Tag: history

San Diego canals, survival ideas, and a sky mirror!

I didn’t know what to expect when I recently visited the La Jolla Historical Society‘s museum to experience their current exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work.

The exhibition is described as a retrospective about the work of husband-and-wife team of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who were among the earliest and most notable ecological artists. Founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, Helen and Newton were local San Diego artists for nearly four decades, where they developed their pioneering concepts of Ecological Art.

Would I see paintings? What exactly was this ecological art?

What I discovered was unexpected and thoroughly thought-provoking!

The walls of the La Jolla Historical Society’s museum–the Wisteria Cottage–were covered primarily with technical drawings, maps and designs that conveyed innovative environmental ideas the couple developed over many years of working together.

If you love invention and human creativity, you’ll want to view this exhibition. You’ll see how human genius can create previously unthought-of technology that can benefit both people and the planet. You’ll observe how our understanding of nature and the ecosystems we all live in might conceivably be improved.

There were dozens of surprising ideas. I saw a proposal to create flood-reducing canals around downtown San Diego, practical Survival Pieces intended to create self-sustaining ecosystems (including a portable fish farm), and even a huge, Earth-orbiting sky mirror!

The Harrisons’ work is so expansive and full of variety that it’s hard to describe it all. So you’d better check it out yourself!

Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work is actually a multi-museum exhibition in San Diego County. The La Jolla Historical Society’s part of this exhibition is sub-titled Urban Ecologies, and traces the Harrisons’ collaborative practice during the late 1960s-1990s.

Additional parts of this exhibition can be viewed at the California Center for the Arts Escondido, and at the San Diego Public Library Gallery. Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work continues at all three locations through January 19, 2025.

If that’s not enough, this exhibition is part of a much larger Southern California event now underway: the Getty’s 70+ institution PST: Art and Science Collide!

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

San Diego’s newest gateway sign debuts in Old Town!

The installation of San Diego’s newest neighborhood gateway sign was completed today. It welcomes visitors to Old Town San Diego!

Both sides of this new gateway arch (which straddles San Diego Avenue at Twiggs Street) contain the words: The Birthplace of California – Historic Old Town San Diego. The arch stands at the edge of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and in front of the historic Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.

Images incorporated in this new landmark arch, as I understand it, represent three different stages of San Diego history. Hawks represent the Native American Kumeyaay and the wild, unspoiled land they inhabited. Mission bells represent the Spanish and Mexican, or Californio, period. Wagon wheels represent the early American period.

Several days ago I noted how the two columns that support the sign had been erected. That blog post can be found here. Yes, the beautiful sign itself was installed quickly!

I’ve learned the arching gateway sign was designed by Robert Barros who works with the Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce. He is publisher of Old Town San Diego Guide and owner of Visual Media Group.

Check it out! A little more history has been made!

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Old Town’s last donkey passes away.

Very sad news.

I learned today that Dulce, the last donkey at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, died yesterday. Her companion, Don, passed away earlier this year. The corral next to Seeley Stable is now empty.

Dulce was in her mid to late 30s–she lived a long life and was well loved. She was a rescue donkey, saved from a cull.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed visiting Dulce and talking to park rangers watching over her. Dulce was saddened by Don’s death, but had seemingly recovered, eating well and enjoying her role in short easy parades around the State Park’s plaza during occasional special events.

Yesterday she lay down and didn’t get up. A wonderful chapter in Old Town has come to a close.

Countless students, families and children met Don and Dulce over the years. I know that I’ll remember both donkeys fondly. I spoke to a couple of California State Park folks, and it sounds unlikely that new donkeys or other animals will replace Don and Dulce.

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Art and history at the Boulevard Transit Plaza.

Those walking through or waiting for a bus at the Boulevard Transit Plaza in City Heights might feel inclined to pause for a moment. This landmark bus station on El Cajon Boulevard over Interstate 15 features colorful public art and a collection of historical photographs.

The large transit plaza is split in two, divided by El Cajon Boulevard. Opposite sides serve east and west bound buses. Stairs and elevators also descend to Interstate 15 below where passengers can catch Route 235 rapid buses.

