 people.  To provide retail facilities for the influx of population, the government built the 12-acre Linda Vista Shopping Center with a full range of retail, service and recreational facilities including a theater, department store and bank.  It was one of the first shopping centers designed as a unique space, separate from streets and the houses, using a hollow square designed on a block of land with landscaped green and pedestrian walks.  Similar shopping centers in the United States would be developed like the Linda Vista Shopping Center.

After the war was over, the Center reverted to ownership by the City of San Diego.  Floyd Morrow, then on the City Council was responsible for redeveloping the Center and in 1972, it was rededicated by James Roosevelt.  Unfortunately, the original plaque dedicating the Linda Vista Shopping Center by Eleanor Roosevelt went missing.

The Linda Vista Development Corporation dedicated the Linda Vista Shopping Center as an Historical Site with a bronze plaque and monument on April 29, 2009.  The ceremony is recorded with the San Diego Historical Society, the Linda Vista Library, and the Franklin D. Rossevelt Library in New York.  Click on Photo Gallery to view the re-dedication ceremony. 


Carrie Beinert
Vice President
Linda Vista Community Development Corporation 

* Notes:

Top Picture:  Original design of the Linda Vista Shopping Center

Bottom Picture:  Linda Development Community Development Corporation board members:  from left-to-right: Janet Kaye, Roberto Nothaft (former Pres), Ed Farley (Pres), Carrie Beinert (VP), and Jeff Perwin

MANY THANKS TO THE MAJOR MONETARY CONTRIBUTORS:
 - Investcal Realty Corporation
     Without the support of Investcal Realty Corporation, this event would not have happened.  They
      were kind enough to allow the Linda Vista Corporation to place the Monument in the Shopping Center.
-  University of San Diego
    Provided the original Linda Vista Shopping Center Plans and Map.
-  Skateworld 
    Is the only original building left standing which was a meeting place and storage for ammunition
    during World War II.  

ALSO, MANY THANKS TO ALL THE BUSINESSES AND RESIDENTS WHO MONETARILY CONTRIBUTED
TOWARD THE MONUMENT.
- All Contributors are listed in the Notebooks located with the San Diego Historical Society, the Linda Vista Library and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.   
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