The Spreckels name is big in San Diego history. A new book looks at the man behind the money

Longtime San Diegans likely have heard the name. It graces a historic theater downtown and is in the full title of the iconic Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.

The Spreckels surname has been a part of local lore since the late 1800s. The family once owned all of Coronado, including the Hotel Del Coronado, Belmont Park in Mission Beach and every single downtown lot from the ferry landing to Horton Plaza. And the ferry. John D. Spreckels renamed D Street as Broadway and brought the first koalas — on his own steamships — to the then-new San Diego Zoo.

In her new book, “Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels,” local author and historian Sandee Bonura explores the life of Spreckels’ father, the man behind the family wealth: patriarch Claus Spreckels. The man immigrated penniless to the U.S from Germany in the mid-1800s, then made his fortune in the sugar trade in California and Hawaii.

Claus Spreckels at one point was the richest man in California and one of the richest in the country, Bonura said. When he died in 1908, he left a fortune worth more than $850 million in today’s dollars.

Bonura shared highlights of her newest book during a presentation Saturday at the Rancho Bernardo History Museum. The title comes about four years after she penned “Empire Builder: John ...