Look what I happened upon this afternoon while walking through Balboa Park!
Some incredible chalk art has been created in the Plaza de Panama, right in front of the Timken Museum of Art!
The chalk art was created by @sidewalk_chalk_dad. It’s a colorful recreation of Albert Bierstadt’s 1864 oil painting Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall, which is displayed among other masterpieces inside the free museum.
How amazing is this?
The museum is closed today–a Tuesday–so I couldn’t ask about the chalk art. I suppose it was created over the weekend.
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Two of San Diego’s most beloved citizens are being remembered at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park: Jerry Coleman and Tony Gwynn, a pair of Padres legends.
The museum’s Inside|OUT exhibit behind glass in the atrium contains artifacts honoring the memory of two all-time San Diego baseball heroes.
Both Jerry Coleman and Tony Gwynn were a big part of my youth. They helped develop my own love for the San Diego Padres.
They were two amazing people, whose positive influences were greatly missed by all of San Diego when each passed.
I attended the memorial services of both. If you’d like to relive the services at Petco Park, where so much love was expressed, click here and here.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
The Hall of Nations building at Balboa Park’s International Cottages is in the process of being restored. The City of San Diego has repaired much of the water-damaged exterior of the historical building, and some painting is underway.
Last year I noted how sections of stucco had fallen off. I later learned that–thank goodness–the damage wasn’t as severe as it might have been.
The Hall of Nations building was constructed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Back then it was the Kansas State building and housed exhibits and events representing the state of Kansas.
It’s good to see the city taking care of San Diego’s crown jewel Balboa Park. It appears to me more work in various places around the park needs to be done!
Thank you!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
Volunteer members of the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County were working in Balboa Park’s Founder’s Plaza this morning, removing old overgrown vegetation so that new, beautiful plants can be introduced.
For many years they’ve maintained this small garden that surrounds statues of Balboa Park’s founders. Their efforts are part of Balboa Park’s Adopt-a-Plot program.
I learned the new plants will require less water than most, and will attract pollinators such as butterflies.
I can’t wait to see the finished garden!
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At the southeast edge of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park stands a building with a very interesting history. Beginning in 1908 as St. Joseph’s Rectory in downtown San Diego, it was moved to Old Town in 1940 where it became Old Town Convent.
Today, Historic Tours of America (Old Town Trolley Tours) operates a gift shop inside. The building contains one part of their Old Town Market, along with the adjacent Casa De Aguirre and Carriage House. The second floor is home to a Visitor Center operated by the Old Town Chamber of Commerce.
This website explains: Originally built as the Saint Joseph’s rectory at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Beech Street in downtown, the building was moved through the streets to Old Town San Diego in 1940. Once in Old Town San Diego, the building was a seminary, convent, community center, and, during World War II, it was a USO. The building was restored in 2003 by Historic Tours of America and is registered as San Diego Historical Site Number 323.
The photos I’ve included were taken at various times over recent years.
Visitors who walk through the front entrance will discover a display that tells The Story of The Old Town Convent, in the words of Sister Catherine Louise LaCoste in the early 1980s…
…a three-story edifice known today as the Convent of the Community of the Holy Spirit… The Convent soon became the permanent quarters for the first diocesan junior seminary, called St. Francis, when eight young men moved in on November 3, 1941… Plaster soon covered the wooden structure…
…During World War II, in 1942, a group of soldiers was quartered in the basement. They prepared meals for the anti-aircraft and searchlight batteries located in the area…
…the Religious of the Sacred Heart came to San Diego to open a College for Women, now known as the University of San Diego. The sisters were given the building to use as a rent-free convent that they called St. Madeleine Sophie Barat…
In front of the building is a sign that shows a timeline of Old Town’s history. It includes this:
Curious visitors might spy this interesting plaque on one wall, too…
This exhibit exposes the original redwood clapboard siding of the Convent when it was St. Joseph’s Rectory, built in 1908. The Craftsman-style structure also featured wood shingle siding on the upper stories. When the three-story building was moved to this site in 1940 it was surfaced with stucco and painted to match the exterior of the Immaculate Conception Church across the street.
