A beautiful sunrise illuminated San Diego this morning. Walking through Old Town, I watched scattered clouds to the east turn brilliantly yellow and orange.
The present-day Immaculate Conception Catholic Church stands adjacent to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
A modest adobe chapel that was built nearby in 1851 would be replaced by this church building. Its construction was begun in 1868 and, after various setbacks, was completed half a century later, in 1917.
In these photographs, you can glimpse a bit of the church’s façade and bell tower, elements of its Spanish Mission style architecture.
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Sacred Architecture of San Diego and Tijuana is a free exhibition now showing at the La Jolla Historical Society’s Wisteria Cottage. The exhibit features stunning architectural photographs in the cottage’s museum-like galleries.
You won’t see photos of “old” church architecture–with ordinary steeples, gothic decoration and the like. San Diego is a relatively young city. Many places of worship in our region were built in the 20th century, and consequently reflect a more modern, unadorned, experimental style.
I noticed that much of this “sacred architecture” makes use of simple geometric forms like triangles, circles and waves. The basic forms feel simple, elemental and universal, and yet the structures are often a bit strange: elongated as if striving heavenward, or modest and sheltering near the earth where we stand. Much of the architecture produces a sense of wonder–at least for me.
Notable architects highlighted in the exhibition include Irving Gill with his masterful protomodern designs, and midcentury modernists Richard Neutra, Albert Frey and Jaime Sandoval. Postmodern buildings include a church by Charles Moore. La Jolla’s own Sim Bruce Richards is also represented.
The exhibition is being presented in conjunction with San Diego/Tijuana’s selection as World Design Capital. These stunning architectural photographs will be on display through September 1, 2024.
In San Diego, I’ve enjoyed architectural tours of several prominent places of worship. You can read descriptions and see photographs by clicking the following links:
The Granger Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is undergoing a very big change. The historic downtown office building, erected in 1904, is being converted into an elegant hotel.
Those who walk past the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue can view the construction now in progress. Surprising graphics along the sidewalk advertising the soon-to-open Granger Hotel really catch one’s attention, however. Why are there old-fashioned images of a monkey, tiger and giraffe?
Because the basement of the Granger Building once held zoo animals!
Before I get to the unusual explanation, you might wonder: why is it called the Granger Building?
This web page explains how Ralph Granger made his initial fortune from the Last Chance Silver Mine in Colorado. When he came to San Diego in 1891, he settled in National City, where, in a addition to a mansion, he built the architecturally important Granger Music Hall. (Those who drive down Interstate 805 can easily see the notable but dilapidated building. I once blogged about the Granger Music Hall here.)
Granger would then hire renowned architect William Quayle to design an office building in downtown San Diego: the Granger Building. The Romanesque style structure, built for $125,000, was steel framed and constructed of pressed bricks. It is five stories high and features embossed metal ceilings, gas lights and a manually operated elevator. The first floor would be home to the Merchant’s National Bank, with the son of President U.S. Grant the initial Director. In 1924, the bank became the Bank of Italy, the forerunner of the Bank of America.
But what about those zoo animals in the building’s basement?
Well, Dr. Harry Wegeforth was a physician who happened to have his practice in the Granger Building. He was also founder of the Zoological Society of San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. You might recall how he was inspired to start the zoo when he passed animals that had been displayed during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park and heard a lion roar.
In the early days of the expanding San Diego Zoo, as Dr. Harry Wegeforth acquired new animals, he kept some of them in the basement of the Granger Building!
Guests of the new Granger Hotel will be staying in a property that is full of surprising history. Past tenants of the old office building have also included C. Arnholt Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast minor league Padres, and Joseph Jessop, our city’s most famous jeweler.
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Have you ever wondered why the Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter has an old-fashioned theater marquee? That’s because the building, erected in 1912, was originally a movie theater!
The Casino Theatre at 643 Fifth Avenue opened in 1913 and was one of several movie theaters in the Gaslamp that provided entertainment for ever-changing audiences over the decades. In the 1930s it was remodeled into the Art Deco style. Here’s an image from the 40s, with the Casino Café “Lunch” restaurant located next door, offering breakfast, waffles and steaks.
In the 1950s and 60s, The Casino and its movie theater neighbors at Fifth and G Street–The Aztec and The Savoy–would be open all night and show 3 big features, according to a comment here. Slowly these old theaters would fall as television’s popularity rose.
