Gentleman in period attire tells visitors at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park about the history of the Mason Street School.
The Mason Street School was San Diego’s very first schoolhouse. It was built in 1865. In 2015, 150 years later, it’s one of the most interesting sights in Old Town San Diego Historic State Park.
The one room schoolhouse museum isn’t always open to the public. So whenever I walk through Old Town, I eagerly wander past to see if the front door is swung wide. If it is, I amble inside and look about, trying to absorb what life was like in the early days of San Diego.
I remember how the Mason Street School used to contain numerous desks. But they’ve been replaced by plain benches, to more accurately portray where a small number of students from Spanish, American and other diverse backgrounds, grade one to eight, sat together and learned how to read, write and do arithmetic.
Back in the early years of San Diego, school was held twelve months a year. Hours were 9 to 4, but many students would skip school to watch bull fights, fiestas and other exciting town doings. Many children were held out of school by their parents to help on a ranch or farm, or to work in a family store.
San Diego in 1865 was a small, isolated, somewhat ramshackle town. Mary Chase Walker, Mason Street School’s first teacher, wrote when she arrived in San Diego by steamship: “I arrived in the bay of San Diego on the morning of July 5, 1865. It was a most desolate looking landscape. The hills were brown and barren; not a tree or green thing was to be seen. Of all the dilapidated, miserable looking places I had ever seen, this was the worst. The buildings were nearly all of adobe, one story in height, with no chimneys. Some of the roofs were covered with tile and some with earth…”
Mary Chase Walker originally traveled from Massachusetts to California, in search of greater opportunity. While in San Francisco, she learned of a teaching opening in San Diego. After less than a year at the Mason Street School, however, she became embroiled in a local controversy. One day she made a kind gesture to a lady who was part African-American, but many early San Diegans had arrived from the Confederate South and voiced their disapproval. A number of students were removed from the small school in anger. To allow the scandal to pass over, Mary quit teaching and married the president of the school board, early San Diego settler and prominent merchant Ephraim Morse.
It’s hard in modern times to imagine the life and culture of San Diego long ago. But one can get a flavor of that fascinating history by stepping inside the old Mason Street School.
The Mason Street School was built in 1865, to provide education for the children of a sparsely populated San Diego.The first schoolhouse in San Diego County, the Mason Street School stands in historic Old Town.
The nearby plaque reads:
MASON STREET SCHOOL
FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOLHOUSE IN THIS COUNTY.
ERECTED AT THIS SITE IN 1865 AND KNOWN AS
“MASON STREET SCHOOL – – DISTRICT NO. 1”
WHEN SAN DIEGO COUNTY COVERED AN AREA
LARGER THAN THREE NEW ENGLAND STATES.
RESTORED BY POPULAR SUBSCRIPTION IN 1955.
STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 538
MARKER PLACED BY SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS AND THE HISTORICAL MARKERS COMMITTEE
ERECTED 1955
The Mason Street School museum is occasionally open to the public. If you’re lucky and it is, make sure to step inside!Years ago, the museum contained individual student desks. But these benches are a more faithful representation of actual history. Fancy desks were rare in this remote outpost of civilization!Children attending the Mason Street School used slates and chalk, as paper was also scarce and expensive. A wood stove provided heat.Some old Primers and Readers on a wooden table. A water bucket and dipper were used for drink.A ball, broom and doll.Public School Teacher’s State Certificate from the mid 19th century. San Diego’s first teacher was Mary Chase Walker.Old map of California from an era when many immigrants arrived by ship.Rock used as ballast in a ship that sailed from San Diego to Boston. Stones gathered on Ballast Point in Point Loma paved many of Boston’s cobblestone streets, 3000 miles away!Photographic portrait of President Abraham Lincoln on a primitive wall. Mason Street School was San Diego’s first schoolhouse, built in 1865 at the end of the Civil War.Water for washing and drinking was brought in from a well near the schoolhouse.The old well in the schoolhouse yard, beside a clump of prickly pear.The Mason Street School provides visitors to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park a fascinating look at our city’s very unique past.
