I had a strong interest in supermarkets when I was a kid. It even played a role in what would become my journalism career, when my best friend in elementary school and I went into the new Ralphs in Encinitas to interview employees and shoppers on cassette tape about the store. That was 1981.
That interest sticks with me a bit to this day, so when scanning of the first decades of Encinitas Coast Dispatch archives was complete, I had to satisfy a longtime curiosity of mine — what did The Old Market, a collection of shops in a brick building in downtown Encinitas, originally look like?
The Old Market, later The Old Market Place and 101 Collection, was home to gift shops such as The Third Bird and Venice Tram Co., and restaurants such as St. Germain’s. Today, you’ll find Encinitas Fish Shop, Trek Bicycle Encinitas, Saltvault pilates and other businesses in the now-unnamed building at 1010 S. Coast Highway 101.
As a kid, I knew The Old Market was named for the building’s original use as a grocery store. Later, I learned that it was a Safeway. I remember going into The Old Market and seeing portions of the original ceiling tiles. In the years since, the supermarket kid always wondered. When was the store built? What did it look like, inside and out?
Photos and firsthand accounts of the store’s early existence were tough to find. But now, I have those answers. Curiosity satisfied.
The Safeway opened Feb. 1, 1951, moving down the street from a location farther north on 101. Unlike the original store, this structure was built by Safeway as a standalone. Small as it was by today’s standards, it reflected the evolution of the supermarkets we see now. At the time, the Coast Dispatch reported that it was “one of the largest food stores in this area,” with then-modern improvements in lighting, air circulation and layout, including a sizable parking lot.
As you’ll see in the exterior photos included with this column (which are the north- and west-facing parking lot sides), the building had a cleaner, more streamlined look than it does today. The wooden restaurant and store spaces were added in the 1970s. Over time, various architectural features have been installed and removed, giving the building a well-worn if not disheveled appearance.
Safeway moved again in 1968 to what is now Santa Fe Plaza, at Santa Fe Drive and Interstate 5. The location became a Vons in 1988 when Safeway and Vons swapped stores before their eventual merger. The store has since been demolished and rebuilt as a significantly larger Vons.
Fortunately, that earlier building on Coast Highway 101 has survived the area’s push for slate, glass and polished metal. If you stop by Trek Bicycle’s location, you can see the original walls and open ceiling that reflect the space’s origins.
So that’s one Coast Dispatch quest checked off my list. There are more.
In celebration of the Encinitas Coast Dispatch’s 101st anniversary, the North Coast Current will occasionally share tidbits of local history from its pages. The North Coast Current is working to digitize the Coast Dispatch’s 1978-1998 archives through newspapers.com.
Roman S. Koenig is editor and publisher of the North Coast Current. Columns are the opinions of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of North Coast Current ownership. Comment below or submit letters to the editor at letters[at]northcoastcurrent.com.
