SHOW ME AROUND AND ABOUT SAN DIEGO, REUBEN!
I like to imagine what it must have been like for tourists who made their way to San Diego in 1893. First of all, the population was smaller than Coronado today. And once you got here, who would show you around? Today about one of every eight San Diegans is in some way connected to tourism, but back then, guided sight-seeing was not an industry. While you could certainly hire a buggy ride to the beach or Hotel del Coronado, the ultimate San Diego experience was, according to all accounts, provided by Mr. Reuben Williams. “Reuben the Guide,” they called him.
Yvette Porter Moore is a genealogist and public historian who has studied the fascinating life and work of Reuben Williams, who through entrepreneurial wit and word-of-mouth marketing became San Diego’s first and most famous tour guide. “He was a trailblazer,” Yvette says, “just making everyone’s vacation memorable.” A gifted writer and storyteller who spoke two languages, Reuben had a way of making his trips an unforgettable experience for visitors, like promising to show them “The Old Spanish Lighthouse” at Point Loma. Never mind that in the 1890s, the Lighthouse was not that old and it was built by the Coast Guard – for decades thereafter it came to be widely known that way.
Among tourists and locals, Reuben the Guide became something of a legend. “He always had a smile on his face. And I do not know how, because he suffered from rheumatism.” And, Yvette says, in turn-of-that-century San Diego he also had to deal with racism. “Reuben was able to rise above all that with his personality and his humor.”
Tijuana trips were a specialty. Meeting tourists at the railroad depot, he would stop with them at the International Boundary Marker and then peruse the very small town of Tijuana, selling signed photographs for his delighted clients to take back home. Thus, Reuben the Guide became known well beyond the border.
When Reuben died on January 11, 1903, there was a real sense of loss. Many people turned out for his flower-decorated funeral downtown. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, but it was not clear where, until Yvette began her research. “I found him, where his resting spot is. But he does not have a headstone, which is unfortunate.” Sadly, in a city where tourism is so central to our economy, where guiding international visitors is now such a huge industry, there is nothing to memorialize the one who led the way, and Yvette would like to change that. “I think there needs to be a landmark or something, saying Reuben was here, and Reuben made a difference, you know?”
Indeed. For what he did and who he was, such a lasting tribute would say a lot about him and About San Diego.
Ken Kramer is creator and host of Ken Kramer’s About San Diego, seen every Thursday night at8:00 on KPBS. His articles appear each month in GB Magazine.
