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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To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
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!
Enjoy one final collection of photographs taken during San Diego Comic-Con 2026!
This long, final walk through the Gaslamp and around the San Diego Convention Center was simply amazing.
Lots of people were still about, checking out the offsite activations that remained open on Sunday. Lots of cosplay still.
I got the impression many fans didn’t want Comic-Con to end. But, alas, it’s Sunday late afternoon as I type this. All good things must come to an end.
It’s Dr. Peepers!
At the Nickelodeon offsite, the slime dunk tank was still active!
Well, that does it for this year’s Comic-Con coverage!
Cool San Diego Sights will now return to my more usual blog posts… after a couple of days rest!
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If you’d like to view my full coverage of Comic-Con, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
One of the coolest offsite activations at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, particularly if you’re a Star Trek fan, celebrates Star Trek’s 60th anniversary. The mobile game Star Trek Fleet Command has assembled original uniforms and props from every live action television series of the science fiction franchise.
On this final day of SDCC 2026, I got in line early and enjoyed a visit!
Fans would love the displays, photo ops, a Holodeck virtual reality experience, and a claw machine with Star Trek prizes. I skipped the latter attractions and focused my camera on the many uniforms and props. If you missed experiencing this offsite, you might enjoy my photographs!
Starfleet Standard Duty Uniforms from Star Trek (The Original Series).U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A, Constitution-class Refit.Props from Star Trek (The Original Series).Starfleet Standard Duty Uniforms from Star Trek: The Next Generation.Data’s prosthetic makeup bust.Starfleet Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement worn by Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge.Original props from Star Trek: The Next Generation.Võx (Borg).Klingon Negh’Var-class warship.War College Mugato Mascot costume and Starfleet Standard Duty Uniforms from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.Bajoran Orb of the Emissary and Reliquary.Uniforms from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.Borg prosthetic makeup bust.Uniforms from Star Trek: Discovery.Props from Star Trek: Discovery.Starfleet Standard Duty Uniforms from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
It’s Saturday. It’s Comic-Con 2026. What does that mean?
That means Fifth Avenue in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has become the center of the cosplay universe!
Every character imaginable from popular culture comes to life before your eyes.
Some of the costumes are extraordinary. Many of the cosplayers have devoted a lot of time and effort preparing for San Diego Comic-Con.
Enjoy this collection of photographs taken late Saturday afternoon…
Knight on Fifth Avenue.Ghostbusters.Unusual musician!Tonto, Lone Ranger and Wyatt Earp.Wolverine Ultimate Warrior.Batman and Harley Quinn.Art the Clown.Blue Power Ranger.Bird Furry.Chainsaw Man.Princess Bride.Morpheus.Constantine.Limbus Company Dante.The Mask.Powdered Toast Man.Olaf.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Saturday is the craziest, wildest, most creatively exciting day every year during San Diego Comic-Con. 2026 is no exception!
Look at what you might encounter by simply walking around downtown San Diego.
The Gaslamp Quarter in particular is absolutely jam packed with people, engaged in cosplay, enjoying the experience, coming and going to the convention center, offsites, restaurants, hotels…
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
