Aerial photo of Coronado taken in 1928. The tent city can be seen on the Silver Strand, lower right of the photo. Coronado's Tent City was a large summertime campground established by John D. Spreckels in 1900. It was a self-operating city of several hundred tents and thatched roof cottages south of the Hotel del Coronado which attracted visitors from across the nation for decades until its closure in 1939 to make room for the highway.