Tag: history

Step into El Cajon’s fascinating history!

How much do you know about the history of El Cajon?

Step into the Knox House Museum and you’ll be transported back in time. You’ll experience what life was like for El Cajon’s first settlers and its early residents.

You’ll learn how, in 1876, Amaziah Knox built a residence and hotel in the seeming middle of nowhere. Rising two stories tall, boasting seven rooms, it was the first commercial structure in El Cajon.

You’ll walk through the parlor, kitchen, living room, sewing room, and bedrooms, furnished as they might have been from 1895 to 1912. You’ll see original objects that were owned by the Knox family, plus many old photographs of El Cajon taken during its early years..

The El Cajon Historical Society operates the free Knox House Museum and welcomes visitors with a great tour of the old house. Check out their website for the location, open days and hours.

My own visit last Saturday was an eye-opener. I peered at photos of a very early El Cajon, with its small handful of structures. I learned that the hotel was cleverly built in a popular camping place for teamsters, miners, and drovers traveling to the Julian gold mines after 1870.

I saw how the hotel and the young city expanded, and how agriculture played an important role in the growing prosperity. Grapes covered many acres in one old photo. They were dried and exported as raisins.

I learned how the home’s parlor served as El Cajon’s very first post office, with Mr. Knox the official Postmaster.

Did you know the United States Cavalry was once stationed in El Cajon, and that El Cajon and Lakeside boasted a stagecoach line?

No? You should visit the museum! Or check out their informative website by clicking here.

My tour guide Rick told me the historical society is looking for new volunteers. Do you live in El Cajon or East County? Would you like to help keep this important history alive? Contact the El Cajon Historical Society here.

Or consider a donation. Worthy organizations like this are struggling, especially after the disruptions caused by COVID.

One last thing. The El Cajon Historical Society is eager to teach young people about the fascinating history of this city they call home. They are offering a slide show for local classrooms! Do you know any teachers? Pass the word!

…

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 Oxford and history at Hotel del Coronado.

Those who approach the Hotel del Coronado from the south will see a handsome yellow building that stands beside Orange Avenue. The old building is called The Oxford, and it was built in 1887 near the ferry landing on the other side of Coronado!

The Oxford was Coronado’s first hotel. In 1911 the building was relocated a couple blocks east of the Hotel del Coronado, where the post office is today. It was used to provide housing for the hotel’s female employees.

In 1983 the building was saved from demolition and in 1986 it was moved again to this spot on the hotel property. In 2021 it was carefully restored. The Oxford today is home to the Hotel del Coronado administrative offices.

An old photo on display in the hotel’s Ice House Museum shows the building being moved in 1986. The large structure was temporarily divided into two halves, and obstructions had to be removed from the streets during its move!

…

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)!

Exhibit for San Diego City Clerk’s Archives Month!

A great exhibit is now open to the public inside the lobby of downtown San Diego’s City Administration Building. The San Diego City Clerk is celebrating its 5th Annual Archives Month with displays concerning our city’s historic 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park!

Step into the City Administration Building in the next few days and you’ll discover old photographs and documents concerning the exposition, and even the big coin you see above!

This original coin, inscribed Welcome To America’s Exposition, was actually the welcome sign for San Diego’s second world’s fair, which followed the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, also held in Balboa Park.

The above 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition Sign was donated to the City Clerk Archives for safekeeping.

Here’s a photo of someone posing with the original sign!

There are many fascinating images on display, including photos of American presidents, dignitaries and celebrities who visited the expo almost a century ago. You also have an opportunity to take a selfie with a replica of the coin that is light enough to hold above your head!

Can’t make it downtown? View archived photographs, ephemera and city documents that concern the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition by clicking here!

This fascinating historical exhibit will be on display in the City Administration Building lobby from October 2nd through October 16th, so check it out if you can!

…

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)!

Holiday preparation for Encinitas Heritage Tree!

The lighting of the Norfolk Island pine (star pine) at 4th and C Street, an Encinitas Heritage Tree, is anticipated by many families every holiday season. Hundreds turn out and count down to the moment when the tree’s cheerful Christmas lights flick on.

As I walked past the Encinitas Historical Society’s old 1883 Schoolhouse today, I noticed volunteers laying out new strands for the tree’s Christmas lights!

I learned that the enormous pine requires 18 strands, each 110 feet long. The combined strands will support a total of 1600 lights!

The friendly volunteers filled my ears with many old stories, and explained how Louie led the effort to decorate the tree 29 years ago. This Heritage Tree, which they call Louie’s Tree, is a little over 70 years old.

The lighting of the Heritage Tree in 2023, I’m told, will feature four children’s choirs. The program will take place on December 1, from 4 to 6 pm. You can’t miss the beautiful tree. It stands high above Moonlight Beach, a bit south of the main parking lot.

