Tag: history

Creating a huge bronze mural for Balboa Park!

A couple of incredible projects are now underway that will improve and beautify the Palisades area of Balboa Park.

One project I wrote about yesterday. Two life-size grizzly bear sculptures and two flagpoles will be added to the roof of the San Diego Automotive Museum. You can read that blog post here.

The second project concerns the historical building directly across Pan American Plaza: today’s Municipal Gymnasium. This building was originally built for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park and was called the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries.

Back in 1935, a large themed mural greeted visitors above the entrance to the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries. It was a bas-relief designed by Arturo Eneim, carved out of layers of wallboard. It’s long gone.

But that mural is coming back! And it will be made of cold cast bronze!

In late 2021 I visited the San Diego studio of Bellagio Precast where the 12′ x 20′ cold cast bronze fiber glass reinforced concrete mural is being created. You can see interesting photos from that visit, plus renderings and more description, by clicking here. And here.

I visited the same studio again a couple days ago and observed how the enormous mural is coming together, piece by piece!

Architectural plans for the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural are spread near a small model at Bellagio Precast in San Diego.

A small model of the cast bronze mural, which includes industrial imagery, an electrical generator, and three human figures.

Here’s the mold used for the small model’s creation. You can see how the images are reversed.

The design for the electrical generator element that will be included in the large, finished mural.

And here is the generator! Just one element of many that will be pieced together to create a mold for the massive cast bronze mural.

More elements to be incorporated into the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural include huge gears!

This monumental project is being undertaken by the Balboa Park Committee of 100.

I’ve learned the fantastic mural should be completed and installed above the entrance to the Municipal Gymnasium building around September this year!

…

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!

Grizzly bears ready for Balboa Park rooftop!

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–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!

…

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!

San Diego’s hidden gem pockets!

An exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum explains how San Diego County is the richest region in California for precious gems.

Gemstones that can be found in the mountains of San Diego County include tourmaline, garnet, topaz, beryl and spodumene. We are world-renowned for our tourmaline!

The exhibit demonstrates how these precious gems form inside pegmatites–a rock formation that can occur as magma cools. Large gem bearing pegmatites are found in San Diego’s North County, near Palomar Mountain.

Tourmaline has been mined in San Diego County since the 1890s. The Himalaya Mine alone has extracted about 250,000 pounds of mineral specimens.

I remember as a boy heading with my family up to the Stewart Lithia mine in Pala. For a fee, we spent an hour on hands and knees sifting through the mine tailings, searching for gems. We were delighted to find a handful of small pink, green and watermelon tourmalines! We also found a fair amount of lepidolite (a source of lithium). It was a lot of fun!

I see the Himalaya Mine has a Facebook page. Check it out here.

…

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!

Old building from New Deal in La Mesa.

When I took a walk through La Mesa a couple weeks ago, I noticed a historical plaque on the above building.

With walls that are partly made of stone, this little old building is located directly adjacent to the larger, more modern Adult Enrichment Center, which is operated by the City of La Mesa.

BUILT BY UNITED STATES WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION 1937

According to an online timeline, two New Deal WPA projects in La Mesa include this 1937 Senior Clubhouse.

I spoke to a city employee inside the Adult Enrichment Center, and she indicated there are plans to move this building, stones and all, to MacArthur Park.

The old clubhouse is beautiful in a rustic way. To me, it appears like a visitor center or ranger station you’d find nestled in the forest of a National Park.

I assume that small stone structure across a walkway was built back in 1937, too.

Anyone who knows more, or has memories to share, please leave a comment!

…

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!

Site of first house built in Solana Beach.

The very first house built in Solana Beach was located on today’s Highway 101. That’s what a sign that I saw during a recent walk attests.

Perhaps driving along you’ve seen the above Plaza 101 sign, about a block south of Lomas Santa Fe Drive. It features the following plaque:

When I do some quick research, however, I find the first house in the area might have actually sat on Pepper Tree Lane, now called Del Mar Downs Road. Built in 1887, the Stevens House was moved to La Colonia Park and now houses the museum of the Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society. (It’s a museum that I have not yet visited.)

I believe the plaque refers to the Estes Home at 155 S. Highway 101. The Solana Beach Civic And Historical Society website explains: When Colonel Ed Fletcher bought Solana Beach in 1922, there were only two houses, George Jones’s house on Barbara Street (later occupied by Herschell Larrick Sr. and his family) and this Highway 101 house of Jones’s sister, Lucy Estes and her husband, N. H. Estes, and their son, Herb. The Estes family was originally from San Francisco. They built this first home in Solana Beach on the narrow dirt road highway 101 and put in a well.

You can see photos of the Estes home here.

During walks on and around old Highway 101, Solana Beach’s first commercial center, I’ve discovered a number of historical buildings. You can see those photographs here and here and here!

…

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!

Drugs, snacks, and a Solana Beach garage!

There’s a small building in Solana Beach’s historical downtown that appears very unusual. The wood structure seems quaintly out of place, as if it belongs in a rural setting. I stumbled upon this building while walking down Acacia Avenue, about a block south of Plaza Street.

According to a plaque, the building that today houses Sindi’s Snack Shack began in 1931 as a detached garage for the Witmer family’s residence and drug store.

