Crown City History

I N C O L L A B O RAT I O N WI T H H OT E L D E L C O RO N A D O & C O RO N A D O H I STO R I CA L A S S O C I AT I O N

Remembering Marco’s Italian Restaurant

B y MARY GRACE BRAUN

For over four decades, Marco Palumbo charmed the community with his family recipes. From 1957 to 1999, Palumbo served up everything from fettucine Alfredo, to cannelloni ripieni, to steaming-hot meatball sandwiches at his namesake establishment, Marco’s Italian Restaurant, in the historical building at 1100 Orange Ave. What made the success of Marco’s so impressive, though, was Palumbo’s perseverance to make his dream of owning a restaurant in America a reality.

Palumbo’s story began in the Italian seaport town of Mola di Bari. On the brink of World War II, Palumbo boarded a ship for the United States, seeking to escape the draft for Benito Mussolini’s army. Marco’s daughter, Francesca McKinnon, described her father’s humble beginnings in a tribute in the Coronado Eagle & Journal, following his death in 2003. “He ‘jumped ship’ in New York and took busses and trains to Chicago, hoping to find some paisanos”, she recalled.

Palumbo found Del Monaco’s Restaurant in Chicago, walked in and asked for a job. “The owner, Tony Monaco, looked at this skinny boy, about 24 years old carrying a pillowcase with his meager belongings” and gave Palumbo a chance despite his broken English and lack of experience, McKinnon said in the story. Palumbo was eager to prove himself, working 10 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for the next eight years.

It was in Chicago that Palumbo met his wife, Rosa, who had also lived in Italy. They fell in love and were married, with Monaco as the best man. The Palumbo’s eventually had six children, who all learned the secrets of their father’s craft. In the

Marco Palumbo (far right) with members of the Coronado Rotary Club at a pancake breakfast in 1968.

late 1940s, the family vacationed in San Diego and chose to make the city their home. Marco’s Italian Restaurant began in National City, and over the years, the location moved three times. In 1957, after discovering that Coronado had no Italian restaurants, Palumbo decided to open a “big-a ristorante” at 1100 Orange Ave.

The entire family worked at the restaurant, with “Momma Rosa” and the kids supporting their father. “We grew up in there. Five sisters. Kitchen slaves! We’ve all been rolling meatballs since we were age nine,” Francesca stated in a 2012 article in the San Diego Reader. “But it was good, too, because we were close to the Hotel Del, so we’d get so many

The Coronado Journal reported that Ens. John and Anne Roosevelt, son and daughterin-law of president Franklin Roosevelt, established residence at 631 A Ave. The town was excited to add this friendly and popular couple to its list of residents and looked forward to John’s mother, Eleanor, visiting Coronado again. Mrs. Roosevelt had visited a few years earlier with her husband. She had made a friendly impression while waiting for the ferry by getting out of her vehicle and wandering among the people. One young mother, babe in arms, was among them. Mrs. Roosevelt took the baby, cradled it in her arms, talked as one mother to another and returned to her limousine just in time to get on the ferry without delaying the other cars. Sept. 12, 1941

Dashing aviator, Jimmy Doolittle, who enlisted at North Island’s Rockwell Field in October 1917, set a record for the first transcontinental flight, flying 2,163 miles from Neptune (Jacksonville), Florida, to Rockwell Field in 21 hours and 19 minutes, landing on North Island at 5:34 p.m. a day after he left Jacksonville. Doolittle was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Sept. 5, 1922

WIKIMEDIA

CORONADO HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Mrs. Charles “Bunny” MacKenzie reopened her Tiny Tots nursery school at 411 Orange Ave., after an absence of two years during which the school was leased to Mrs. Dorothy Thomas. Originally opened in 1936, the school eventually became known as Miss Bunny’s School with Miss Bunny instructing young students until 1982. Sept. 8, 1949

celebrities coming from there — Chuck Norris, Dick Van Dyke — he always had pizza — Penny Marshall, Rob Reiner, Pearl Bailey, Charlton Heston.” Palumbo treated his customers as extended family, and the restaurant became a beloved staple of the community.

Marco’s closed in 1999, and the building became the Coronado Museum of History & Art. The legacy of Marco’s Italian Restaurant continues to live on in the fond memories of the Palumbo children and grandchildren as well as the thousands who experienced this taste of Italy in Coronado.

