Photo: Bernard Gagnon (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walk south through the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego, the New Town that Alonzo Horton bought in 1867. It begins at Horton Plaza Park, with Irving Gill's Broadway Fountain of 1910, and the U.S. Grant Hotel, opened in 1910 by the president's son, then passes the Balboa Theatre and Heller's Corner, where the free speech fight of 1912 turned violent. Fifth Avenue's commercial blocks follow: the Louis Bank of Commerce of 1888, the Marston and Keating buildings, Old City Hall, the Yuma and Backesto buildings and the shared lodge hall of the Masons and Odd Fellows. In the old Stingaree, the district of saloons, gambling halls and brothels raided in November 1912, stand the prefabricated Davis-Horton House shipped round Cape Horn in 1850, the reconstructed Horton Grand Hotel, and the Chinese benevolent associations and the Chinese Historical Museum of San Diego's first Chinatown. It ends under the archway sign over Fifth Avenue at L Street, put up in 1990 after the district's long decline and rescue.
19 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 78 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 29 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Horton Plaza Park, U.S. Grant Hotel, Balboa Theatre, Heller's Corner Free Speech Site, Louis Bank of Commerce, Marston Building.
Keating Building, Ingle Building, Old City Hall, Yuma Building, Backesto Building, I.O.O.F. Building, The Stingaree.
Davis-Horton House, Horton Grand Hotel, Ying On Merchants and Labor Benevolent Association, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, Gaslamp Quarter archway sign.
The public plaza of 1870 that Alonzo Horton deeded to the city, with Irving Gill's Broadway Fountain for the People of 1910.
The center of Soapbox Row, where a 1912 ban on street speaking led to mass arrests and vigilante violence.
The granite-fronted bank of 1888, later an oyster bar and a hotel, with three balconies where four were planned.
The old district of saloons, gambling halls and brothels south of Market Street, where 138 women were arrested in November 1912.
A prefabricated saltbox house shipped from Maine round Cape Horn in 1850 for William Heath Davis's New Town, later a county hospital.
The building on Third Avenue that has been associated with San Diego's Chinese community since 1911, with a red balcony and green frames.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 19 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 19 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in San Diego — the Gaslamp Quarter and New Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
19 narration points, including Horton Plaza Park, U.S. Grant Hotel, Louis Bank of Commerce, Keating Building and Old City Hall. That is about 27 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 19 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.