ESCONDIDO -- Hugh "Brick" Young, 80, can remember the days when High School Hill really had a high school, when downtown swarmed with soda and sweet shops, and when only one grocery store had shopping carts.

Using historical photos as props, Young marched about 10 people through a history lesson as he led a "Rediscovering Escondido" walking tour Saturday. Hosted by the Escondido History Center in conjunction with the Escondido Citizens Ecology Committee, the free regular tours give people a peek into the past.

Young, who moved to Escondido as a child in 1930, has led tours for two years. He can't escape the city's history -- it's part of who he is. When he talks about how Second Avenue used to be a beautiful tree-lined, residential corridor, the photograph he shows as evidence is of his childhood home.

When he describes how the large brown apartment complex at Second and Kalmia, which dates from 1912, has an unusual design, he knows what it looks like inside and out. His grandparents used to live there.

And, when he marches people up to the former "High School Hill" at Third and Ivy where the Rosewood Villa apartments now stand, he knows just what it like to ride down the hill in a cool car at the end of a school day, hoping that the police chief wasn't occupying his usual spot at the bottom.

Early on in his 1 1/2-hour tour, Young had a warning for participants.

"Let's go," he shouted as he started to dash across one intersection. "Hurry, hurry, hurry. The reason I'm moving out, is I'm long-winded, and I've got a lot to tell you."

He wasn't kidding.

At nearly every street corner, he had at least one story and a photograph. He nearly jogged as he quickly moved between stops. Some of his historical information was recent -- he spoke of the old Greyhound station that used to stand on Valley Parkway -- and some was long before his time. He pointed out the Palomar Medical Center complex, home to a 100-room hotel during Escondido's early days in the late 1800s.

Tour participant Kathy McClure said she liked the mention of where the old Hoover Cleaners business used to stand. McClure, who lived in Rancho Bernardo for 35 years before moving to Escondido a year ago, remembers taking items to the cleaners.

"They could clean anything, they were amazing," she said.

Her brother-in-law, George McClure, who has lived in Escondido since 1978, enjoyed Young's comments about the two gold mines that used be on the city's edges. Now a high school administrator, McClure recalls taking students near the long-closed mine site on Dead Horse Creek to try panning for gold.

"You can still get a little gold in the pan," he said.

The history center, which operates the collection of historical buildings within Grape Day Park, offers five different history tours in rotation. The next history tour, "Old Escondido East," is set for Feb. 24. It leaves from the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and Broadway at 11 a.m.

Two tours are offered the following month -- "Old Escondido West" on March 10 and "Downtown" on March 24. The start location and the start time are the same as the February tour.

The free walking tours have been offered since 1992. Tours generally last about 90 minutes, organizers report. Just show up, registration isn't required.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.