The architecturally exquisite Sessions Building in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is now home to Toby’s Candle & Soap Shop. Originally, however, it was owned by Milton P. Sessions. Beginning in 1929, he operated a flower and ceramic shop out of this building, which was designed by his friend, renowned architect Richard Requa.
Does the Sessions name sound familiar? That’s because Milton was the nephew of the famous Kate Sessions, who is often referred to as the Mother of Balboa Park. She helped him as a young man get his start as a nurseryman.
Should you walk into Toby’s Candles, you can view a couple of old black and white photos framed on the wall left of the front counter. They show what the Sessions Studio looked like almost a century ago.
The La Jolla Historical Society wrote this excellent article on Facebook five years ago about Milton P. Sessions. Among his notable accomplishments, he provided the landscaping for the Roads of the Pacific at the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park. I blogged about the “forgotten” Roads of the Pacific recently here.
When you visit Toby’s, make sure to watch the skilled artisans making fancy candles! You might see something like this!
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Take a walk along Third Avenue in Chula Vista’s historic downtown.
When I passed down the sidewalk on the east side of the street recently, I was pleased to see many shops with terrazzo entries that recall the names of past businesses.
I’ve paired photographs. The current building occupant is followed by old words spelled out in terrazzo at the front entrance.
Anyone more knowledgeable about the history of Chula Vista is invited to leave a comment!
Factory of Dreams Hall.Sprouse Reitz.Roy’s Jewelry & LoanJewelers.Hidden Beauty Salon.Karl’s.Onstage Playhouse.Bakery.Maile’s Nail Spa.Ferrantelli.
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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 Twitter!
Drivers heading down G Street in downtown San Diego’s East Village might observe something unusual. Between 14th Street and 15th Street two relocated old buildings have been raised above the ground as they are being restored.
Why the restoration of these historical buildings? The Murray Apartments Building and the Daggett Family Residence will stand at the edge of downtown’s large future park: the East Village Green!
According to the Barnhart-Reese Construction website, the 4.1 acre community park…will include a 13,657-square-foot community center, an underground parking garage, a children’s playground, an outdoor stage, dog parks, a water fountain and a games area. The East Village Green is expected to be completed in early 2025.
What about the two historical buildings? The Save Our Heritage Organisation website states: The Murray Apartments were constructed in 1903 at an unknown location and moved to 14th Street during the 1920s. The 1890s Daggett Family Residence was relocated in the 1940s…
I can’t wait to see the finished East Village Green park with its two handsome Victorian buildings!
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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 Twitter!
Did you know a large sanitarium once stood in downtown San Diego at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Beech Street?
I had no idea, until I saw the surprising The Agnew Sanitarium 1906 cornerstone on display inside the San Diego Police Museum!
The Agnew Hospital and Sanitarium was founded by David Gochenauer. It began in a private residence in 1900 and was a training school for nurses.
The cornerstone you see in my photograph was laid for a big new building at 464 Beech Street on June 9, 1906. You can see a postcard image of the Agnew Hospital and Sanitarium and more description of its history here.
One more interesting fact. Alonzo Horton, whose historic Horton’s Addition development would help to transform New Town into today’s downtown San Diego, died in 1909 at age 96 . . . at Agnew Sanitarium.
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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 Twitter!
Should you walk through La Mesa Village, look for informative plaques with old photographs near the front entrances of buildings along La Mesa Boulevard. The plaques are a community project of the La Mesa Historical Society and the Rotary Club of La Mesa.
I found it interesting to learn about the history of the yellow building with stained glass windows that now houses the Por Favor Mexican Restaurant and Cantina.
Bank of Southern California Building, 1927
The local Bank of Southern California constructed this sturdy Mediterranean Revival style building on the site of the La Mesa Opera House (1908-1926). This now landmark building housed Mt. Helix developer Fred J. Hansen’s offices. The La Mesa Garage reminds us of this route’s former days as part of U.S. Highway 80.
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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 Twitter!
A very important architectural treasure stands in National City.
Granger Hall, built in 1898, was designed by a world-famous architect. The building can be spotted on East 4th Street near the base of the big electronic National City sign that rises next to Interstate 805.
I learned about Granger Hall when I read a Wikipedia article concerning Irving Gill, who is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve of his buildings throughout Southern California are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Granger Hall is such an important masterpiece that it has a full Wikipedia page. The hall was built in 1898 as an “acoustically perfect” music auditorium addition to a smaller music room in the Paradise Valley estate of Ralph Granger. Granger made a fortune in the “Last Chance” silver mine in Colorado during the 1890s. The building, moved later, has also been known as Granger Music Hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975… The acoustic properties include a design having no parallel walls or surfaces, including having the floor slope slightly forward and the ceiling and walls having “a slight canter”…
Well, I had to go check it out!
During my last walk through National City, I spied old Granger Hall behind a fence, apparently neglected and obviously deteriorating.
With my naked eye it was possible to see how the lines of the uniquely designed building aren’t exactly parallel. I could also see how, in its heyday, the music hall must have been glorious.
