Rainbow’s Lost Roads

This map of Rainbow still includes Welty Street and a portion of Seventh Street.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Dec. 7, 2011, to vacate a road easement in Rainbow nearly 110 years after their predecessors created Welty Street on the map. The termination of the easement thus guaranteed the addition of Welty Street to Rainbow’s lost roads.

The lost roads of Rainbow, or those which were recorded on the original subdivision map but never built, include Third Street, Fourth Street, Sixth Street and Seventh Street – which explains why Rainbow has First Street, Second Street, Fifth Street and Eighth Street but no numbered streets in between them.

“Some of those roads just aren’t there,” Tom Harrington, who at the time handled easement records for the county’s Department of General Services, said. “They just map the area.”

If Harrington’s name sounds familiar, it might be because he was also the secretary of the Fallbrook Community Planning Group and lives in the Morro Hills area on the other side of greater Fallbrook.

The county records of maps allow attorneys and civil engineers to have accurate records of easements and other real property data.

“A lot of what we do have is recordation,” Harrington said. “We’re looking at land rights issues regularly.”

If the street was dedicated as a private road, the county isn’t involved in terms of easement recordation. The county isn’t necessarily involved once a road is dedicated for public purposes.

“Even a publicly dedicated road that’s not publicly maintained, it’s still private interests that control the day,” Harrington said. “If they’re not county-maintained, those are private roads.”

Map 880 subdivided Rainbow into 55 lots. The map included eight east-west streets, numbered First Street through Eighth Street, and six north-south streets. Huffstatler Street still exists today. One of the north-south streets was given three different names: it was called Camino Rainbow south of Eighth Street, Main Street from Eighth Street to Mission Road and Chica Road north of Mission Road. Mission Road ran in a northeasterly direction from east of Main Street. The other four north-south streets were Welty Street, Larsen Street, Rulp Street and Machado Street. The county board of supervisors approved the map Feb. 6, 1902, and John Griffin filed the map with the county Recorder’s office the following morning.

“That was going to be the road network to provide access to all these parcels,” Harrington said.

Larsen Street, Rulp Street and Machado Street had previously been vacated. Welty Street was not vacated until nearly 110 years after the map had been recorded.

“That was a mistake. They just overlooked it,” Bill Hitt, who has lived in Rainbow since 1946, said.

Welty Street on the map ran from Fifth Street to Seventh Street just west of what is now the Vallecitos School District facilities. Larson Street would have been between Welty Street and Main Street and would have connected Third Street and Seventh Street. Rulp Street would have been the road just east of Main Street and would have been bordered by Fifth Street and Seventh Street. Machado Road was mapped as the street just east of Rulp Street

by Joe Naiman

Map of West Fallbrook in 1885.

and would have been from Fifth Street to Eighth Street.

Map 567, which subdivided “West Fallbrook,” was recorded in 1887. The Original map of Rainbow, 1902. Courtesy photosstreets of Map 567 were actually built, although the north-south Hill Avenue and the east-west Juniper Street eventually became Mission Road while Indiana Avenue was subsequently renamed Wisconsin Avenue. Another street well-traveled today which might not be recognized was Main Avenue; residents tend to refer to the road as “Main Street” although it was recorded as Main Avenue and thus still carries that official name. The map also recorded Vine Avenue for what is commonly referred to as “Vine Street.” The northsouth streets of Summit Avenue, Pasadena Avenue, Pico Avenue, Orange Avenue and Olive Avenue are still on today’s maps as are the east-west roads Fallbrook Street, College Street, Elder Street, Fig Street, Alvarado Street, Hawthorn Street, Ivy Street, Dougherty Street and Porter Street.

“It was a very simplistic layout, but that’s what Downtown Fallbrook looks like,” Harrington said.

Rainbow’s streets recorded in 1902 have a width of 60 feet.

“Sixty was wide for those days,” Harrington said.

Map 567 made Main Avenue 50 feet wide.

“You look at Downtown Fallbrook and that’s a narrow main street there. You look at Rainbow and that’s a large corridor,” Harrington said.

Twelve lots in Map 880, specifically the eight on Larsen Street and the four on Rulp Street, were 300 feet by 300 feet. Map 880 included 35 lots measuring approximately 660 feet by 660 feet. Four lots were 1,320 feet by 1,320 feet.

Four other lots had dimensions of 1,320 feet by 1,320 feet minus the easements for Mission Road, which was off Chica Road in a northeast-southwest direction, and an unnamed northeastsouthwest county road off Mission Road.

“It was all Mission Road,” Harrington said. “Mission Road came across and out alongside where the old 395 was.”

Harrington’s family has lived in North County since they moved to San Marcos in 1950.

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