Painting of female face in window of a small shop in East Village containing odd bits of art and used items.
Enjoy these miscellaneous photos of interesting things I’ve spotted while walking around downtown. Examples of artistry and creativity can be seen almost everywhere. Even a bit of wisdom. One simply has to look.
A decorative bird cage dangles above the sidewalk beside Pappalecco, a popular Little Italy cafe.Wine bottles converted into human musicians in the window of Michael J Wolf Fine Arts in the Gaslamp.Beautiful relief panel at entrance to the Embarcadero’s now closed Anthony’s Fish Grotto. An underwater scene.Navy pinup artwork on a tattoo parlor’s entrance sign in the Gaslamp.Wisdom on a corner of a downtown building. Give love. Get love.This artistic metal gate definitely caught my eye as I walked around San Diego!The mosaic tilework of an eatery’s outdoor table in East Village.Colorful tiles beneath foliage above a garage door.Depiction of a city on the wall of Sixth Avenue Bistro.Fancy artwork painted on a column. Photo taken in the lobby courtyard of La Pensione Hotel.Interesting twisted iron gate and shadows on the wall behind it.Unusual bent lamppost along Broadway near Harbor Drive.Cool painting of male face found leaning up against a dumpster enclosure on Cortez Hill.
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Volunteers in downtown San Diego add a coat of paint to a metal post. A wonderful community project put together by the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
A busy morning! I’ve got lots of fun photos coming! First, check out something really fantastic. The Downtown San Diego Partnership arranged for a bunch of generous volunteers to help beautify the city! The resident volunteers converged this morning at Eighth Avenue and B Street, were given paint and brushes, and were then shown lampposts in the area that need a coat of paint!
Thank you Downtown San Diego Partnership for working to keep the heart of our city in tip top shape! I was told this sort of event might occur in the future on a regular basis. Hopefully this blog post helps to raise awareness a bit!
Around 150 volunteers had signed up to paint lamp posts. Many had gathered at Eighth Avenue and B Street just after nine o’clock when I walked through the area.Getting the paint ready at the center of the parking lot where all the volunteers gathered in downtown’s Core district.The base of a downtown lamppost has been primed and is ready to be painted by volunteers. Hundreds of posts would be painted today!A worker for the Clean and Safe program beautifies downtown San Diego. As a resident, I thank you all.These nice volunteers were painting their third lamppost as I walked back through the area later in the day!
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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!
A funny spotted creature of some kind decorates an electrical box on Fourth Avenue near the Quince Street Bridge.
I got off work early and wanted to enjoy the remaining daylight. So I took the 120 bus to Hillcrest and walked down Fourth Avenue from University Avenue to Elm Street.
I found some fun street art on electrical boxes in both Hillcrest and Bankers Hill!
A spray painted face lit by sunshine early one morning in Hillcrest, near Fourth Avenue and Robinson Avenue.
Okay, you caught me! The above photo was taken one morning a couple months ago. It was sitting in my computer. All the others are from late this afternoon.
A guitar and stars decorate a utility box.Colorful art shows a street scene! Copies, bread, coffee and outdoor diners come together under a blue sky near Fourth Avenue and Laurel Street.Ice cream, barber, eyes, dentist. A happy stick figure walks down an imaginary Bankers Hill sidewalk.A contented face on a utility box near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Laurel Street.Lots of stars and some hearts.According to some writing on this transformer, these are space plants and moon flowers!
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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!
Gaslamp Museum at the William Heath Davis House and Park, 1850. Home of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation.
These photos inside the historic William Heath Davis House Museum were taken a few months ago. I toured the fascinating house during the Fall Back Festival, which is held every year in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
Dated 1850, the William Heath Davis House, like a number of other structures in early San Diego, was built on the East Coast and shipped around Cape Horn. At the time San Diego simply didn’t have the resources and tools required to build a fine wooden house. Various rooms inside the museum show what life was like in New Town a century and a half ago. It was a much simpler time. The small museum now sits in the middle of a gigantic, bustling metropolis.
Please read the photo captions for more info, and click the signs to read them.
Photo of the William Heath Davis House Museum taken from across Island Avenue.Tours of the historic house are available. A museum store contains fascinating gifts.The William Heath Davis House, built in 1850, is the oldest surviving structure from San Diego’s New Town. It is a prefabricated “salt-box” style home, shipped from Portland, Maine around Cape Horn.The 1850 Davis-Horton House was used as a military barracks, county hospital, and was home to New Town’s founder Alonzo Horton and several other families over the years.Looking down the stairs from the second floor. A lady in Victorian attire welcomes visitors to the museum during the Fall Back Festival in November.A look at the first floor living room where family and guests would gather.A small piano, sheet music, teacup and candle. Entertainment in the olden days was simple.The dining table is set for a grand meal in what was then a sparsely populated New Town San Diego.An old sewing machine can be found by a window upstairs.The nursery, with crib, chest and small bed.Three beds for the children have colorful quilts.A desk in the study, framed photos, and a cabinet full of books. No internet back then!An old-fashioned penny-farthing bicycle reminds visitors to the William Heath Davis House Museum of what life was like a century and a half ago in San Diego.
