The SDG&E Building: A Peek Inside

Ever wonder what the inside of San Diego Gas & Electric building on Camino Capistrano looks like inside? 

The utility currently leases it to a construction company, which uses it as a storage facility.

Southern California Edison started construction on the building in 1917 and finished in 1918, said Duane Cave, spokesman for SDG&E, which bought the property in 1928.

It initially housed a frequency changer, but it's been too small for the utility's needs since the last upgrade in the 1950s, he said. 

Throughout the years, it's been subject to a lot of vandalism, Cave said. The original windows are still there, fogged with chickenwire, but they've been broken and are now all boarded. 

Railroad tracks lead up to the northern entrance. Cave said heavy equipment would be sent via rail straight into the substation. There, a heavy-duty crane could lift and move it from its sliding rail on the ceiling whereever workers needed it. The crane remains to this day.

The offices were in the leg of the "T," Cave said. At one point, workers lived on cottages on the property. Those buildings have since been moved to Rios Street.

Because the building has no longer been used by SDG&E, Cave doesn't know the entire list of tenants. At one point, though, he does know a feed and tack store set up shop there.