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Glowing orange clouds at day’s end, and the California Tower in silhouette. Photo taken from Plaza de Panama in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
Days are rapidly becoming shorter. My evening walks after work have magically changed. Bright sunshine has become twilight. Clouds glow like embers as darkness descends.
Here are two photographs I took this evening during a short stroll through the heart of Balboa Park.
A dramatic end to an October day. Photo of iconic California Tower in San Diego’s Balboa Park as night falls.
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Sunrise in downtown San Diego. Photo taken from Eighth Avenue and A Street.
Early yesterday morning I walked down Eighth Avenue, from the top of Cortez Hill to Petco Park. Here are a few random, interesting photos…
Blue Sky apartment tower under construction in downtown San Diego.Cool street art visible from Eighth Avenue, south of Broadway.Early morning activity in front of Lucky D’s Hostel.Some faded utility box artwork on a sidewalk in San Diego’s East Village.A boy jumps rope on one October morning in a downtown San Diego parking lot.Birds in a row atop a street lamp. Bright clouds as day begins.Surveyors have begun their work early in a parking lot beside Market Street. Another utility box with colorful street art.The recently completed Sempra building, just north of Petco Park, reflects clouds and blue sky in the morning.Worker inside old brick building that is being renovated. Cool posters in windows advertise Underground Elephant.
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Chargers football players helping to raise money for kids today included Sean Lissemore, nose tackle, and Tyreek Burwell, tackle. Everyone was having a great time!
Today was Union-Tribune Kids’ News Day in San Diego! I can’t believe this is the third year I’ve blogged about the special day. Time flies!
Every October, smiling Chargers football players and cheerleaders, kids and volunteers station themselves at busy intersections around San Diego. Waving at folks in cars, they hold up special edition newspapers, printed just for this day, which motorists eagerly purchase. The proceeds go to help our local Rady Children’s Hospital.
In the morning I happen to walk through one of the key intersections while heading to work, so I had to take a few photos. This year I’d like to say thank you to the San Diego Chargers, Union Tribune and all the volunteers who make this possible. Over many years, millions of dollars have been raised by Kids’ News Day for Rady Children’s Hospital, helping to save thousands of young lives.
Do you want to donate? There’s no better cause. I urge you to click here!
A generous motorist at a Mission Valley intersection donates money for a special edition newspaper containing articles about kids, written by kids!Two cool volunteers raise money for Rady Children’s Hospital by selling special newspapers during Union-Tribune Kids’ News Day in San Diego.
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Molten bronze is poured in the foundry of the USS Ajax. Historical photograph of the Navy Bicentennial Commemorative Plaque being created. Photo credit: United States Navy.
A few days ago I received new information about an important bronze plaque, which was created in 1975 to commemorate the United States Navy’s 200 year anniversary. The historic Navy Bicentennial Commemorative Plaque stands today on San Diego’s Embarcadero, on the Greatest Generation Walk next to the USS Midway Museum. Thousands of people breeze past it every day.
People pass the Navy Bicentennial Commemorative Plaque, displayed on the Greatest Generation Walk near the USS Midway Museum. Photo taken October 17, 2015.Photo of Navy 200 year commemoration plaque courtesy the Port of San Diego.
When I first saw the old plaque, I could find absolutely nothing about it on the internet. So I originally posted this blog. As new information trickled in–sometimes out of the blue–I posted this and this.
I was recently contacted by one of the plaque’s creators. He has provided detailed information about its history, including three amazing photographs and nine scans of a typed News Release from 40 years ago. The text of the News Release does not appear online, so I carefully transcribed the words. That way a very important bit of San Diego and Navy history won’t be lost.
(I tried to transcribe exactly, including possible misspellings. I’m not certain about the spelling of some names in the photo captions.)
If you know more about this plaque and would like to add some information, please leave a comment below. If you’d like to contact me, but don’t want to have your comment published, then please tell me that and I’ll email you.