The Save Our Heritage Organisation has proposed having the building moved to Pepper Park and renovating it, so music can once again be heard from the acoustically perfect Granger Music Hall. On this SOHO web page you can view an old photograph of the hall’s elegant interior.
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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 Twitter!
Sparks were flying today in San Diego’s amazing Balboa Park!
As I walked near the Botanical Building, I noticed a small army of people working to preserve and improve the historic structure.
I spoke briefly to someone working on the project. He explained that the base of the colossal, over one hundred year old steel structure is being replaced. That’s because there’s a lot of weight to support!
I also learned that the steel framework of the Botanical Building was originally assembled using rivets, as was common in the past. The aging upper structure is being reinforced where necessary, including areas where past patchwork repairs were made.
I asked why the steel skeleton couldn’t be entirely replaced. The answer, of course, is that the Botanical Building has special historical status. It was built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. It was one of the few exposition structures intended to be permanent.
How long will the structure endure once this restoration is completed? I asked. Well over a century was the answer!
Finally, as I walked about I noticed the removed cupola has been placed in a fenced area at the center of a nearby parking lot.
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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 Twitter!
To see a list of Irving Gill’s other works in San Diego and Southern California, visit his Wikipedia page here.
The Buel-Town Building, 1898.
With its arched corner entrance, bay window, and corbelled brick cornice, this building reflects the originality of the architects Hebbard and Gill. Gill, the principal designer, had a preference for natural forms, over the highly ornate European styles common of his era. This is evident in this structure, which was one of his earliest works. After serving tenants such as the Western Metal Company and Buel-Town Chemicals, the building was converted for use as The Old Spaghetti Factory Restaurant in 1974.
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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 Twitter!
Enjoy a dozen photographs I took late this afternoon, about an hour before sunset.
I started at Broadway Pier and walked east into the heart of downtown San Diego.
I always enjoy this time of day. Light is reflected from many windows, creating a magical effect.
Tall ship Exy Johnson, docked at the Broadway Pier, is visiting San Diego.The buildings of the Research And Development District (RADD) are under construction where much of the old Navy Broadway Complex used to be.Looking north along the Embarcadero. Those clouds are left over from our most recent storm.Walking east down Broadway. Sunlight shines from the silvery Pacific Gate high-rise.More late sunshine on the tops of downtown skyscrapers.West Downtown San Diego is under construction in . . . west downtown San Diego!I love reflections like these.The late afternoon light is beautiful on the Balboa Theatre.The watery dome of the Broadway Fountain shines with different colors like the scales of a fish.A corridor of waning light downtown.Another fine downtown walk.
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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 Twitter!
Two huge golden grizzly bears have come to life in San Diego, and are ready to stand on a Balboa Park rooftop!
Yesterday the two amazing sculptures were previewed. I took photographs!
The life-size bronze bears–each weighing about 400 pounds–will soon be placed atop the roof of the 1935 California State Building, which today is home of the San Diego Automotive Museum. The sculptures will stand on the front corners of the building, as bears once did almost a century ago, back when the building debuted for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition.
Artists Mike and Kevin Matson of Bellagio Precast have been busy working on these new bear sculptures at their San Diego studio. Perhaps you remember my blog post from late 2021 with photos of one partially cold cast bronze bear.
The two huge bears are now one hundred percent finished and ready for transportation to Balboa Park! Once the roof of the San Diego Automotive Museum is structurally prepared for the heavy sculptures, they will be lifted by crane up to their respective corners. All of this should occur in April. Watch for it!
As I mentioned, the original 1935 bears were only temporary (likely made of plaster-like material) and disappeared long ago. A few old photographs show them atop the California State Building. Here’s one:
In the above enlarged photograph, you might also glimpse a flagpole over the building’s front entrance. Two flagpoles are also returning to the historic California State Building! Brackets for them have already been created:
The new bears and flagpoles are part of an ongoing effort by the Balboa Park Committee of 100 to restore the Palisades area of Balboa Park to something more like its original 1935 appearance. The organization has been working to preserve Balboa Park’s historic architecture, gardens and public spaces since 1967.
The Committee of 100’s initial undertaking in the Palisades was the reproduction of historical murals above the entrance to this same building. Perhaps you’ve seen those beautiful tile murals. If you haven’t, click here.
The California State Building’s new life-size bears have been years in the making. At yesterday’s event we were shown small working models that preceded the finished sculptures. Kevin Matson held them up for examination:
So how exactly were life-size cold cast bronze bears made?
Each of the finished bear sculptures has a Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete skin that is about 3/8″ to 1/2” thick. Two sculpture halves are joined together with a stainless steel frame inside. Each bear’s volume is then filled with a high density urethane foam.
How awesome are these golden grizzlies? Take a look!
The Balboa Park Committee of 100 is engaged in another fantastic project! They are recreating a large historical mural that will be placed above the entrance of the Municipal Gymnasium building. It, too, will be breathtaking!
I’ll be blogging about that shortly!
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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 Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 