Kyle Whissel meets up with the president of the Santee Historical Society Alan Thompson to talk about one of the oldest buildings in Santee, The Edgemoor Barn. A building that has quite literally stood against the tests of time. To learn more about the Santee Historical Society, visit them at https://santeehistoricalsociety.org/

Video Transcript

Today on Everything East County, we are at the Edgemoor Barn, which is the current home to Santee Historical Society. We're going to learn a little more about Santee's history. Let's get to it. Alan.

Yeah.

We are here at the Edgemoor Barn in Santee. This is something that I know a lot of people drive by all the time, but nobody really knows anything about it.

what it is or why it's here. So, your job today is to tell us a little more about it.

Okay. Well, the Edgemoor Barn was built in 1913. It is probably the oldest structure remaining in Santee, except, with the Padre, you know, with the dam down here, but that's really something else.

Alright.

But, this is the last remaining vestige of the Dupree Farm that set up the Edgemoor Farm in 1913.

[Kyle] Okay

Had a working dairy farm. The county took it over in '23, 1923. Turned it into a poor farm and also a geriatric hospital. And then later in the '40s, it became a full time geriatric hospital, remained in operation 'til 2008.

[Kyle] Wow.When they built the new facility across the river, and at that point, everything else was torn down. And this is the only thing that remains on this piece of property that used to be all hospital grounds.

So, when somebody does come inside, what are they going to see?

They're going to see a lot of things that have been collected over the years. Some of it may have some reference to life in Santee in the past, some of it may not have any, you know, particular thing, but they are interesting to look at.

Alright.

We, for example, there's an area that we have tools and things, that I'm trying to keep the tools in there that people would have seen in the '20s and in the '30s, and what they would be working with on a regular everyday basis.

And I understand where we're at now there use to be some polo fields surrounding this, so tell me about that.

Well, there was a polo barn off to the north, and was destroyed in the flood of 1916. Now, are you familiar with the flood of 1916?

Yeah, I mean, it feels like it was just yesterday.

Well, I'm trying to think of the fella's name. He was known as The Rainmaker.

[Kyle] All right.

I think it was Hayfield, and the city of San Diego hired him to fill Lake Morena. Well, they filled Lake Morena several times over, and had basically every bridge in Santee County washed up.

[Kyle] Wow.

So, consequently could ruin a flood plain, everything here was affected, except here. And one of the things about the barn, is that it has concrete walls up there about 30 feet. And everything else above it is all redwood. So, the combination made it survive.

[Kyle] That's why this building is still intact!

That's why it's still here. There used to be, back in the heyday, a community garden right next to this. And I think what happened was, when the hospital went away so did the community garden. But, we have a different kind of garden we're trying to bring in items that are, that normally occur in Southern California, plants and trees and so forth, and we have a guide to kind of show you how to go around identifying the different trees and so forth.

And that's your episode of Food for Thought for the day. Hopefully you guys learned some cool stuff about the history here in Santee, like I did. If you guys want to come learn a little more, come check out the Santee Historical Society. These guys are awesome, tons of cool information, and it's always fun to learn about the history of where you live. And if you guys enjoyed the episode, we'd love for you guys to like it, comment on it, share it so more people can learn about all the cool stuff going on here in East County. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Everything East County.

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