DEL MAR — The title of the Del Mar Chamber has been relegated to the city’ s historical files and the organization is now the San Diego Coastal Chamber of Commerce.

In 1946, the chamber was chartered and became the official liaison between the county of San Diego and the growing village.

The chamber grew out of the San Dieguito Chamber of Commerce that was founded in 1925 with a limited mission. The area was mostly agriculture and there was no real effort to attract visitors. Except for the Del Mar Hotel, lodging facilities were limited. George’s on the Beach and the Beacon Inn in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and a couple of truck stops between Carlsbad and San Diego, served the motoring public.

This all changed after the first San Diego County Fair was held in 1936 and was followed by horse racing in 1937.

Nick Giordano, who was the operating partner of the Del Mar Drug Store for Roth & Sheffler of Los Angeles, had succeeded Harry Johnson and fully expected to be the charter president of the chamber because he had done all the legwork in getting it organized. However, Stu Green, who had owned the drug store since 1928 before selling to Roth & Sheffler, decided he wanted to be president and he managed to ace out Giordano. This caused Giordano to lose interest in the organization but he was still influential because board of directors meetings were held in the back room of the store.

The chamber was extremely active in the village. It sponsored a pre-County Fair Fiesta, presented the first Fairest of the Fair pageant won by Gloria O’ Rear of Del Mar, organized a Boy Scout troop, and maintained the only street light in the village at the corner of 15th Street and Stratford Court. It also succeeded in having a traffic signal installed on 15th Street and Highway 101 after there was a pedestrian fatality, and it was somewhat active in the campaign to incorporate the village because directors were split on the issue.

When fair Manager Roger Vitaich became president of the chamber in l982 he kept a campaign promise and changed the name of the County Fair to the Del Mar Fair. Vitaich defeated Sam Borgese after two tied ballots in a heated election finally winning a 8-6 decision. Borgese was critical of the fair as being insensitive to the community.