07/11/2024
The year is 1966…
San Antonio Shores – is a vision for a membership club in a private community in Baja! Baja is Booming… with a brand-new ocean view highway –
the Tijuana/Ensenada Toll Road… Then came the promotion of the very first
Oceanfront development in Baja California for Americans wanting to retire in Mexico – at an
affordable price! Just 20 minutes from the International border.
It offered a new way of living in Mexico…
A place to retire and live happily ever after. San Antonio Shores was envisioned as a three-by-five-mile piece of paradise. Along the coast of Baja California with breathtaking sunsets. The private development sounded amazing… It was to include a small boat pier, an eighteen-hole golf course, a horse-riding club, its own sewage treatment plant, and as many as 8000 homes.
It all sounded great if you wanted to retire overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in a private community at an affordable price – and since the mastermind of the development was American – someone charismatic with “dashing appearance” (as it went on record) he had made a name for himself in U.S. politics and in land development… with a lot of experience up his sleeve – He built, and people came.
The mastermind of San Antonio Shores was known for developing resort sites and travel clubs, some controversial for their pricing and tactics, others highly successful, with thousands of members. He was one of the early time-share developers to pioneer multiple-destination travel clubs.
He was Donald W. Eastvold, Sr.- From 1953 – 1957, he was Washington state’s attorney general.
At the time San Antonio Shores was developed, Eastvold was married to Ginny Simms, one of the most famous singers in the “big band” era. She recorded for several major record companies and co-starred as a singer and actress in over 25 movies.
99-year leases were sold… for the use and enjoyment of the land...but as the story goesa lot of the vision stayed as a dream... the golf course was built but the land sold to another developer... the marina never happenedbut we still havethose breathtaking sunsets and the proximity to the U.S. border...
*for the complete article please visit SanAntonioDelMar.org.