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 1.
NAVY COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE
by Pat Sutton
San Diego . . . . . The actual presentation of a plaque by the Navy to the people of San Diego on October 3, 1975 is the end of the story.
One might say the plaque story began October 13, 1775. On that day the Continental Congress authorized the fitting out of ships for the Continental Navy. This action constituted the first naval legislation and became the genesis of the U. S. Navy.
The skills and spirit which forged the Navy of 1775 also forged the commemorative plaque in 1975 . . . . .
In the spring of this year, representatives of various commands in the Eleventh Naval District met to discuss plans for celebrating the Navy’s 200th birthday. The group reviewed the heritage, the building of proud traditions, the horizons of the Naval Service. It was decided to hold a great celebration
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 2.
to honor the Navy, its members past and present, the nation and San Diego – so long a part of the life, the heritage and tradition of the Navy.
The plaque story developed in an uniquely traditional Navy way. The Navy’s microcosmic capabilities began to surface and swing into action.
Civilian Mrs. Jo Palm is the Visual Information Specialist for the Commander Naval Surface Force, Pacific. She also chaired the Navy Bicentennial exhibits committee. Jo conceived the idea that there should be some lasting remembrance of the occasion for the people of San Diego – perhaps a commemorative plaque would be appropriate.
Civilian Francisco (Cisco) Lopez is a designer with the General Atomic Company of San Diego. He is also a First Class Draftsman in the Navy Reserve. Tall, 28-years-old, Cisco is a 12-year Navyman, combining four years active duty with eight years in the Reserve. Last June he served his annual two weeks active duty in the Naval Surface Force Public Affairs graphics shop, reporting from his Reserve Unit with the Fleet Intelligence Center, Pacific.
“Jo told me her idea and we decided I should design something depicting 200 years of Navy history – along the lines of a plaque, but not like the usual plaque.”
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 3.
Cisco was raised in San Francisco and has lived in San Diego the past five years. He graduated from San Francisco State and hopes eventually to be a research historian or teacher.
“I have almost a passion for history. I’m taking a month off work in June ’76, I’ll be in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July. As an armchair military historian I really relished the opportunity to be a part of today’s history by designing a representation of our Navy over a span of 200 years”.
At the suggestion of her student husband, Mel, Jo Palm went aboard Mel’s former ship, USS Ajax (AR-6), with Cisco’s drawing and the question, “Can you make it a reality?”
For a fleet repair ship like Ajax, “can” is a reality because she is designed for heavy duty hull repair; to provide a full range of repair services to Navy units in remote areas.
On her way to see the Repair Officer, Lieutenant Commander Harley M. Oien, Jo Palm passed through the Patternmaker/Carpenter Shop, remarkably clean despite the several huge saws rasping, whining and spewing sawdust. She was escorted through the Heavy Machine and Shipfitter’s shops where expert Navy operators can literally rebuild a whole ship.
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 4.
Twelve-year Navy veteran, Chief Molder Marvin E. (Tex) Feasell of Baytown, TX, is in charge of the Ajax foundry. He recounts the meeting below decks in Mr. Oien’s office where he and a few key men, including Patternmaker First Class Ronald Gray, held a conference with Jo.
“We hashed, squabbled, explained our methods, discussed time frames, costs to the Bicentennial Birthday Fund, and most of all, the making of the pattern. That’s the critical area. That’s the make or break of the job”.
Tex Feazell learned his profession when he was sent to the Moulder “A” school right out of Boot Camp in 1963. He reported aboard Ajax in May 1974. He has a keen appreciation of the expertise of the Ajax crew, and a keen pride in its performance.
“We have one of the most hard charging crews in the fleet. The people are hard charging – hit it! Hit it! We wanted to show our skills. We wanted to make that plaque for the Navy and for San Diego. We didn’t know for over a week if we would get the job. It made us feel proud when we heard we were going to do it”.