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Walking past public art in Chula Vista’s Bayside Park. The Fisherman is a sculpture of a great egret, created by Stephen Fairfield, 2006.
Look at these cool examples of public art! I spotted them Saturday during my visit to Chula Vista’s Bayside Park.
Some of the artwork, as you can see, is rather strange and surprising! Read the photo captions to learn more!
The Fisherman, by Stephen Fairfield, was a part of a past Urban Trees exhibition along San Diego’s Embarcadero. It’s now part of the Port of San Diego Tidelands Collection.Dark shadow of what appears to be a gigantic egret on a walkway in Bayside Park.One of several tables by San Diego Bay containing a tile chess board.Walking north along the beach area. Downtown San Diego and the Coronado Bay Bridge can be seen in the distance.Still walking north, toward more interesting public art at Chula Vista’s Bayside Park. This is Wind Oars by George Peters and Melanie Walker, 2004.Oars in the blue sky change position in the shifting wind. A kinetic artwork landmark in San Diego’s South Bay.Like rowing through blue water above.At the north end of Bayside Park, we now approach some unusual temporary art. Bench Party, by artists Jose Parral and Tasia Paulson, will be on display through May 20, 2017.Visitors to the Bayside Park might sit here and talk, or take in views of San Diego Bay.A large group of people could sit here and have a bench party!The huge travelift at Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista is seen beyond the benches. Super yachts and large boats can be lifted out of the water there.A breakwater by Marine Group Boat Works looks like strange art on the water. Rising in the distance we can see Point Loma.A bird swims past stacked rocks.Feeding birds at a park picnic bench.A second sculpture from an Urban Trees exhibition is also located at Bayside Park. This is San Diego Synergy, by Kent Kraber, 2007.Seabirds soar above fish, their food.A school of fish in the ocean kelp.A silvery tuna between a fishing boat and sailboat, at the base of the San Diego Synergy sculpture in Chula Vista.
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
A lady with flowers in her long flowing purple hair.
Late this morning I went to the San Diego Tet Festival at Mira Mesa Community Park. (I’ll blog about that shortly.) Hoping to avoid crowds, I parked a distance from the park before the festival opened, then spent a half hour or so walking around the area.
I was happy to spy a whole bunch of cool street art in the vicinity of Mira Mesa Boulevard and Camino Ruiz! Naturally, I had to take some photos!
Lovely street art painted on a transformer box in Mira Mesa.A tree behind a white fence seems to bear pencils.Are mushrooms sprouting from the nearby grass?A seeming dream takes the form of mazy images. This street art is on a utility box near the intersection of Mira Mesa Boulevard and Camino Ruiz.Just a big heart and simple blocks of bright color.Looks like a Chargers bolt. Unfortunately, San Diego’s NFL football team bolted.One Love and many symbols atop a utility box in Mira Mesa.A painted Asian landscape. Mountains rise from turbulent water.Another side of the same dramatic box.A happy mug of coffee gives a wink near muffins, beneath musical notes.Happy food and drink!A happy face on a blue teacup!Kid with phonograph sits at base of a pagoda in this unique street art.A bunch of colored circles.A red, geometric, minimalist bit of street art.Colors pieced together like stained glass, and a rising koi on this utility box.Koi, water, sun and clouds.I can’t quite make out the beginning of what is written. I can read: Mira Mesa remain Strong, Brave and Proud!Two colorful electrical boxes along Mira Mesa Boulevard.Looks like a hip hop kid with a big funky cap.An old school phonograph!Looks like one of those trick squirting flowers.Two beautiful flowers.This puzzle-like street art looks both ancient and alien.A touching image of a young girl. She seems to sit alone on the sidewalk.Abstract hills, trees and blue beams of sunshine.More cool street art in Mira Mesa.A flying saucer cat and an orange tabby that doesn’t appear amused.A smiling girl astronaut among happy colorful stars.A dog in a space helmet joyfully rockets above a ringed planet.
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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!
Some happy street art in National City. A high five, pink rabbit and heart.
I found even more cool street art while walking around National City! Check out these photos! Colorful utility boxes and transformers seemed to pop up wherever I turned!
Transinfinite Gems. Love Your Soul. Blessings and Love.A creatively painted utility box near a National City street corner. Is that a can of soda?Someone just let loose with many strokes of color on this transformer box!This cool street art definitely attracts the attention of people walking down the sidewalk!An abstract human figure that drips ink into a river. This fantastic image appears to be full of symbolism.More cool designs on a series of electrical boxes. National City, in San Diego’s South Bay, has lots of great street art!A contrast of real leaves and painted leaves.Barren trees in a purple-blue sky.Another side of the same box.Branches from sky and ground, like grasping, skeletal fingers.
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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!
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Another storm today. Enough outdoor drenchings for me. A good day to watch football and reorganize shelves. And maybe order a large pizza. And watch a DVD. And maybe sort through more photos!
Brick Row at National City’s Heritage Square. The long brick two-story structure was built by Frank Kimball in 1887.
