The area that would become the city of Del Mar was discovered in 1885 by railroad contractor and engineer Theodore M. Loop. He and his wife, Ella, built a tent city on the beach and decided to call the area Del Mar, after the poem, The Fight On Paseo Del Mar and because of its beautiful beaches. It was in that same year that Loop met Colonel Jacob Tyler, who decided to build a town and purchased the land from its current owner, Enoch Talbert, officially founding the city of Del Mar.
The city grew and expanded under Tyler’s ownership, particularly with the building of the Casa Del Mar hotel. When the original hotel burned in a fire in 1889, townspeople rallied to raise the funds to build a new one. Due to economic hardship, it was not until 1910 that a new hotel could be built. The Hotel Del Mar became a gathering place for movie stars of the silent film era, bringing increased revenue, residents, and tourists to the city. With the development of both the Del Mar Race Track and the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the 1930’s, Del Mar’s reputation as a popular seaside resort town was further established.
In 1959, Del Mar was officially incorporated as a city and during the 1960’s, many new homes and housing developments were built. In the 1980’s civic activists spearheaded many city-wide improvements, including the development of several parks and recreation centers, as well as the expansion of the city’s historic district. Over the next few decades, the city continued to grow, and today, Del Mar is a picturesque ocean-front community, embracing both its historical past and its prosperous future.