Tag: history

Remembering the Holocaust in La Jolla.

The lead photo of this blog post is horrifying. It serves to remind us that we humans are capable of unspeakable atrocities.

An exhibition at the La Jolla/Riford Branch Library concerns one of those atrocities: the Holocaust.

RUTH: Remember Us the Holocaust, through words written and spoken by local Holocaust survivors, biographies, artifacts and photographs, serves to remind us that horrors like this must be forever remembered and resisted by ordinary, kind-hearted people.

One way to cement our need to remember is to visit the exhibition and experience what life was like for Jewish people and others in Germany under the Nazis before and during World War II. The irrational hatred, persecution, mass murder.

Why must people act this way?

Life is short enough. Why not simply be kind?

Why on Earth would anyone want to murder over a million children?

RUTH: Remember Us the Holocaust’s curator is Sandra Scheller, daughter of Holocaust survivors Ruth and Kurt Sax. She grew up in the South Bay of San Diego. She’s the author of Try To Remember Never Forget, and the creator of the documentary with the same name. Sandra’s TED talk, Keeping Memories Alive, has been used throughout schools as a learning platform for Holocaust education and TED Talk future speakers.

The exhibition is not only open to the public on the second floor of the La Jolla library, but many school children continue to learn an important part of history by visiting the extensive displays.

You can learn more about the exhibition and its Holocaust survivor speaker series by visiting the RUTH: Remember Us the Holocaust website here.

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Holocaust survivors speak at La Jolla library.

You have an extraordinary opportunity. Holocaust survivors and their family members have been speaking all year at the La Jolla/Riford Branch Library. See the above schedule. The next speaker will be at the La Jolla library on Tuesday, May 13.

The second floor of the La Jolla library is currently hosting the exhibition RUTH: Remember Us the Holocaust, which recalls the horrors of a nightmarish period in human history that no one should ever forget.

I blogged about this exhibition several years ago when it was showing in Chula Vista. See those photos here. I’ll be blogging about the current exhibition in La Jolla (which is even more powerful) shortly.

Meanwhile, please spread the word. Holocaust survivors will continue to recall their personal experiences the second Tuesday of each month. Bring your friends. This is incredibly important.

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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.

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La Mesa’s historical Spring House.

I asked a gentleman at the La Mesa Community Center if there were interesting places to visit in the neighborhood, and was told about Collier Park and its Spring House. He told me the historical house was undergoing restoration. Curious, I headed over to investigate.

I walked around the somewhat dilapidated old Spring House and found a sign that describes its history. I was surprised to learn about the origin of the name Spring Street–an important nearby street that runs through downtown La Mesa.

Collier Park – Spring House – City of La Mesa Landmark #3

The Spring House was constructed for Colonel David Charles (D.C.) Collier in 1907. The original plan for the Spring House to be a commercial bottling operation of the natural spring water was never realized. The natural springs were also what attracted stock rancher Robert Allison to purchase the area in 1869. The bottling works plant captured water from the adjacent natural spring and contained a storage reservoir for the water. It was constructed with locally quarried stone blocks. Water from the spring was pumped to the civic fountain at the La Mesa Railroad Depot from 1915 until the late 1960s. After the establishment of Collier Park, the Spring House has been used for pool dressing rooms, meetings, classroom and event space.

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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.

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World War II map remains in Balboa Park!

Balboa Park contains many surprises!

If poke your nose inside the Santa Fe Room of the Balboa Park Club building, you’ll find a large map on one wall. The old map is a remnant of the park’s fascinating history.

During World War II, the Palisades part of Balboa Park was turned into Camp Kidd Naval Training Station, a U.S. Navy facility that included hospital wards, training facilities and barracks.

The Balboa Park Club building, which had been the Palace of Education for the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition, was converted into a temporary annex to the naval hospital with a dispensary and mess hall. Here’s an interesting web page about Camp Kidd.

The building’s Santa Fe Room, with its map of The Pacific and Far East, became the Camp Kidd Officers’ Club. Visitors to the park today can view that same map–provided the room is open and not being used for a special event.

I had to increase the contrast quite a bit for my two photographs, to bring out more detail.

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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.

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The 1915 San Diego Exposition Auto Road Race.

A famous car race was held in Point Loma in 1915. A historical display at the San Diego Automotive Museum recalls how the San Diego Exposition Auto Road Race involved many famous race car drivers of the era and received nationwide attention.

The race promoted the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. It is estimated 50,000 people watched the 305 mile race as it looped through Point Loma’s rather rough-appearing streets. The winning purse was a whopping (for 1915) $5,000. Only five of the eighteen drivers would finish the race.

The race winner would be Earl Cooper in Stutz No. 8. His average speed was a nail-biting 65.3 miles per hour!

A vintage car accompanies the museum display. The 1932 Morgan Super Sports, as much as it resembles some of the earlier race cars, debuted 17 years after the San Diego Exposition Auto Road Race was held. It can go 100 miles per hour–much faster.

When I saw this historical display, I immediately remembered my experience of the 1915 Road Race vintage car show. That amazing event was held in the parking lot by the San Diego Automotive Museum during Balboa Park’s centennial in 2015. See those photos here.

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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.

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250th Anniversary of Revolutionary War in San Diego!

April 19, 2025 is the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. A special event celebrating that first victory of patriotic Minutemen over the redcoats of the Kingdom of Great Britain was held today in San Diego!

At Mormon Battalion Historic Site in Old Town, local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution welcomed the public to the colorful and educational event.

DAR and SAR members, who are descended from patriots of the American Revolutionary War, were dressed in colonial garb. Historical information was available at a number of tables.

I was met by many smiles!

Above is the City of San Diego Proclamation concerning the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Concord.

