There’s an elaborate, quite beautiful tile mosaic mural outside the old God’s Extended Hand building in San Diego’s East Village. You can see it at the corner of 16th Street and Island Avenue.
The colorful mural is overflowing with compassionate messages and religious imagery, including Christ as a shepherd carrying a lamb.
The God’s Extended Hand ministry endured for 96 years, feeding the homeless and hungry, until it closed down a few months ago. Father Joe’s Villages will be redeveloping the site, creating more affordable housing and support for the homeless downtown. I don’t know whether these mosaics will be preserved.
I walked past part of the artwork this morning and took these photos. I only photographed the wall along 16th Street. Some people camped on the sidewalk were by the other wall on Island Avenue.
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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!
This morning I walked from downtown San Diego to Balboa Park, hoping to capture some interesting fog photographs.
As it turned out, most of my photos were of red-tailed hawks!
I observed three of them from the Cabrillo Bridge.
Anyone who walks into Balboa Park from the west side should keep their eyes peeled for hawks. They like to perch in the trees above the archery range or the slope of the West Mesa overlooking State Route 163.
I often hear the distinctive cry of red-tailed hawks near the eucalyptus trees west of the California Tower. Once or twice in the past I’ve seen them perched on the tower!
I managed to get a few decent photos with my little camera. You can see two hawks in the final image!
From the Cabrillo Bridge I also took a photograph of foggy downtown San Diego in the distance.
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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!
Everything you can imagine is real–on Kettner Boulevard.
This morning I saw this long mural across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Looking up, I discovered window washers on a downtown building. They appeared to be suspended in a maze of reflecting mirrors.
I imagined eyes looking down from places behind the mirrors, searching the streets of reality below…imagining–
Everything you can imagine is real.
But can everything that is real be imagined?
Incidentally, the mural’s quote is by Picasso. The words, many colors and geometric fragments were painted by @StefanieBalesFineArt.
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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!
I observed a few interesting things in downtown San Diego during my morning walk.
First, a parking lot in East Village was swarming with hundreds of seagulls. Someone was tossing the gulls a large quantity of crumbs. It was quite a spectacle, as you can see in my photographs.
Of course, feeding birds downtown makes them more of a potential nuisance. And the people who’d parked nearby might have something to say…
Next, as I walked past old Horton Plaza, I noticed its redevelopment is progressing right along. The exterior of the now enlarged building at the corner of G Street and 1st Avenue, former home of a Nordstrom department store, has some new skin!
If you want to see how the project appeared about a year ago, with the once popular shopping mall stripped and gutted, click here!
If you want to see how the new mixed-use high-tech downtown campus will appear when finished, click here!
Finally, check out the following old relic.
How many pay phones remain in the city? I never see them anymore. I did find one here, at the Convention Center trolley station, next to a brand new high-tech PRONTO ticket machine!
Put that pay phone in a museum!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
I spotted these attention-grabbing recruitment ads pasted to a wall while walking in downtown San Diego. It appears that Uncle Sam Wants Your Grandpa!
I then read the fine print. Actually, the USS Midway Museum is looking for volunteers. And I don’t think you even need to be a grandpa, or a veteran!
Want to make the past come alive on a historic aircraft carrier? Want to be part of a team that includes tutors, docents, storytellers and ambassadors?
Funny that I spotted these during San Diego Fleet Week.
I often walk past the old Hearne Surgical Hospital Building in downtown San Diego. It stands near the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ash Street.
A plaque by the door indicates the building is Historical Site No. 115, and that it was designed by the Quayle Brothers and built in 1906.
But until a few minutes ago that’s all I knew.
With the help of Google, I found some fascinating history concerning the building!
Part of a book titled Hearne History describes Dr. Joseph Carter Hearne’s medical practice in San Diego. The following information is transcribed here.
…The doctor located in San Diego, Cal., Dec., 1891, where he soon took his place at the head of the medical fraternity. Indeed it is not too much to say that he is well recognized as one of the leading, if not the leading, surgeon of Southern California. Soon after his arrival at San Diego he was appointed local surgeon to the Southern California railway…
…On March 8, 1906, the doctor completed and opened for the use of his own patients a Private Surgical Hospital, which in appointment and equipment is acknowledged to be equaled by none. Surgeons connected with the foreign battle ships visiting the harbor of San Diego are loud in its praise and say that there is no hospital abroad, public or private, that equals it. It has accommodations for twenty-five patients and is fully equipped.…
So, apparently, the building you see in my photographs was, in its day, one of the most impressive hospitals to be found anywhere!
It is now an apartment building.
The Quayle Brothers architects, who designed the Hearne Surgical Hospital Building, were responsible for other important structures in San Diego, including the 1928 North Park Theatre and the 1939 San Diego Police Department Headquarters. They are probably best remembered as the designers of San Diego’s original City Stadium, which was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Standing beside San Diego High School, it was later renamed Balboa Stadium.
If you’d like to see photos of the very handsome Alfred Haines House in Golden Hill, which the Quayle Brothers also designed, check out a past blog post here!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Early sunlight made a walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero very beautiful this morning.
I snapped these photos between the Grape Street Pier and Broadway Pier.
Gentle ripples moved across quiet San Diego Bay. Golden light reflected from buildings and homes across the water. Birds passed overhead. A ferry departed for Coronado.
Here’s what morning walkers and joggers might have experienced…
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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!
The 2021 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon is taking place today!
This morning I walked through downtown San Diego to check out the action as a seemingly endless stream of marathon runners approached the finish line.
Many lined the sidewalks cheering on family, friends and complete strangers. Signs filled with encouraging words could be seen everywhere. Bands played music at stations along the race course.
I looked at the faces of the runners and saw dedication, grit, determination. I saw many arms fly upward in triumph when the finish line was only a few strides away.
Enjoy these photos, which show what it’s like to run in and watch the always extremely popular Rock ‘n Roll Marathon!
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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! 