Public art and photographs are found on both sides of the split plaza. On either end of each platform, a post is decorated with colorful mosaics and dedicated to an adjacent community. The four communities served by the Boulevard Transit Center are Normal Heights, Kensington, Corridor and Teralta West.

I recently got off a Route 215 rapid bus at this stop to walk around the plaza. The artwork I’ve photographed here was installed in the past year or two–if you know more about the project, please leave a comment!

(There’s additional public art on the freeway level platforms–both here and at the nearby City Heights Transit Center–that I’ll document at some future time.)

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Antique bottles at Little Italy parking structure.

The parking structure that stands beside the County Center/Little Italy trolley station contains a fascinating exhibit. Just inside the Cedar Street door, a glass display case holds rows of antique bottles. These old bottles were discovered in 2014 during the early stages of the building’s construction.

A nearby sign explains why these bottles are on public display…

Artifact Display Project

The display to your right contains a sample of artifacts recovered during the summer of 2014 as construction began on the Cedar/Kettner Parking Structure. These bottles date from the late 1880s to early 1900s and contained various kinds of milk, carbonated and alcoholic beverages, oils, inks, perfumes and pharmaceuticals.

The area where this building now stands was a densely populated multiethnic neighborhood of predominantly Italian and Portuguese immigrants working in the fishing industry. Residents’ homes were in close proximity to stables, dockyards, boarding houses and second hand shops. In the early 1900s, the area began to develop as a commercial and industrial center supporting the nearby waterfront and railroad.

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

San Diego history on a Christmas tree!

This holiday season, the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park features beautiful Christmas trees in its spacious atrium. Not only has the 15 feet high Christmas tree made of blooming red poinsettias returned, but several smaller green trees twinkle nearby.

The more traditional Christmas trees were decorated by the San Diego Floral Association and are an extension of their Festival of Trees, a favorite December Nights attraction inside Room 101 at the Casa del Prado.

One of these trees I really like. It’s filled with old images from San Diego history!

I took a few photographs…

Kate Sessions’ Christmas Tree of 1915.

Panama California Exposition San Diego, California 1915.

Streetscape in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

Dearest Kate, Here is a picture of your “Blank Canvas.” Your plants are growing beautifully. Your friend, Anna Marston. (Photo of the Marston House.)

Botanical Building in Balboa Park.

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

The USS Recruit has been humorously called the USS Neversail. Embedded in concrete at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, the landlocked dummy training ship was an official U.S. Navy vessel commissioned in 1949 (and re-commissioned in 1982) that never set sail!

After Naval Training Center San Diego finally closed in 1997 and Liberty Station was developed on the Navy’s old property, the USS Recruit remained in place, slowly deteriorating. Then about ten years ago, the sheet-metal-over-wood-framing mock destroyer received a new paint job.

Last year the USS Recruit finally opened as a ship museum, allowing visitors to enter a large ground-level room inside the training ship. The walls of the museum are filled with historical photographs and video of past service members recalling their unique experiences aboard ship.

I ventured into the free ship museum a couple weekends ago for my first time. I was told that the one room open to the public used to be filled with telephones. Young sailors could use the phones to call home.

Here are a few photos…

Sailors standing on the deck of the USS Recruit circa 1995.

Old photos show construction of the largely wooden USS Recruit in 1949.

USS Recruit commissioning day, July 27, 1949.

One open door allows visitors to peer into an adjacent room.

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

San Diego history and the origin of Hawaii’s paniolos!

Did you know Hawaii has it own unique cowboy culture? Hawaiian cowboys are called paniolos. You might be surprised to learn that the origin of paniolos in Hawaii has a direct connection to San Diego’s early history, when our nascent city was part of Mexico and cattle ranches flourished!

An extensive new exhibit at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park has the unusual title Aloha Vaqueros. It recalls how several Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) from San Diego moved to Hawaii to help control an exploding population of cattle!