I found this page on the Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society’s website with an old photo of the Witmer drug store’s storefront on Highway 101.

Witmer’s Sandwiches, Fountain and Sundries sold patent medicines and odds and ends, plus featured a soda fountain.

There’s also a description of their garage’s history. From the early 1980s up until the COVID-19 pandemic, it was home to a breakfast spot called Hideaway Cafe.

Here’s the original Witmer garage as it is today:

…

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!

The history of four buildings in Lakeside.

In 2021, the Maine Avenue Revitalization Association in Lakeside provided notable buildings with informative plaques. The plaques explain the history of each building, from the time they were built to the present.

During my recent walk down Maine Avenue in Lakeside, I photographed four of these buildings.

Please enjoy the following windows into the past of a rural town in San Diego’s East County…

PARK MARKET/PAYTON’S HARDWARE STORE

This was the site of Ferguson’s Park Store in 1923. It contained a soda fountain, picnic supplies, and a few groceries… …The Depression caused the store to close in 1931… The building burned to the ground in 1997. The store was rebuilt and reopened in 1999.

***

LEO’S PHARMACY

Built in 1923 by Lakeside Development Company. This building was home to Otto Marack’s Grocery Store… …in 1960 it became Leo’s Pharmacy…

***

BARKER & SONS

…in 1929…Heller started building this large, one story Spanish styled stucco commercial structure and the house behind it (now the Chamber of Commerce) for the store’s family… …it evolved into one of the first Safeway stores in the county…

***

9825 MAINE AVENUE

Formally known as the Tumbleweed Cafe in the 1950’s and then later as a bar…As the Tumbleweed Bar, the Rattlesnake Round-up was held…Later it was Payton’s Lawnmower Shop.

…

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!

Jack Murphy statue at Snapdragon Stadium.

The other day I walked around the new Snapdragon Stadium, just to see what I might see. And I was pleased to stumble upon the old statue of Jack Murphy and his dog that used to greet fans at Qualcomm Stadium!

Years ago I took photos of the statue when it stood between the trolley station and Qualcomm Stadium. When that stadium was demolished, I wondered what would become of the bronze sculpture. Well, I see it’s now located on the north side of Snapdragon Stadium!

You can view those past photos and learn about Jack Murphy, the sculpture’s origin, and its artist by clicking here. (You’ll find out the name of the Labrador Retriever is Abe!)

I wonder, what happened to the second plaque–the one full of details about Jack Murphy Field?

…

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 new look for old Horton Plaza!

Horton Plaza, the colorful old shopping mall that once attracted crowds to downtown San Diego, is now being redeveloped into a brand new mixed-use research campus called Horton.

I walked past the north entrance of the original Horton Plaza this morning. And look what I saw!

That’s very different from how things originally appeared! You can see the change in the next photograph that I took in 2014, while a small demonstration house was being built by Habitat For Humanity in nearby Horton Square…

Next is a photo I took in 2020 while Horton Plaza’s redevelopment was getting underway…

And here comes a photo taken later that year after the north entry’s original façade was entirely removed…

And now, here’s how things appears today!

This morning, after taking photos of Horton’s new north entrance, I proceeded south down First Avenue along the project’s west side, until I reached Horton’s southwest corner at G Street…

The Horton website provides an idea of how the interior of the complex will appear when completed. As you can see, some of the fun architectural elements of old Horton Plaza will be retained.

UPDATE!

In July 2023 I was walking down Fourth Avenue when I noticed the Balboa Theatre, at the northeast corner of old Horton Plaza, has been painted mostly white!

The new paint job will make it fit in with the rest of Horton’s white exterior. But is this an improvement?

Here’s how the Balboa Theatre used to appear…

The Balboa Theatre stands adjacent to downtown's equally famous Horton Plaza.

…

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!

Historic 1930 Mobil Gas Station in Lakeside.

Drivers heading down Maine Avenue in Lakeside, California might recognize the old Mobil symbol of the winged red horse, Pegasus, flying above a smog check station. What they might not realize is the building they are passing is one of the oldest gas stations remaining in San Diego County.

During my recent visit to Lakeside, I noticed a plaque near the front door of Lakeside Auto Service, so I had to check it out. I then met Ramon, the friendly owner, who told me a little about the history of his building. The original gas station was built in 1930. It also housed Lakeside’s first volunteer fire company.

I learned that Ramon has been working hard to maintain and improve the historic building. He takes pride in helping to preserve this important part of the community.

I was told that, among other plans, Ramon would like to add some old-fashioned gas pumps in front of the building. Like those you see in my photo of the Historical Landmark banner. That would be really cool!

MOBIL GAS STATION

BUILT 1930 ON THE JULIAN HIGHWAY (LRN 198 – LATER HIGHWAY 67)

HOME OF LAKESIDE’S FIRST FIRE TRUCK AND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, ESTABLISHED 1954 FIRE CHIEF AND STATION OWNER/OPERATOR ED HARRISON

ONE OF THE OLDEST GAS STATIONS REMAINING IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY RESTORED BY RAMON IBARRA 2018

“OUR MISSION IS TO GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY AND GIVE PEOPLE A PLACE THEY CAN BE PROUD OF”

MAINE AVENUE REVITALIZATION ASSOCIATION (EST. 1993)

…

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!