And so the “make or break” responsibility of the Navy’s bicentennial birthday memento to San Diego was enthusiastically assumed by Patternmaker Ronald Gray, who applied his
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 5.
Navy-learned skills to transform from drawing to working pattern the impression of 200 years of the United States Navy.
Ron has not always served in the time honored rate of Patternmaker. He joined the Navy shortly after he graduated from high school in Olympia, WA, and served his first hitch as a Commissaryman. A friend, appreciative of his carving hobby, suggested Ron reenlist under the Navy’s SCORE (Selective Conversion) program and be schooled as a Patternmaker.
Now, after 7 1/2 years in the Navy, 2 1/2 aboard Ajax, this craftsman laid the historical design out, carved his first figures in bas relief, glued them on board, then build up the other details. The pattern for the 30″ x 24″, 150 pound metal plaque would end up basically wood and plaster, however, the rope detail was real rope!
The Spirit of ’75, the hallmark of the Navy, nowhere better manifested itself than aboard the USS Ajax as the work progressed.
Patternmaker Third Class Roger Richie of Denver, CO, was a millman in civilian life and when he joined the Navy he wanted to be a carpenter. But at the time, there was no billet open at the carpenter school.
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 6.
“Now I think I got lucky, because I was sent to Patternmaker’s School. There’s not too many of us in the Navy, or in the country, for that matter. So by what you might call a ‘freak accident’ I was here to help Ron on the plaque. There’s pride in this job”.
The Ajax Dental Department loaned Ron Gray tools for working on the intricate wax carvings, and a dental drill for final sanding. The ship’s Dental Officer, Commander Roger E. Bisson of Helena, MT, enjoys woodworking and asked to carve the plaque’s Navy aircraft with his precision instruments.
“We all want to contribute. Gray is so willing to share the glory with the team, even though he has done most of the work”, Bisson said.
Below the gleaming metal decks, at the very keel of Ajax on the concrete deck of the foundry, Molder First Class William McCoy of Coshocton, OH, and his men were ready. McCoy spent his first four years in the Navy as a destroyer torpedoman. Then for ten years he was a civilian molder. Unable to wash the salt from his veins, he returned to the Navy a year and a half ago.
McCoy described his work, “The molding art is fairly unchanged since the middle ages. We use primitive tools, primitive casting methods. A person with an understanding of the primitive makes an excellent molder”.
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 7.
Then he turned to his bicentennial commemorative plaque assignment, “We’re looking forward to this job. The foundrymen will tussle with 700 to 800 pounds of sand and probably 150 pounds of molten metal. That’s a big pour”.
In providing the material for that “big pour”, the Navyman’s natural penchant for building on a proud tradition swung into action again. Commander William D. Collins, Public Affairs Officer for the Commander Naval Air Force, Pacific Fleet, remembered the legendary aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). A World War II combatant, Bunker Hill, was nicknamed “Holiday Express” because from November 11, 1943 to May 11, 1945, when she sustained crippling bomb and Kamikaze hits, she had conducted ten major strikes on holidays. During this brief period she had run up a combat record of 430 enemy planes destroyed in the air; 230 on the ground; 146,803 tons of enemy shipping sent to the bottom and 20 enemy planes shot down by her antiaircraft batteries.
In 1947 Bunker Hill was decommissioned. In 1965, 22 years after her commissioning, the old warrior was fitted out as a research facility for the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center, San Diego. She became a San Diego landmark moored in the bay off North Island Naval Air Station as she served as a floating laboratory for seven years.
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 8.
“The Bunker Hill was stripped of her brass and bronze fittings prior to her scraping in late 1972”, Commander Collins reported at a Bicentennial Committee meeting, “this was molded into ingots. Some of the ingots still remain and are stored at the Naval Station in Honolulu. We would be honored to have Bunker Hill permanently a part of San Diego. The Pacific Naval Air Force will provide her brass and bronze for the plaque”.
And so it was done.
