Island Icon: Kat Carlin

Katherine Carlin, Cor onado’s unofficial historian is fondly remembered for co-authoring the book Coronado: The Enchanted Island. The book was envisioned, in Kat’s words, as “the telling of the story of our people, their names, accomplishments, and contributions.”

Born ‘Katherine Eitzen’ in 1903 in Pensacola, Fla., she attended school locally before enrolling at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Shortly after, Katherine met her husband, Thomas F. Carlin, at a Pensacola Hospital where he was recovering from an auto accident. Although Lieutenant Carlin had come to Pensacola for Naval F light training, he retired from the Navy on physical disability due to his injuries. Katherine and Thomas married in September 1926 and moved west, arriving in Coronado in 1928 to make it their life-long home.

Their first residence was a rental on Tolita Avenue. Both Tom and Kat went into real estate, and in 1938 they built their first home. The couple commissioned local architect Paul Hathaway to build a house along the “mud flats” of Glorietta Blvd. The Boulevard faced the Bay directly, as it would be several more years before dredging debris built up land for the site where the golf course is located today. Hathaway was not daunted by the project location. A prolific and well-known builder in Coronado, Hathaway designed the charming Colonial Revival style home for the Carlins. Once built, the couple went on to raise their two children, Mary and Tom Jr. in the home. It was these early days along Glorietta that Katherine first became

intrigued by Coronado’s unique history. In 1940, Lt. Carlin returned to active duty in the Navy. He rose in rank to be Commander and retired for a second time in 1945, becoming President of the Coronado Realty Board and participating

in the Rotary Club of Coronado. Then, Thomas died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1967. Following the death of her husband, Katherine found herself with more time on her hands and devoted herself to documenting history.

Photo courtesy of the Carlin family.

In 1969, Kat formed the “Committee of ‘86” with Bunny MacKenzie, Eleanor Ring, and other locals in an effort to purchase the last ferry boat and convert it into a museum. The act of saving the ferry boat was an effort to save a little piece of Coronado’s small-town feel that was feared to disappear once the bridge was complete. The group’s efforts to save the boat were ultimately unsuccessful. They formed the Coronado Historical Association to continue their work to keep the history alive, an organization that is still going strong over 50 years later.

Around this time, Kat also took on the self-imposed project of writing a book about Coronado history, filling 20 looseleaf notebooks of information. She was a diligent researcher, documenting her talks with elderly Coronadans and combing through newspapers dating back to 1887.

Katherine would sit at a card table in a room of her home overlooking her garden as she pecked away at an old typewriter, assembling the story of Coronado’s emergence from a sleepy hamlet in 1886 into the bustling town that it is today. Katherine embraced this project for nearly 20 years until her death on March 24, 1986. Following her untimely passing, local historian Dr. Ray Brandes stepped in and realized her dream. The first edition of Coronado: The Enchanted Island was published in 1987. Since then, four editions have been published and it remains a beloved Coronado classic available for purchase at the Coronado Historical Association’s store at 1100 Orange Avenue.

(L-R) Kat Carlin, Bunny MacKenzie, Mayor R. McNeeley, and Tookie Spreckels Northcutt at a Coronado Historical Association event in 1974. Coronado Historical Association Collection.