Whereas, on this day…the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord, igniting a struggle for liberty and self-government that would shape the course of history…

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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.

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Sculpture honors Lakeside Rodeo’s Ben Bruton.

Perhaps you’ve seen this sculpture in front Lakeside’s Olde Community Church, home of the Lakeside Historical Society. It depicts a cowboy on a bucking bronco.

The sculpture is in memory of “Mr. Lakeside Rodeo” Ben Bruton. A nearby sign explains: In 1965 Ben Bruton and his associates brought back the rodeo to Lakeside CA to raise money and build a stadium for the kids of El Capitan High School… This bucking bronco statue was a gift to Lakeside by Mr. & Mrs. Mike Bruton to honor his father’s dream to have a rodeo in Lakeside CA for the benefit of our children…

According to this informative Facebook post from 2014: Mike Bruton, Son of Ben Bruton, acquired this statue of a bronc busting cowboy from Bobby Unser Jr. The post goes on to describe the Lakeside Rodeo, and how it went on to become an annual event.

This great article elaborates further on the history of past rodeos in Lakeside.

So far I haven’t ascertained who created the sculpture. If you know the artist, please leave a comment below!

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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.

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Views from Coast View Parking at Cabrillo.

Few people enjoy the scenic view in the above photograph. That’s because the remote Coast View parking lot is seldom visited at Cabrillo National Monument.

The small parking lot can be found at the end of Cabrillo Road, just before the gate to the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. Most park visitors who drive down Cabrillo Road stop at Tidepools Parking and go no farther.

I recently posted a blog about my amazing hike up the Coastal Trail. I began from a spot near Tidepools Parking and walked north to Sea Cove Parking, where the trail ends. I didn’t mention that from the latter parking lot, I continued north a short distance along the side of Cabrillo Road, in order to reach Coast View Parking. That’s where these photographs were taken.

An overlook at the Coast View parking lot not only offers scenic views of the Pacific Ocean and sandstone bluffs, but there are information signs well worth reading.

Here I am carefully walking north along the side of Cabrillo Road…

I’ve arrived at Coast View Parking. There are benches where people can relax and gaze out toward the ocean.

A sign contains a poem…

“…The great rhythms of nature…have here their spacious and primeval liberty…”

Above the parking lot, up atop the Point Loma peninsula, one can see Battery Ashburn…

Embedded in the ridge in front of you was one of San Diego’s most important defenses during World War II. Well-hidden from approaching ships, Battery Ashburn housed two 16-inch guns…

Workers finished building the battery in March of 1944… Vibrations from the blast were so intense that they were rumored to have cracked windows in Hotel del Coronado across the harbor…

Turning east, I lifted my camera and took this photo of historic Battery Ashburn:

I then noticed a truck leaving the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, which handles sewage and gray water created by more then 2.2 million people who live nearby!

A beautiful day at Cabrillo National Monument, and a parking lot that few people visit…

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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.

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Negro Leagues baseball exhibit opens in San Diego!

An extraordinary exhibit concerning the history of baseball’s Negro Leagues officially opens tomorrow, April 15, 2025, in San Diego!

Extensive displays celebrating African-American baseball players who helped lead the way to a more integrated and tolerant society can now be enjoyed on the 8th Floor Reading Room of the Central Library. The exhibit is titled Barrier Breakers.

Visitors to the Central Library are in for a treat. The epic exhibition is brought to our city by the San Diego Padres and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

There are biographies of athletes who competed in the Negro Leagues–complete with stats, accomplishments, photographs and memories. There are stories of how trailblazing players were eventually accepted by Major League Baseball. Different eras are represented, and key moments are remembered.

As one might expect, Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball, has a special place in the exhibit. It’s no coincidence that tomorrow, the day Breaking Barriers opens, is Jackie Robinson Day. Jackie made history by starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

Another display celebrates the San Diego Padres’ own trailblazer, hometown hero catcher Johnny Ritchey. He made Pacific Coast League history when he joined the team in 1948. (He had seven hits in his first eleven plate appearances!)

Anyone who is a baseball, sports or history buff needs to check out Barrier Breakers. I just happened to swing by the Central Library today, and was super fortunate to observe a special preview presentation.

If you can’t make it to San Diego’s downtown Central Library, you can view an online virtual exhibit by clicking here.

Just a few photos…

During today’s special presentation, Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, presented The Home Run for Humanity Award to worthy recipients in San Diego. Congrats to all!

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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.

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Monument coming for downtown San Diego founder!

On May 10, 2025, a monument will be unveiled in the northeast corner of Pantoja Park. The bust of William Heath Davis Jr. will debut, commemorating the founder of downtown San Diego!

The public event will take place between 10:30 am and 2 pm. There will be speeches, informational booths, a blessing by Kumeyaay Bird Singers, and Pacific Islander traditions. William Heath Davis “Kanaka Bill” was born in Hawaii.

Many associate Alonzo Horton with the founding of downtown San Diego. Horton’s ultimately successful New Town, however, came after an attempt by William Heath Davis to build a new community closer to San Diego Bay than the original Old Town San Diego… His New Town was located west of today’s Gaslamp Quarter. The venture did not do well due to a lack of fresh water and hostility from the established settlements at Old Town and La Playa…

Pantoja Park, at 500 West G Street, was established in 1850. It was created at the center of William Heath Davis’ 160-acre subdivision and is San Diego’s oldest city park. Originally it was known as New Town Park. Appropriately, it will be home to the soon-to-be-unveiled bust.

The William Heath Davis Monument and the Monument Unveiling Ceremony are the work of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation and The Kanaka Davis Trust Group.

(I saw a preview of the monument a couple years ago. See that blog post here.)

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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.

Feel free to share!