In August Jo Palm called Cisco Lopez with the news that the plaque was to become a reality. Cisco told Jo of an uniquely Navy coincidence. “For my 1975 active duty tour I was stationed on Ajax! I designed ducting for ventilation of a spray booth. Great crew! I never expected to work with them again”.
On September tenth, after the sand had been rammed around the pattern and the pattern removed, leaving its historic impression (the negative), the excitement of expectancy on the Ajax foundry deck rose even as the metal of old Bunker Hill rose toward the proper temperature to pour.
Participants, both active and anticipating, ranged from Jo Palm and Cisco Lopez; Navy combat cameramen and photographers; to the molders, firemen, and as from the beginning,
Navy Commemorative Plaque News Release. Navy Bicentennial, October 3-13, 1975. Page 9.
Patternmaker First Class Ron Gray, whose work would not end until his bicentennial plaque received its final buffing.
In the seething depths of Ajax the bronze flared at 1850 degrees Fahrenheit and was poured at 1900 degrees Fahrenheit.
Emerging from the plutonic foundry floor, Molder Third Class Forrest L. (Lee) Garland of Longview, TX, removed his zinc-deposit-coated face mask saying, “A molder’s job is to know hear; how hot to pour, how much to pour in a little hole. We did a job today. And it was good.”
Lieutenant Commander Oien observed, “The men generated the enthusiasm for the plaque. If they had not wanted to do it, I suppose it could have been forced. Instead, it was a labor of love”.
At the San Diego Bay embarcadero, on Broadway Pier, permanently ensconced in a handsome planter, the Navy Bicentennial Commemorative Plaque is inscribed:
Dedicated to the People of San Diego
By the United States Navy
1775 – October 13 – 1975
Tex Feazell and Ron Gray with the first wood carving and the original drawing. Photo credit: United States Navy.Patternmaker Kevin O’Connor, Molder Jessie Lopez, Molder Lee Garland, Patternmaker Roger Richie, two unidentified Molders, Bill McCoy and Ron Gray. Photo credit: United States Navy.
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Looking north at steps that lead down from the quiet, stately Balboa Park Administrative Courtyard.
A few weeks ago I meandered about Inspiration Point in Balboa Park. Walking slowly, pausing often, going nowhere in particular. Just seeing what I might see.
At the south edge of the Balboa Park Administrative Courtyard, I stood and gazed down the hill toward a corner of downtown San Diego. You might remember my blog about the courtyard. It’s a place that very few people know about. It’s peaceful, green, a bit of heaven. A place of solitude.
As I stood, I glanced down some steps leading toward a seemingly unremarkable patch of trees. A dusty lot next to the trees contained dozens of parked city Park and Recreation trucks. I wondered to myself if the public was permitted to walk down those steps, into what appeared to be a city work area.
This mysterious path seems to lead to a jumble of trees and a dusty parking lot full of city Park and Recreation trucks.
Then I saw the blue among the trees. Was that water?
No sign indicated I couldn’t investigate. So I did.
And what I found took my breath away.
Beautiful Bird of Paradise in a section of Balboa Park where the public almost never goes.Entering a magical hollow in the trees, where a shining blue pool and small fountain await.
The trees seemed a forgotten oasis. At their center shined a lonely pool and a small fountain in the form of a child. The cherub seemed to be holding open the mouth of a carp, or perhaps reading a book–I don’t know.
The strange fountain appeared to occupy a magical place, entirely removed from the surrounding world.
What was it?
An email to the Friends of Balboa Park, an organization whose office is in the nearby Balboa Park Administration Building, provided a bit of information.
The person who replied parks her car in the lot not far from the pool and fountain, and she was completely amazed. She’d didn’t know of its existence.
Ranger Kim, who also works in the building, and who knows volumes about the history of Balboa Park, indicated that the fountain was left over from the 1920’s when the U.S. Navy built a large hospital campus in the immediate area.
