NEW! Early History of Lake San Marcos Book is available for sale at the Community Association Office. It is 128 pages of photos and stories and Quail Call Articles. You won't be disappointed! It sells for $25 to members of the Lake San Marcos Community Association.
Lake San Marcos
The area of San Marcos was once part of a Spanish Land Grant, called "Los Vallecitos de San Marcos" or the "Little Valleys of Saint Mark". San Marcos Creek meandered through the area. In 1927 the Clemson and Wells families purchased the land and in 1946, a dam was built at the South end of the creek, creating a 40 acre lake used for irrigation. In 1962, Don, Bob, and Gordon Frazar (brothers) bought 1648 acres from the Clemson and Wells families and made plans to build a lakeside community in San Marcos. In August 1962 the San Diego County Planning Commission approved a tentative Lake San Marcos map. Citizens Development Corporation was the developer with Gordon Frazar serving as President, Don Frazar handling home sales, and Bob Frazar in charge of construction. Before coming to Lake San Marcos, the brothers had built about 6,000 homes in Riverside and San Bernardino. A master plan for the development was designed by a San Bernadino engineering firm, Campbell and Miller. Additionally architects Blurock and Ellerbrock of Corona Del Mar had been hired to design the community. The best ideas of both firms were consolidated into a master plan. Campbell and Miller won a state-wide competition in 1966 honoring the Lake San Marcos design as "the best planned community in California". In 1967, the National Home Builders Association Convention in Chicago awarded the Lake San Marcos design the title of "Best planned lakeside community in the nation". Over the years, the individual blocks of development within the Lake San Marcos have resulted in over 20 Homeowners Associations and nearly 2500 homes.
Quail became the symbol of Lake San Marcos when artist Frank Vecchio, of the advertising firm of Hogan and Vecchio in Riverside, visited the site seeking inspiration for the first brochure. Hundreds of quail flushed up from the fields, and Vecchio designed three quails, which are now familiar as the symbol of the lovely lakeside community. When the city of San Marcos incorporated in 1963, Lake San Marcos was located in the unincorporated area of San Diego County.
The area has as many as 347 sunny days a year, due in part to a stable high pressure system known as the "Pacific High" lying a few hundred miles West over the Pacific Ocean. This accounts for a range of about 20 degrees between the day´s high and the night´s low. The uninterrupted Pacific breezes provide nature´s air conditioning with temperatures seldom above 80 degrees. The Cerro de Las Posas Mountain on Lake property and the San Marcos Mountains to the North, with an eastern exit, create a wind tunnel preventing smog from settling in our valley. The few hot days a year are due to "Santa Ana" winds from the desert coming our way from the North.
Photo from Los Angeles Times Dec 6, 1964