In the 1970s, while the Gaslamp neighborhood experienced urban decay, The Casino Theatre began to show X-rated movies, along with the other nearby theaters. I’ve been told sailors made up much of the clientele.
Here’s a gallery of photos of the The Casino Theatre over many years. Some of the titles you’ll read in the marquee are a bit salacious!
I hadn’t realized the marquee was seen in Marty Feldman’s 1980 movie In God We Tru$t. That image can be viewed here.
Today you’ll find a plaque near the historic building’s front entrance:
The Casino Theatre, 1912
The first theatre to be built with the new building ordinance for fire safety. It had two doors near the stage for fire escape and a five-foot-wide exterior passage on both sides and the rear for the protection of other buildings in case of fire. However, two years after construction, the northern passage was occupied by a food stand, and the southern passage contained a shoe shining establishment.
Temptation of a different sort! In a historic Gaslamp Quarter that now attracts loads of tourists, the colorfully lit old marquee teases you with ice cream, chocolate and hot fudge sundaes!
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The Coronado Public Library occupies a 40,000 square feet building that serves as the community’s cultural center. The library contains a large public meeting room and smaller conference room, a separate Children’s Library and Teen area, an Exhibit Gallery, plus an employee work area and used bookstore.
Back in 1909, however, when the original Coronado Public Library first opened, it measured a modest 1,700 square feet. You can see the front of the historic building with its stately columns in the above photograph.
Last month I learned the history of this original “Spreckels Building” during the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s Open House event. John D. Spreckels was owner of the nearby Hotel del Coronado in the early part of the 20th century.
An informative handout included: On February 17, 1908, the Library Board boldly voted to “request Mr. Spreckels to make a gift of a new library building”…public park land set aside by the Coronado Beach Company known as West Plaza was chosen for the location…Spreckels donated the services of his favorite architect, Harrison Albright…(His) design, in the style of the classic revival…was built at a cost of $10,000. It was one of the first California buildings built of reinforced concrete. It was designed to hold 5,000 books…
The following graphic depicts major additions that were made to the library over the years:
The next two photos demonstrate how the original building was cleverly joined to the glassy 2005 addition. (The 1974 addition demolished and replaced a hodgepodge of add-ons and wings that had been attached to the original building during the preceding decades.)
Today the original little library–the Spreckels Building–serves as a cozy, very elegant Reading Room!
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What’s that tall brick smokestack near the world-famous Hotel del Coronado?
It’s the most noticeable part of a historic industrial complex!
I walked around the Hotel Del’s old laundry building, ice house and power plant last month during the San Diego Architectural Foundation Open House event. I discovered several plaques that provide information about these three buildings, which, clustered south of the hotel lobby entrance, are called the industrial complex.
The brick building shown below once provided the Hotel del Coronado’s laundry service. It’s now home to The Laundry Pub!
Laundry, established 1919.
The original hotel laundry opened on the second floor of the Power Plant in January 1888. The Laundry occupied the majority of the second floor and employed 20 women. In 1919 this brick structure was built to house the laundry operation, which had expanded to serve all of Coronado Island with a fleet of five laundry trucks and a branch location on Orange Avenue. Laundry services were provided here for the hotel until 2018.
The next photo is through the window of The Laundry Pub, which features an 1880s-era bar and the laundry’s early conveyor system above restored wood floors.
North of the brick laundry building is the hotel’s old ice house.
The ice house is now home to the fascinating Ice House Museum of the Hotel del Coronado, where you can view historical displays and artifacts, plus photographs of the many celebrities, movie stars and United States Presidents who’ve visited the Victorian resort over the years. I blogged about the museum two years ago here.
In the rear of the ice house is this plaque…
Ice House, established 1889.
Ice was originally produced with a small machine inside the Power Plant until this masonry structure was built to house a new 10-ton De Coppet ice machine. Renowned for excellent tasting ice, the De Coppet system was cutting edge technology at the time and allowed The Del to manufacture and supply ice throughout Southern California. In 1909, the building was converted into a storeroom with later uses including an upholstery shop and offices.
Lastly, north of the ice house is the old power plant with its tall, striped smokestack.
Power Plant, established 1887.
Built in 1887 to house the incandescent electric light plant, laundry, and engine house, the Power Plant supplied electricity to all of Coronado Island until service was established with SDG&E in 1922. The Power Plant housed five Mather dynamos, two Hazelton boilers, and heavy pumping and heating machinery. To this day, a utility tunnel connects the Power Plant to the historic hotel.