In the 1980’s, the land was given to the city in exchange for acreage in Florida Canyon, where the new Naval Medical Center San Diego was built. The buildings from the 1920’s were eventually demolished, except for a Navy chapel, the administration building and its stately courtyard, and a nearby medical library and auditorium building. Today the chapel contains the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center; the administration building contains Balboa Park’s headquarters.
And, of course, magic remains where very few people go: a small fountain that healed spirits at the old Navy complex. A beautiful, hidden fountain forgotten by time.
The lonely fountain is in the form of a child. A few empty benches surround the tiled pool.This fountain is left over from the Navy hospital campus built in this area in the 1920’s.The figure seems to be holding open the jaws of a fish, or perhaps reading a book.A beautiful, hidden fountain forgotten by time.
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Orange and yellow logo of visiting Norwegian Sun cruise ship reflected on rippled water in San Diego Bay.
A big rush this morning. But I had enough time to walk down to the Broadway Pier. Slowing myself for a few moments, breathing in fresh air, I was enchanted by the surrounding quiet, the growing morning light, and mysterious reflections.
Bow and bridge of the Norwegian Sun, docked at the San Diego Cruise Ship Terminal. The image is reflected in the orange and clear windows of a nearby gift shop.Early morning light at San Diego’s Broadway Pier. The Coronado ferry has begun another trip across the quiet, glassy water.Reflection of downtown San Diego’s nearby skyline in the windows of the Port Pavilion. Photo taken as the sun climbs above building rooftops, from the Broadway Pier.
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Amazing artist at 2015 Festa in San Diego’s Little Italy. Smiling, she shows me the source material for her Balboa Park themed chalk art!
Brace yourself! Here come dozens of super cool photos! Check out the amazing chalk art created today for 2015 Festa in San Diego’s Little Italy! The special theme this year is the centennial of Balboa Park!
Gesso Italiano chalk art is a tradition at Little Italy’s Festa, and every year I’m blown away by all the colorful creations. Most of the images this year are inspired by beautiful Balboa Park, or paintings or artifacts contained in its museums. I arrived to take photos about an hour before the event opened, and many artists were still hard at work. I spoke to one who said their masterpiece took about seven hours to complete. Now that’s dedication to art!
I’ve inserted the team name at the beginning of each caption. Enjoy!
Cecelia Ramos Linayao. Face of child riding Balboa Park’s hundred-year-old carousel, which debuted in 1915 for the Panama California Exposition.Lesley Perdomo. Madonna and child, a popular theme of Gesso Italiano artwork.Robert Guzman. I believe this might be a hippo at the world famous San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park!Tonie Garza. The iconic El Cid Campeador statue in the Plaza de Panama. Chalk art celebrating Balboa Park’s centennial in 2015.Team Parada. A beautiful face with elaborately styled hair.I didn’t get the team name, but this exquisite white chalk portrait was one of my favorite pieces at this year’s Festa in Little Italy!Before the Festa event opens, chalk artists work to finish their creations. The art covers two blocks of Beech Street in downtown San Diego.Squadra Terun. A vividly colorful flower. Perhaps this depicts a scene from Balboa Park’s reflecting pool.A bit of random chalk art on the street. I spotted this near the official Festa competition entries.Ciao! A chalk image of lilies and koi in the reflecting pool, and the Botanical Building in Balboa Park.I didn’t get the team name. The artist was working from what appeared to be a poster or advertisement with the word Ventimiglia, which is a city in Northern Italy.Lisa Bernal Brethour. Delicate white blooms formed of chalk.Brianna Cunha. This stylish Gesso Italiano art appears to possibly show bubbles, a glass of beer and wheat.Bijan Masoumpanah. This chalk art seems to depict a classic sculpture of a bearded head.Valerie Michelle. A super colorful parrot and tropical fish!Weenie Kingdom. One of the carved wooden horses from the historic Balboa Park Carousel.Salgado. Perhaps one can see this big cat at the San Diego Zoo!Killer Queens. Dinosaur skull represents what one is likely to see at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.Cobian. Figure in flowing red dress