To those traveling through gritty National City, Heritage Square can be a surprising discovery. Venture into the picturesque block, just south of the intersection of East 9th Street and A Avenue, and you feel like you’ve stepped back 150 years.
National City has a fascinating history. Originally used by the Spanish to graze horses, the land in the early 1800s, after Mexican independence, was called Rancho de la Nación. In 1868, a San Francisco builder named Frank Kimball bought the rancho with an ambitious dream. He intended to turn National City into the western terminus of the Santa Fe Railway.
You might remember my photographic tour of the National City depot, built in 1882 by the Santa Fe Railroad. It became the first terminus of transcontinental rail travel in the San Diego area. You can see that fascinating blog post here.
To accommodate executives of the Santa Fe Railroad and booming times caused by the arrival of rail, in 1887 Frank Kimball built Brick Row, a structure in the style of Philadelphia row house. It was designed by San Diego architect R. C. Ball. Over 240,000 bricks were used for the ten units.
Kimball’s full ambitions weren’t realized, however, when the Santa Fe Railroad soon turned their sights on Los Angeles, making that city their major center of operations in Southern California.
An early resident of the “Kimball Block” was legendary marshal Wyatt Earp, who came to Southern California after being indicted in Arizona for shooting the men who’d killed his brother. He is best known locally for opening three gambling halls in San Diego. In 1889, Wyatt Earp stayed in Brick Row when he traveled down to Tijuana, Mexico. There he famously refereed a prize fight during a fiesta that also featured cockfights, bullfights and a lassoing contest.
In the early 1970s, National City’s planning director, Malcolm C. Greschler, interested in preserving the deteriorating Brick Row, came up with the idea of creating Heritage Square, which would be a historical tourist attraction similar to San Diego’s Old Town. In 1973 Frank Kimball’s house was moved to Heritage Square.
The 1869 Kimball House has its own unique history. It was the first house built in National City. Not only did it have a bathtub, but it had hot running water, which made it the first modern house in the entire county. President Benjamin Harrison visited it in 1891 during his tour of the western United States. At the time, it was the longest journey ever made by a President while in office. President Harrison’s 9,232 mile trip by railroad took one month and three days!
In 1976 two more historical houses were moved to Heritage Square: the 1887 Stick-style Rice-Proctor House and the 1879 Steele-Blossom House, which is depicted on National City’s official logo.
A plaque that reads Heritage Square – Marked in honor of the National City Centennial by San Miguel Chapter NSDAR, 1987.Heritage Square in National City contains several historic structures from the mid to late 19th century.The Steele-Blossom House, built in 1879, is used by the city of National City in its official logo. Elizur Steele was real estate agent for Frank Kimball and his enterprising brothers.The 1869 Kimball house was moved to Heritage Square in 1975. It is now the Kimball Museum operated by the National City Historical Society.The 1887 Stick-style Rice-Proctor House in National City’s Heritage Square.The two-story Brick Row is composed of ten units with common walls.Sign reads National City Historic Site – Kimball Block – Also known as Brick Row, this block of Eastern-style flats was completed in 1887 at the then considerable cost of $22,000.Photo of a section of the handsome Brick Row. The building now houses several specialty shops and the National City Historical Archive Room.Walking through the historic block of Heritage Square in National City is like a wonderful voyage back in time.
UPDATE!
I took the following three photographs in 2021 during another walk through National City.
The first photo is of a sign providing information concerning Brick Row. I cropped the top of the photo off because the outdoor sign was plastered with unsightly bird poop!
The second photo is of a sign concerning the Kimball House. I see its dates are different than what I previously wrote. I got that info from some other source. Do your own research!
The third photo is of the Steele-Blossom House, which appears to have been repainted with different colors.
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A crane and huge pipes on Friars Road near the site of the San Diego River Double Track (SDRDT) project.
Here are some interesting photos! A new railroad bridge is being installed across the San Diego River just north of the Old Town Transit Station, allowing the Coaster and Pacific Surfliner trains to run faster and more reliably. This work is called the San Diego River Double Track (SDRDT) project. I’ve watched the progress for several months during my daily trolley commute. This construction is being done ahead of another project to install trolley tracks across the river for the Mid-Coast Trolley Project, which will extend Blue Line service up to UCSD and University Towne Center (UTC) in La Jolla.
I took these photos last Saturday during my walk along Friars Road approaching the San Diego River Estuary. I’m no expert on this construction–I’m just an ordinary citizen who was fascinated by what I saw!
A series of three big storms is beginning in San Diego as I post this. Hopefully the flooding in Mission Valley where I work doesn’t get completely out of hand! I might post photos!
I noticed these huge green tanks along Friars Road.I also saw these huge coils of steel cable.A big pile of dirt by the railroad bridge over the San Diego River where the double track work is taking place.I believe new train tracks will be on the other side of the existing bridge you see in this photo.Passing under the train tracks as I walk along a raised area beside Friars Road.Now I’m looking east at all sorts of construction equipment, gravel and other material.This thing looks like a huge drill! Perhaps its used for boring through the ground, but I’m not sure. If you know anything, leave a comment!
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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!