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A luxurious hotel in downtown San Diego contains two huge rooms that are quite unusual. One used to be a basketball court, and another was an indoor swimming pool!
The Guild Hotel occupies the historic 1924 building that was originally home of the Army-Navy YMCA. For decades, tens of thousands of sailors and military men would head to this location on Broadway, not far from the waterfront, to recreate. They’d play basketball, run around an elevated indoor track, and swim in a basement pool.
The Guild Hotel, when it moved into the iconic building, creatively repurposed two large indoor spaces. The huge basketball court was converted into the grand Grace Ballroom! The swimming pool was turned into the Society Ballroom!
I was shown these spaces several weeks ago during the San Diego Architectural Foundation Open House event.
Just inside the front entrance of the luxurious The Guild Hotel in downtown San Diego.The Guild Bar in the hotel lobby.To the left of the bar, a door opens to the unusual Grace Ballroom.The Grace Ballroom at The Guild Hotel was originally an indoor basketball court. Military men shot hoops here for decades when the building was an Armed Services YMCA.An elevated platform intended for jogging or running continues to surround the hotel ballroom!Beautiful tiles along a stairway that descends from The Guild Hotel lobby to a lower level.An old photograph of the large swimming pool that once occupied the Army-Navy YMCA’s basement.The swimming pool is gone, replaced by the Society Ballroom! The historic space was set up as a meeting room when I toured the hotel.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
The Hawthorne Historic Inn in Bankers Hill is a picturesque old Victorian. Built circa 1900 in the Dutch Colonial style, the building attracts the eyes of those passing down 1st Avenue.
A public tour of the Hawthorne Historic Inn was offered last weekend, as part of the San Diego Architectural Foundation Open House event, and I took full advantage of the opportunity!
Not only could visitors explore the interior, with its long, bright skylight and beautifully furnished rooms for rent, but we learned that the building has a very rich and surprising history!
A handout provided by the property owner explained how Mr. Jones, a movie starring Richard Gere, was filmed here in 1993. You might recall scenes of Richard Gere’s troubled character on the rooftop.
It also recounted how Mohammed Ali and Sammy Davis, Jr. stayed at the inn in the 1960s and 70s. Back then, unfortunately, African Americans had difficulty obtaining rooms in other establishments.
Another tidbit that interested me is that in the 1980s, the Hawthorne Inn was one of three officially haunted places in San Diego! (I saw no ghosts during my tour.)
The inn was originally called “The Plainsman” in an old classified ad. It was a boarding house. It is one of the few Working Man’s hotels remaining from the turn of the 19th century.
The second owner, last name Warren, was a women who was a Theosophist. She was likely involved in the founding of Lomaland, the Theosophical community located in Point Loma.
I learned the property has had its ups and downs, but is currently on the upswing. Today it’s a fine apartment building with great views of downtown and San Diego Bay from its upper floor and an outside balcony.
The Hawthorne Historic Inn is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a California State Historic Landmark.
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An architectural masterpiece, the First Church of Christ, Scientist building by Irving Gill.
An incredible free event is taking place in San Diego this weekend, March 9 and 10. The San Diego Architectural Foundation‘s big Open House San Diego 2024 will allow the public to tour dozens of fascinating buildings around the city!
I’ve enjoyed many Open House tours in past years. As before, the buildings that you can freely explore are located in several San Diego neighborhoods.
This year the neighborhoods are Bankers Hill, Barrio Logan, National City, Point Loma, Coronado, Downtown and La Jolla. Some of the included buildings are old, some are new. Some are historically important. All feature uniquely interesting architecture.
There are guided tours and self-guided tours. In many cases, the public is allowed to view interior rooms and private spaces.
Most of the Open House tours require no reservation–just show up on the designated day between certain hours. To get a full rundown of the architectural tours you can enjoy in 2024, click here!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
The shapely, elegant beauty of Balboa Park’s Botanical Building is returning!
San Diego’s iconic wood and steel structure, which was badly in need of repair, is in the process of being rebuilt.
I took these photographs today. Compare them to photos I took months ago. You can view those here.
New wood lath now forms the airy roof of one wing. When it was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, Balboa Park’s amazing Botanical Building was one of the largest lath structures in the world!
I can’t wait to see it finished!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
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