reclining on a couch.Team Arcala. Chalk interpretation of the historic Cabrillo Bridge and California Building. The artist had looked for hundred-year-old photos of the bridge under construction, but without success.Meg. A big smile and a boldly colored work of chalk art taking form on a San Diego street during 2015 Festa!Team Pinoy. California Tower and the words Balboa Park Centennial Celebration 2015.Team Chalkolate. Another chalk representation of the famous El Cid equestrian sculpture near the center of Balboa Park.Campo Elementary. These gifted students won first place last year! What will this chalk creation be?John Vaughn. Chalk version of ornate plaster designs above the west arched entrance to Balboa Park.Two blocks in Little Italy were full of rampant creativity this morning.Michael Zamora. Fantastic chalk face based on an Italian painting in the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.Art Within Reach. I thought at first this might be a dog in the lily pond. Then I thought it might be Moby Dick. It’s actually a polar bear at the zoo! No ears yet!Team Pierre. Vintage images take form as a skilled Gesso Italiano artist takes on the cool theme of Balboa Park’s centennial.Kira Lewis-Martinez. More cool chalk art with a nostalgic feel. The Panama California Exposition marked Balboa Park’s debut in 1915.Lydia Puentes Phillips. Very color koi swimming in the Balboa Park reflecting pool. Great chalk art that captures one of my favorite places!Raney and Talbott. These artists are basing their image on one of the elegant passageways along El Prado–specifically the one next to the Timken Museum.Coronado High School. A completed portion of what should eventually be a stunning work of art.Liberty Charter High School. A fun chalk art giraffe and zebra!Canyon Crest Academy. By far the most popular inspiration for this year’s Balboa Park centennial theme is the reflecting pool with its color-splashed koi and lilies.Lidia F. Vasquez. Wow! This elaborate mask is super inventive! It’s formed out of elements from Balboa Park’s unique architecture!Torrey Hills Elementary School. Gesso Italiano artwork is a tradition at the Festa celebration in Little Italy. I look forward to it every year!San Diego High School. A girl with a camera in the Botanical Building! I love it!Faithful Ambassadors Bible Baptist Academy. Cherry blossoms courtesy of the Japanese Friendship Garden! Is this awesome, or what?Washington Elementary STEAM Magnet, based right here in Little Italy! Lots of little colorful scenes along the border.Team Noni. A very colorful tiger comes alive on the street! More amazing zoo animal art!Julyen Ecoffey. Mother and child spending a sunlit day in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park.Cathedral Catholic High School. Lady with umbrella faces the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Another great image.Sycamore Ridge Elementary. Not only are there lily pads and flowers in the reflecting pool, but there’s a Venetian gondola! And an Italian flag over the Botanical Building!Dos Mustachios. One of the two fountains near either end of the Botanical Building. The actual fountains were recently restored by the Friends of Balboa Park.Torrey Pines High School, National Art Honor Society. I could feast my eyes on this glowing chalk artwork all day long!Elisabeth Eckert. Abstract image of Moreton Bay fig tree roots, probably either near the Palm Canyon stairs or Natural History Museum.Mel Clarkston Art. It’s a green people mover! I see colored tiles from Spanish Village, flags from the International Cottages, and a butterfly from the Zoro Garden!Mount Miguel High School. Everyone loves the reflecting pool. The calm natural beauty is inspiring.San Pasqual High School. Classic images from Balboa Park rendered using simple, colored chalk. Fantastic!The creativity couldn’t be contained! It flowed right out of the specified boundary and onto the nearby asphalt!Steve Alan and Friends. Simple but captivating.Aaron Hernandez. This is crazy! Looks like Planet of the Apes! I’m guessing these are hip simians who hang out at the San Diego Zoo…Team Arancio. A portion of this chalk art resembles that cool mural painted earlier this year in Spanish Village for the Balboa Park centennial.Chalk Riot. Wow! I love this! The nice artist said she incorporated elements from throughout Balboa Park, including the facade of the Museum of Man.Godfrey’s. And finally a stooping giraffe. The San Diego Zoo is a favorite place in amazing Balboa Park.Soon thousands will crowd the street to enjoy this great chalk art. I swung by early and got photos of works in progress!