One other plaque I’ve found…
Old Town Convent Preservation
The restoration and preservation of the Old Town Convent was made possible largely due to the efforts of Carmen and Joe Toigo, Old Town residents, who by their tireless actions and advocacy saved this building from destruction.
May 2003 Historic Tours of America, Inc.
The adjacent Casa de Aguirre, with its own unique history, contains a small, little-known museum that might interest you. You can find a blog post I published about it by clicking here.
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Most visitors to Balboa Park never see this historical building. It’s situated in the southwest corner of the park, in an area called Marston Point. People who drive to the south end of Balboa Drive will see the building sitting alone behind a fence.
There’s a reason the Fire Alarm Building sits safely in isolation on a bluff overlooking downtown. When it operated between 1928 and 1970, it was the hub where signals telegraphed from the city’s many fire boxes were received, and communications made to appropriate fire stations.
The Fire Alarm Building was built in 1927. It was designed in the Spanish Colonial style by architect Robert Snyder. Snyder often collaborated with his partner William Templeton Johnson, who a year earlier designed the San Diego Fine Arts Museum, near the center of Balboa Park.
In 1928, to equip the Fire Alarm Building, the City of San Diego purchased over $20,000 worth of fire alarm communications equipment from the Gamewell Company of Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts… There were three rows of tape-punching telegraph registers arranged on marble-topped tables. They were linked to the city’s fire alarm and police alarm boxes… A coded signal locating the particular alarm box was punched onto the register’s tape readout. The operator then read the coded message and set up the location of the alarm box on a master transmitter and sent a signal to all of the fire department’s fire engine stations throughout the city, ringing bells and turning on station lights. When selective transmissions were later installed, only those stations within the area of the fire would receive the alarm. This was affectionately known as the “silent night” program by grateful firefighters.
Today, the Fire Alarm Building is home to San Diego’s Park & Recreation Department Administrative Services section. Peer through the fence and you’ll see the handsome Spanish Colonial inspired entrance and a beautiful little garden area.
I took these photographs during many walks through Marston Point. They’ve been sitting in a computer folder. Time to share them!
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About a month ago, I discovered a very beautiful garden in front of the Solana Beach Post Office. It was obvious that people have carefully tended the green space that includes paths for strolling and public art.
Those people, I’ve learned, are the volunteer SeaWeeders of the Solana Beach Garden Club. Their mission is to promote the sustainable beautification of the City of Solana Beach through social interaction, garden education, and home and civic enrichment.
Here’s a webpage that describes the Solana Beach Post Office garden rejuvenation project. (Other community projects by the SeaWeeders, too!)
The colorful sculpture you see in my photos is by artist Christi Beniston. It was originally created for the El Paseo Invitational Sculpture Exhibit “Topiaries” in Palm Desert. For a while it had been located on North Cedros Avenue.
You can join the SeaWeeders to help keep Solana Beach green and beautiful! Learn more about this opportunity here.
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I had intended to rest a day or two after San Diego Comic-Con, but I became restless this morning. Still in the Comic-Con mood, I wanted to check out some finished street art painted during the Meeting of Styles event held the week before Comic-Con 2026.
On July 16th I walked along Commercial Street east of downtown San Diego and saw how international graffiti artists were painting several approved walls with cool pop culture images.
Three of the walls in particular contain characters from Marvel’s X-Men, Dragon Ball, and Transformers.
If you want to see more from these murals, and compare the finished art that I’m sharing today, you can find my previous photographs by clicking here.
First photos are of the X-Men wall….
Cyclops street art.Cable and Wolverine street art.Deadpool street art.
Next, photos from the Dragon Ball wall…
Goku and Bulma street art.Shenron street art.Zeno, the Omni-King street art.King Kai street art.Vegeta street art.
Finally, the Transformers wall…
Arcee street art.Starscream street art.Bumblebee street art.Optimus Prime street art.Megatron street art.
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If you’d like to view my full coverage of Comic-Con (and related stuff), which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
