Why Rose Tattoo? Aside from the lyrics of a Dropkick Murphy’s song, the name for Rose Tattoo is derived from the deeply rooted history of Point Loma. Located next to Shelter Island, the small neighborhood of Roseville is the oldest settled part of Point Loma. First developed by San Diego pioneer Louis Rose, Rose bought the area in 1866.

Louis Rose was a German Jewish immigrant and San Diego's first identifiable Jewish resident. He came to San Diego in 1850, via New Orleans, Louisiana and Texas. Arriving just as California became a state in 1850, he was a member of the first grand jury and first County Board of Supervisors. In 1866 Rose bought land and laid out a town he called "Roseville" adjacent to San Diego Bay on the Point Loma peninsula. He laid out streets and built a wharf. He thought it would be a future city, and for a time it was a separate city competing with San Diego's New Town (now Downtown San Diego) across the bay.

Roseville was laid out in grid fashion, with all streets being 75 feet wide except Main Street measuring 100 feet wide. Main Street eventually became Rosecrans Street. Incidentally, there is no name connection to Louis Rose; the street was named for Civil War general and California Congressman William S. Rosecrans after his death in 1898.

Eventually, many Portuguese fishermen and fishing boat owners settled in the area, and it is still the focus of San Diego's large Portuguese community. Saint Agnes Catholic Church holds services in Portuguese twice a month and hosts the annual Festa do Espírito Santo (Feast of the Holy Spirit), a religious festival which has been staged every year since 1910 and is San Diego's oldest ethnic tradition. With the East Coast demand for canned albacore, this fostered new growth in the tuna industry of Southern California. Five new canneries opened from 1911-1912. As a result, the fishing industry in Southern California grew rapidly, particularly in the ports of San Pedro, Long Beach, Wilmington, and San Diego. In fact, San Diego’s first cannery, the Pacific Tuna Canning Company, became the second operational tuna cannery in Southern California. Some people refer to the area as “Tunaville” because of its association with the tuna-fishing fleet.

Now, a plaque at the corner of Rosecrans Street and Avenida de Portugal (which was the intersection of First and Main streets when Roseville was an independent city) recognizes the establishment of Roseville in 1869.

the history of roseville

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