Looking for the city of Lakeside was an impossible task.  I drove Lakeside Road for a long distance and couldn't find the city. Turned around and tried again.  Still no city.
  I soon found out why: Lakeside doesn't exist.
  There is a place called Lakeside, but no city, I had expected a gun-toting mayor and perhaps a city council that would tie their horses up at the meeting hall. No such reality.
  I guess the people of Lakeside deal with politics and politicians differently than some of the rest of the East County communities.  They don't allow politicians to get a foothold by establishing any kind of city hood.  Should Lakeside ever become a city in the formal sense of the word, though, I bet the mayor is going to be plain-spoken and from pretty hardy stock.  May not strap on a sidearm, but I'll bet she/he will probably have to know how to ride a horse.
  I must admit that when I was told to hit the road and do a piece on East County, Lakeside was the place I knew the least about.  The previous paragraph should have hinted at that.  I've been in Lakeside perhaps 10 times in my life.  I've driven through or past it a number of times and I have a couple of friends who live there.  But I never really went to Lakeside or thought I'd ever write anything about Lakeside.

  Now, I'm faced with matching my limited images of Lakeside with the reality of Lakeside.  Only one way to do that.
  Lakeside's center city is on Maine Avenue.  I know that because I went into the pharmacy located on a corner there and a nice clerk told me so.  She even directed me to the building that houses the Historical Society of Lakeside.  Sizing me up, she felt
it necessary to draw a map for the block and a half journey to it.  Smart lady.
  Inside the church housing the Historical Society, I was greeted by Shirley Anderson.  Shirley offered me the "two-bit" tour of the building.  I thanked her and told her that's all my editor budgeted for these excursions.
  One of the first things Shirley wanted to clear-up was the misconception about plumbing in lakeside.  She pointed to two open doors where I could clearly see toilets in each room.  Shirley informed me that there was, indeed, indoor plumbing in this building as there was in most of Lakeside.  So much for any out-house imagery I had.
  Shirley introduced me to Gertrude Davis, head of the society, and toured me through the old building.  There was the 100-year-old organ, one of two in the whole country (yes, country) and beautiful quilts that Lakesiders craft for fund raising events.

  She offered to sell me an organ (smaller than the other

one, but older) and she even let me ring the church bell.  I don't know if that's a common practice in lakeside, but it was fun and it sure was loud.  Probably alerted everyone in to run that some non-Lakesidian was in their midst.
  As I was leaving, Shirley slipped me an application to join the Lakeside Historical Society.  Said I didn't need to be a resident either.  What a saleslady.

  We recently received additional information about our Olde Community Church from a member, Kathy Flanigan.  She is the historian who did the research on our old buildings in the historic district.  She created the "Historical Survey" which is the official document for the County. Here is the info she sent:
· San Diego Sun Newspaper, 1-8-1896 - New Churches.  "Articles of the First Presbyterian church of Lakeside were filed yesterday, the trustees named being L. Y. Hoover, L.C. Crowell and C. Calberteau."
· San Diego Union, 1-15-1896  -  "The First Presbyterian Church of Lakeside, recently incorporated, has awarded the contract for the erection of a new church building to cost in the neighborhood of $1,500."