Company History

McCarthy Transfer & Storage, a San Diego based moving company, was established by Leo B. McCarthy on February 19, 1919 in La Mesa, Ca. Prior to this Leo was strictly in the horse and wagon freight business from the rail head in La Mesa, California to all points South, East and North in San Diego County. Upon the founding of McCarthy Transfer & Storage in 1919 Leo saw the need to specialize in household goods. The area was really growing at the time it was the, “The New Frontier”.

Leo ran and grew the San Diego moving company until his retirement in 1958 when his son Tom H. McCarthy took over the business. When Tom took over the reins of the company his first move was to secure a modern warehouse in the industrial area of La Mesa, California, on Commercial Street. During Tom’s ownership he devoted many hours of time and equipment to his church and local Veterans’ organizations in the area.

In 1978 Tom’s son, Tim, took over the company. Tim moved the company to a new and more modern 21,000 square foot warehouse in El Cajon, California, on Fayette St. This facility has automatic fire sprinklers and is military approved. The fleet has grown to meet any demand the San Diego moving public may have.

In early 2008, we started adding to our hauling fleet as Thomas McCarthy joined the family business. Over the past few years Thomas has taken over the operations side of the company as we have expanded our hauling fleet allowing us to provide quality door to door moving. As we grow, we will continue to update our technology and equipment to provide our San Diego moving customers the best service available. In January of 2019 McCarthy Transfer joined forces with National Van Lines as an Interstate Agent. In doing so providing our customers more diverse moving options ensuring a quality move from a company that has been around nearly as long as us. We have several of our drivers in Nationals hauling fleet moving customers around the United States.

On February 19th, 2019, we celebrated our 100th Anniversary as San Diego’s oldest family owned moving company.

We personally invite you to stop by and see our storage and warehouse facility to see how far we have come since our grandfather’s horse and wagon days.

The ever changing look of McCarthyTransfer.com through the years