A sign atop Marco's Italian Restaurant on Orange Avenue in 1991 welcomes back troops who served in the Persian Gulf.

CORONADO HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Mrs. John S. McCain, 625 A Ave., widow of Vice Adm. McCain, accepted a full admiral’s commission posthumously by retired Fleet Adm. William F. Halsey, wartime Third Fleet commander, on the flight deck of USS Valley Forge, moored at North Island. Her son, Cmdr. John S. McCain Jr., 800 A Ave., also attended the ceremony honoring his father’s memory. Sept. 15, 1949

Coronado joined with San Diego in making Wednesday, Sept. 21, “Lindbergh Day,” in celebration of Charles Lindbergh and his historic flight. After a huge celebratory event at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, an elaborate banquet at the Hotel del Coronado was planned. The event was supposed to start at 6 p.m. but the guest of honor didn’t arrive until 7 p.m. Lindbergh was at a small private reception at the Star Park home of a prominent young Coronado man. Sept. 21, 1927

The Duchess of Windsor house was moved from its address at 1115 Flora Ave. to its new home at the Hotel Del Coronado where it was restored and converted into what is now the Windsor Cottage. The Duchess of Windsor lived in the cottage for a short time in the 1920s when she was married to Lt. Earl Spencer, the first commanding officer of North Island. The Coronado Historical Association received the house as a gift, then deeded the building to the Hotel del Coronado with a condition that the cottage’s architectural integrity remained intact. Sept. 21, 1989 WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The USS John C. Stennis, the first nuclear aircraft carrier, arrived at her new home at North Island. The ship was greeted by a small group of environmentalists at Harbor View Park on First Street protesting its arrival. Sept. 27, 1998

Seaside Sojourns

When the Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888, its seaside location attracted guests from all over the world. Victorian vacationers believed that ocean holidays restored body and soul, and 19th-century travelers prized seashore destinations.

Early visitors enjoyed various seaside pleasures, from riding burros on the beach to sailing to collecting seaweed. Few Victorians knew how to swim, so they were left to stroll along the ocean’s edge, picnic on the shore and sandcastle building, a term that came into widespread usage at the same time.

In 1890, a bathhouse was constructed that featured high-ceilings, two levels of changing rooms, windows and two swimming tanks with sloping cement bottoms, called plunges. The cold tank was kept at about 70 degrees and the hot tank was kept at about 84 degrees. San Diego newspapers reported variations in temperatures on a daily basis, and in 1892, praised the facilities: “Under a glass roof are the finest and most elegant saltwater swimming tanks in California, having large, sunny dressing rooms and every convenience, with constant streams of hot and cold saltwater flowing into the tanks.”

Immersing oneself in saltwater was considered “strengthening” for turn-of-the

B y G I N A P E T R O N E , H E R I T A G E MANAGER HOTEL DEL CORONADO

The beach will always be a special place.

HOTEL DEL CORONADO

century travelers, which explains why the bathhouse also featured hot and cold saltwater “tub baths” for 50 cents.

Those brave enough to enter the ocean found Coronado Beach well suited for surf bathing with its gentle slope, soft sand “free from stones and ragged shells,” small waves and no undertow. A float was moored 150 yards from the shore and a life rope was tethered to it, running to the shore to aid swimmers in returning to the beach.

In 1900, the hotel established Tent City on beach property just south of the resort. This provided modest tent and bungalow accommodations for the burgeoning middle class, where visitors could spend an afternoon (rental bathing suits were available) or an entire summer enjoying the sand and surf. Tent City, which touted itself as a family bathing place and one of the safest in the country, had a bath plunge for women and children who wished to learn how to swim before venturing into the ocean.

In 1913, the hotel set up a private school for the children of its long-term guests. Called the Beach School, it was housed in open-air tents and cottages on the beach and run by Mrs. Owers, a popular local teacher. Coronado children were also enrolled in the school, which featured an oceanside playground, Friday afternoon dances in the Ballroom and a yearly May pole ceremony. The beach was incorporated into the studies, and students often went down to the shore to draw relief maps in the sand.

Before the war years, it was impossible to walk on portions of Coronado Beach during high tide – there simply wasn’t any sand. It was World War II, though, that ultimately gave Coronado its expansive beach. After dredging the harbor to make way for the Navy’s large ships, the sand was deposited south of the hotel, which the tides eventually transported to Coronado.