Here’s a photo I took of the Heritage Tree during a walking tour of Encinitas in 2021:

Almost 2000 feet of Christmas lights will be wound around its branches!

…

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)!

Going “back to the future” in San Diego!

It’s now possible to go “back to the future” in San Diego. A newly opened exhibition at the Comic-Con Museum, POPnology, takes visitors back in time, demonstrating how fantasies in the popular culture have often predicted future technology!

Artificial intelligence, smartphones, robotics, 3D-printing, virtual reality . . . many technological developments were first depicted in science fiction (including pulp magazines, novels, television, movies) long before they became real. POPnology celebrates how fantasy can become reality!

Do you know that author Jules Verne, in the 19th century, dreamed up videoconferencing, moon rockets and electric submarines? And that H. G. Wells predicted genetic engineering, lasers and automatic doors? And that Ray Bradbury anticipated earbuds, self-driving cars and ATMs, long before they existed?

This extensive exhibition is loaded with nostalgic artifacts, models and interactive displays. If you’re interested in the history of technology, there’s plenty of information for your brain.

And for fun? There’s a Back to the Future DeLorean, complete with flux capacitor! (Will time travel be in our future?) Kids can remotely manipulate a robot arm to transport dinosaur eggs. (Jurassic Park!) There’s an honest-to-goodness 3D-printed automobile. There are lots and lots of cool robots–a sure kid-pleaser. And much more!

There are surprising new discoveries at every turn!

POPnology is certain to fascinate both the young and the old, as it transports curious minds from the past (and present) to the future.

I took a few photographs at the Comic-Con Museum to provide a small taste….

…

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)!

Star of India crew trains for historic sail!

Crew members of San Diego’s world-famous tall ship Star of India were training today for her upcoming journey into the wide Pacific Ocean!

Accompanied by a fleet of beautiful sailboats and Maritime Museum of San Diego vessels, Star of India will sail out beyond Point Loma on November 11th and 12th, 2023, to celebrate her 160th birthday!

This morning I stood on the Embarcadero watching the sail crew hauling at lines, raising a sail, and practicing the complicated dance that is required to maneuver the world’s oldest active sailing ship. The crew will be training each Sunday up until the big weekend next month.

If you want to buy tickets for Star of India’s historic sail, go to the Maritime Museum website here.

Enjoy my photographs, taken from the nearby boardwalk…

…

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)!

Cool photo memories from October 2018.

Five years ago, during the month of October, so much was going on that Cool San Diego Sights was overflowing with photographs!

Anyone interested in technology, or archaeology, or dance, or sailing, or visual arts, or architecture, or the history of San Diego had many diverse places and events to experience!

Get ready to travel back in time to 2018!

Here come a dozen memories…

Click the following links for many photographs:

Paintings by Kadir Nelson exhibited in San Diego.

Dancers portray the homeless in San Diego.

Photos outside 2018 Maker Faire San Diego!

Unfolding Humanity appears at Maker Faire!

Rowing For the Cure on beautiful Mission Bay.

Photos of Massing of the Colors in San Diego.

Beautiful works of glass art in Balboa Park!

Historical exhibit features archives at City Hall.

Learning about archaeology in San Diego!

Sailing . . . kite boarding . . . racing on the bay!

An amazing Wyland mural cruises into San Diego!

Photos of North Park’s Day of the Dead festival!

A dark, disturbing look at art Beyond Reason.

Frank the Trainman mural Train of Wisdom.

An architectural landmark in University Heights.

…

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)!

William Heath Davis Monument for downtown!

There are plans to place a monument to William Heath Davis in downtown San Diego. I learned about the project today. Drawings and details from the proposal were on display at the Gaslamp Museum‘s booth at the Pacific Islander Festival!

The connection to this festival? William Heath “Kanaka” Davis, Jr., the original creator of New Town San Diego, was born in Hawaii!

The bust of William Heath Davis will be placed in Pantoja Park, downtown San Diego’s first city park, which he also created. The photo above shows how the sculpture will generally appear.

You can expand my images of the information signs to read details!

…Kanaka Davis grew fond of San Diego’s warm weather and envisioned a thriving seaport, commercial center, and residential community along the waterfront which he dubbed New Town San Diego. With other investors, Kanaka Davis bought 160 acres of waterfront land, laid out streets, created Pantoja Park…

Seventeen years later, Alonzo Horton added his subdivision to the east of New Town, which today is the Gaslamp Quarter. Both Kanaka Davis and Alonzo Horton were the pillars that created downtown San Diego…

Project is a pedestal monument with a plaque and head bust… Pantoja Park…was founded by William Heath Davis in 1850. The proposed monument describes the founding of Pantoja Park…

…

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)!

Art from the Great Depression in Oceanside.

