Saving the Past for the Future: An Interview with Imperial Beach Historian Freda Adams

Colored glassware outlines the rooms in Freda Adam's home, occupying space above the fireplace, on the windowsill and atop the Venetian blinds. Pictures of family, some recent, some taken before World War II, are on-display in the living room.

Behind the house, rows of flowers, dry gardens and an orange tree surround a well kept cement patio. 

Overseeing it all is a small lively woman, whose 93 years bear witness to much more than good housekeeping and gardening. 

“I collect more than just glassware,” Freda said motioning around the living room. “I like to keep the cards my kids and grandkids send me through the year. And of course there’s the history.”

 To this day, Adam's written account of the city's history published in the 1970s remains one of the only comprehensive documents to tell the story of Imperial Beach.

On her shirt, she wears a simple black and gold name tag: Freda Adams, city of Imperial Beach Official Historian, and she is a living encyclopedia of all things IB.

“The mayor named me the official historian of Imperial Beach in 2006. I’ve got the pin to prove it," she said.

Born in 1918 in northern Alabama, Freda moved west in 1942, coming with her husband, a Navy sailor, out to San Diego. 

During her husband’s deployment (at that time, when a sailor went to sea, family had to move out of on-base housing, she said), Freda and her family moved out to a growing Imperial Beach, where they bought property. With the exception of a short stint in Great Lakes, Illinois in 1954, Freda has lived in Imperial Beach ever since.  

The city of Imperial Beach was established in 1956.

Her interest in compiling history began during visits with family, where elder members would sit and tell stories of other family members and their exploits. Interested in hearing more stories of the past, Freda began researching and compiling an exhaustive genealogy for her family, resulting in a 518-page document tracing her lineage. A cousin who also worked on their family’s genealogy found them to be first cousins with Queen Elizabeth… 41 times removed.  

Following her move to Imperial Beach, she was introduced to a woman named Loraine Evans, the town’s welcome woman and a writer for the Border Press, a newspaper at the time. Freda recounts saving clippings from the Border Press mentioning her own family, a topic Loraine Evans often wrote on for various reasons. As Freda became involved with the local PTA, she began to save news clippings pertinent to events beyond her immediate family, a practice that would begin her road to becoming Imperial Beach’s official historian.

In 1975, while working with the Chula Vista Historical Society, Freda was encouraged to begin writing a book documenting Imperial Beach’s history. Following a year of compilation from which she drew from her own clippings, library records and saved clippings and photos from various other individuals, a volume simply titled “History of Imperial Beach” was finished a year later. In 2006, “A Pictoral History of Imperial Beach” was released, with parts of the book’s contents being contributed by Freda.

Both can still be found in the Imperial Beach library. 

In Freda's opinion, Imperial Beach’s defining moments centered around instances of creation and destruction. 

Sewers were first introduced to Imperial Beach in 1950, an important addition as it encouraged business growth in the area. 

The opening of the public library in the early 1960s was another landmark step in establishing Imperial Beach as a real city. 

Floods in 1916 wiped out the railroads criss-crossing IB and Chula Vista areas, while floods in 1953 destroyed the soon to be city boardwalk, lifeguard tower and a ferry terminal linking Imperial Beach with downtown San Diego.  

In many ways this isolation from the rest of San Diego due to flooding helped develop Imperial Beach’s identity as it’s own city, within but still distinct from San Diego proper, Adams said.

The city has been lively, for better or worse, as far back as Freda can trace. She recalls beach festivals with Hollywood stars and beauty pageants, where the prize for the lucky girl was a trip to Hollywood and a screen test, as well as “Historic Days” where the town was converted into an 1800s version of itself, complete with period dress and a mock train robbery. 

In the past IB has also been known to count itself as home to biker gangs like the Hells Angels, Mongrols and Border Bandits, white supremacists, and more recently meth labs. 

When questioned about these less desirable elements, Freda does not deny their existence, but asserts that she rarely saw or ran into any of the trouble known to have plagued 1st Street, which became Seacoast Drive, and offers a simple answer to the question “Why did they choose IB?”

"Because it was there, and they could,” she said.

 An eyewitness to Imperial Beach’s growth and evolution from its muddy beginnings to the city it is today, Freda speaks with authority when she compares IB’s past state to its current. 

The most severe change in her opinion? 

“I used to climb to the top of my patio, and look out all over. I could see to the mountains, to the border and even to the ocean from my house. Now with all the multi-levels and trees and banners, you can’t see anything.”

Freda’s involvement in the community goes well beyond cutting newspaper clippings and researching. She has remained active, even into her nineties, in community events and organizations. 

In 1947 she was the secretary treasurer of the Imperial Beach Civic Group, and in 1948 was the president of IB’s Garden Club. She was constantly involved in the PTA, holding office in three different PTA systems (Oneata, Emory, Mar Vista) and was also involved with the girl scouts during her daughter’s time with the organization. 

In 1950 she helped take Imperial Beach’s census. She has served on the Election Board, and in 1966 she joined Imperial Beach’s Women’s Club, a membership she still holds today. 

Harkening back to her days as a Navy wife, she holds a lifetime membership in the VFW Auxiliary, as well as membership in the Fleet Reserve Auxiliary, and every year donating the dollar equivalent of her age on her birthday. 

Thanks to her husband’s involvement with the Masons, she attends the monthly meetings of the Mecca Club, and thanks to her former government employ, she holds membership with the National Association of Retired Federal Employees. She makes special note, however, that before she was involved in any of these groups, she was a member of the Church of Christ on 10th Street, and she intends to hold onto that membership long after others expire.

Though excellent at her craft, it is unfortunately unclear as to what, if any, legacy will remain when Freda has finished her historical work. Unlike Chula Vista, Imperial Beach does not have a historical society, which sadly may mean Freda’s compilation of historical documents and photos, and the wealth of knowledge she still possesses in her mind may be lost. 

When asked why the city doesn’t have a historical society, she answered, her voice seemed a mix of frustration and disappointment, 

“We don’t have one because no one’s ever started one. There isn’t much more to it than that.”

While we remember our nation’s birth and history, it’s important to recognize what our nation consists of—towns and cities, villages and suburbs, each with its own rich history and culture, and few as unique as Imperial Beach. 

Freda Adams is a guardian of the city's history, which in a small part makes her a guardian of America’s history. With any luck, Freda’s diligent and committed research will inspire a new historian to take her torch and carry it into our young century, preserving our city’s history for all who may follow us.