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A beautiful live oak grove in Balboa Park honors men who died tragically on the USS Bennington in 1905.
Balboa Park is without a doubt one of America’s national treasures. Located just north of downtown San Diego, its 1,200 acres is the home of magnificent museums, gardens, architectural marvels, many recreational facilities and perhaps the world’s most famous zoo. The amazing urban park is so gigantic most visitors see only a small fraction of it. Some out-of-the-way corners of Balboa Park are enjoyed by locals who live nearby; other overlooked areas seem almost forgotten.
The USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove is one such area. While many drive by it on any given day, as they travel along 26th Street just before it turns into Florida Drive, and a few joggers pass through the shady grove, I’d wager only a handful of San Diegans know of the oak grove’s existence or historical significance.
There are 66 live oak trees in this grove. They were planted to memorialize 66 men killed on the USS Bennington on the morning of July 21, 1905, when the gunboat’s boiler suddenly exploded and the ship nearly sank in San Diego’s harbor. No markers in the grove indicate the significance of the large gnarled oaks. (A 60 foot high granite obelisk stands at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma, a memorial to those sailors who died on the USS Bennington. Most of the dead are buried there.)
The USS Bennington was a warship with a long and proud history. Commissioned in 1891, she was the ship that claimed Wake Island for the United States. After the boiler explosion in San Diego Bay, eleven men were awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism.
Earlier this year, when I visited an exhibit in Balboa Park created by The Daughters of the American Revolution San Diego Chapter, I learned the local DAR would like to place plaques in the grove to memorialize the USS Bennington and the men who tragically died. If you, your business or organization would like information about the project, or to help, you might contact them from their page. Should this project come to fruition, I’ll be very pleased to blog about it!
View of the Bennington Memorial Oak Grove from Golden Hill Park, located near Balboa Park’s southeast corner. Balboa Park’s public golf course and Naval Medical Center San Diego are also visible.Wooden footbridge along 26th Street leads to a little-used trail through USS Bennington Memorial Oak Grove in Balboa Park.Beautiful old oak trees memorialize 66 sailors killed in 1905 when the USS Bennington’s boiler exploded in San Diego’s nearby harbor.Looking up through the leaves of the live oak trees at blue sky and clouds.These trees, honoring fallen men, remind us of a sudden tragic moment in San Diego’s military history.A commercial airplane flies overhead as it crosses Balboa Park heading in toward Lindbergh Field.A jogger enjoys the shady old trees on a warm day in early October.
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Three bronze fishermen on Shelter Island together reel in a large tuna.
A monumental bronze sculpture in Shoreline Park on Shelter Island has become an iconic image. The Tunaman’s Memorial, by artist Franco Vianello, dedicated in 1988, honors the courage and hard work of generations of tuna fishermen in San Diego. The 9,000 pound sculpture depicts three individuals pole fishing from a boat of the once-large tuna fleet out on the Pacific Ocean. The history of San Diego’s tuna fishing industry contains generations of life stories. These unwritten stories involve fishermen who immigrated from many different nations, including Italy, Portugal and Japan.
One polished side of the sculpture contains names of fishermen who were pioneers in our region, and those who were lost at sea. An inscription reads: Tunaman’s Memorial honoring those that built an industry and remembering those that departed this harbor in the sun and did not return. Anthony Mascarenhas.
The Tunaman’s Memorial on Shelter Island is a 9,000 pound bronze sculpture honoring generations of diverse fishermen.Tuna fishing in local waters was once a major industry in San Diego.Polished side of Tunaman’s Memorial contains names of San Diego fishing pioneers, and those who were lost at sea.This iconic sight on Shelter Island provides a glimpse back in history, at those in our community who worked the sea.
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