A very fine exhibition of American art from around the time of the Great Depression is now on view at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection contains works that were created between the 1920s and the end of World War II. Many pieces by California artists are included, including San Diego’s own Charles Reiffel. The paintings are often dark, with images of poverty, violence and barren places. But there are glimpses of beauty, too, and of life’s striving, and inextinguishable humanity.

According to one sign: “Names for this art have ranged from Regionalism and American Scene Painting to Social Realism and American Expressionism.” I’m by no means an art expert, but I can tell you these diverse works are emotionally stirring. The artists, through the lens of their own experience, sought to capture true things from a difficult period of American history.

Enjoy a visit to the Oceanside Museum of Art no later than November 5, 2023. You’ll see how extraordinary this special exhibition is. It was organized by the Crocker Art Museum, Oceanside Museum of Art, and The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.

Hooverville on East Tenth Street, Louis Ribak, circa 1940. In the late 1930s, Ribak worked on several murals for the Works Progress Administration.

The Hex Sign, Lancaster County, PA, Ernest Fiene, 1936.

Harlem Cows, Jan Matulka, circa 1924. The depiction of cows evidences the artist’s exposure to Cubism.

A Vale in Death Valley, Helen Forbes, 1939. The artist during the WPA era produced murals for post offices in Susanville, Merced and Monrovia, California.

Worker and Machine, Hugo Gellert, 1928. The artist focused on the struggles of the working class. He was an illustrator for The New Yorker and New York Times.

…

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)!

Tour the Stein Family Farm in National City!

Do you love history? Would you like to tour a historic, over hundred-year-old farm that still stands in the heart of National City?

You should visit the Stein Family Farm!

I published a blog post in early 2021 that included photographs from the street of the farm’s exterior. I detailed the history of the Stein family. Their farm dates from the early 1900s. You can read what I wrote by clicking here.

The farm is presently owned by the Community Development Commission of the City of National City and operated by the National City Living History Farm Preserve. Visitors to the old farm can see what rural National City was like many years ago.

Last Saturday I stepped through the front gate of the Stein Family Farm and received an amazing tour by historian and caretaker Christopher Pro.

We walked through the farmhouse and I learned about its antique furnishings. We peered into the old barn at a horse-driven carriage. We walked through the property and met a surprising variety of domesticated animals that seemed pleased to meet visitors, then we took a look at the farm’s orchard where many different fruit trees provide a living classroom for student arborists.

I saw parents with young kids rambling around the grounds, enjoying the animals and an inviting butterfly garden. One family soaked in the Southern California sunshine while sitting at the picnic benches near a big vegetable garden.

A visit to the Stein Family Farm is free, although donations are welcome. The farm is located at 1808 F Avenue in National City. It’s open every Saturday, from 10 am to 2 pm.

Do you love animals and/or gardening? They welcome new volunteers!

I should have written down notes during my amazing tour. I’ve tried to remember a few tidbits of interesting information, so read my photo captions. I welcome comments, as usual!

Look for this sign!

Some old farm machinery parked near the orchard.

The front of the Stein farmhouse.

The front porch.

Inside the farmhouse. Portraits of Charles and Bertha Stein on their wedding day.

School kids visiting the Stein Family Farm on field trips can see what life was like a century ago.

I learned this was Charles Stein’s saddle. Some of the antique furnishings aren’t originally from the farmhouse.

Looking back from the dining room, which was a bit too dark for taking sharp photos with my old camera.

In the early 1900s, fancy teacups probably arrived from the east by train.

A look at the Stein farmhouse kitchen. That green thing is a breadbox.

I turn my camera to the right.

I learned some of these tins and boxes represent local businesses from the past.

The farmhouse’s original stove. On top I see an iron, washboard and sausage maker.

Porch on the south side of the farmhouse appears very inviting!

We walk a short distance to the old barn.

The hand-cranked device on the left is for sheep shearing. On the right is an antique device for separating cream.

An old carriage inside the barn.

That strange cow near the barn once stood at the Purple Cow Dairy Store.

Heading toward the many farm animals!

A turkey wonders who I am.

We pass a beautiful little butterfly garden. School kids like it, too.

Butterfly knowledge on a sign.

Yes, it’s an emu!

Two pigs digesting their breakfast.

Hello!

All the animals are very friendly.

This chart shows the animals of the Stein Family Farm. Each has been given a name. A Polish Chicken with a crazy hairdo is named Phyllis Diller! The different animal breeds have origins around the world.

Gazing west toward the lush orchard. Many different fruit trees were mentioned.

A fun stage or photo backdrop. Weddings are sometimes held here.

Lots of inviting picnic tables.

A well-tended vegetable garden.

Looking back toward the old farmhouse. That big tree on the right is a Torrey pine.

A great place for meetings. Scouts and local clubs often gather here.

An Eagle Scout project resulted in this long, rustic table.

Tour’s almost over.

…

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)!