I’ve read Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast, and I do remember how sailors from the Sandwich Islands (later called Hawaii) participated in the cattle hide trade up and down California’s coast. Several Sandwich Islanders also lived on the beach near the hide houses in Point Loma at La Playa.

I was unaware, however, that in the early 1830s, Joaquín Armas, a soldier and vaquero born at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, was hired by Hawaiian King Kamehameha III as an advisor on how to control thousands of wild cattle that had multiplied on the islands. Armas would then recruit three other Mexican vaqueros from the San Diego region, helping to establish vaquero traditions in Hawaii!

The thousands of environmentally destructive wild cattle had descended from long-horned cattle that were given by British Captain George Vancouver to King Kamehameha I in 1793. The wild cattle, evading hunters and traps, came under control about half a century later as vaquero-inspired ranches popped up on Hawaii’s islands. The cattle were valuable for the tallow and hide trade. Skilled ropers and riders were in demand, so many native Hawaiians would learn cowboy skills!

The paniolo experience would eventually become ingrained in Hawaiian culture. Take music, for example. One important development was Hawaiian open-tuning for the guitar called kihoʻalu, or slack-key.

Why are Hawaiian cowboys called paniolos? One theory is that the word is derived from español–the language spoken by the Mexican vaqueros.

If this very unique history fascinates you, go visit the San Diego History Center!

A few photos to provide a taste…

…

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Super-dreadnoughts and a rare ship’s wheel!

What you see above is very rare. It’s a bronze and wood, 57 inch diameter ship’s wheel. It dates from the Age of Steel Riveted Hull and Steam, 1912 to 1930s. There’s photographic evidence that it might very well have been used in a navy’s super-dreadnought warship!

Joe Frangiosa was super excited to find this rare wheel. His amazing Nautical History Gallery and Museum inside Liberty Station’s Command Center building now features ship’s wheels from five different eras in maritime history. The huge wheel made its first appearance in his museum just a week ago!

Joe confided that this addition has been enormously satisfying. He installed the huge wheel in such a way that people can turn it and pretend to command the high seas. Kids love it!

Joe suggested you all visit his Instagram page here.

Check out my photos of the other four wheels. You might note that rope is tied around one spoke–the king spoke. When that bit of rope is located at the top of a wheel, that means the rudder of the ship is centered. A sailor can steer by feel in dark, stormy or foggy conditions.

The next wheel is made entirely of wood, with wood peg construction. It dates from the Age of Wooden Hull and Sail, 1775 to 1840.

The next wheel is made of iron. It dates from the Age of Wooden and Iron Hull, Sail and Steam, 1840 to 1887.

This next ship’s wheel is polished bronze and shines brightly! It dates from the Age of Steel Riveted Hull, Sail and Steam, 1887 to 1912.

Finally, this ship’s wheel without spokes is also bronze, but unpolished. It dates from the Age of Steel Welded Plate Hull, 1930s to 1945.

…

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.

Vietnam Veterans honored at Fleet Week San Diego.

Veterans of the Vietnam War are being remembered and honored in San Diego this Veterans Day weekend. A special display created for the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration can be viewed at Broadway Pier, all weekend through Monday during 2024 Fleet Week San Diego.

I came upon the commemoration display while walking inside the pier’s Port Pavilion.

The friendly people you see above told me all about this special recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. By official proclamation, the nationwide commemoration began on Memorial Day, May 28, 2012 and will continue through Veterans Day, November 11, 2025.

I observed posters and a visual timeline that help one recall a difficult time in world history. I learned that Vietnam Veterans have been receiving special lapel pins as a lasting memento of our nation’s gratitude for their sacrifice during the war. I also learned there’s an extensive Corridor Exhibit inside the Pentagon that tells the story of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. An online virtual tour can be found here.

Importantly, oral histories have also been preserved. Well over one hundred Vietnam Veterans have spoken of their personal experiences during the war. Their video recordings are collected on the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration website. If you’d like to listen to these oral histories, visit this web page. You’ll hear of pain, fear, courage, friendship.

…

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.