Tag: plaques

Hotel del Coronado’s industrial complex.

What’s that tall brick smokestack near the world-famous Hotel del Coronado?

It’s the most noticeable part of a historic industrial complex!

I walked around the Hotel Del’s old laundry building, ice house and power plant last month during the San Diego Architectural Foundation Open House event. I discovered several plaques that provide information about these three buildings, which, clustered south of the hotel lobby entrance, are called the industrial complex.

The brick building shown below once provided the Hotel del Coronado’s laundry service. It’s now home to The Laundry Pub!

Laundry, established 1919.

The original hotel laundry opened on the second floor of the Power Plant in January 1888. The Laundry occupied the majority of the second floor and employed 20 women. In 1919 this brick structure was built to house the laundry operation, which had expanded to serve all of Coronado Island with a fleet of five laundry trucks and a branch location on Orange Avenue. Laundry services were provided here for the hotel until 2018.

The next photo is through the window of The Laundry Pub, which features an 1880s-era bar and the laundry’s early conveyor system above restored wood floors.

North of the brick laundry building is the hotel’s old ice house.

The ice house is now home to the fascinating Ice House Museum of the Hotel del Coronado, where you can view historical displays and artifacts, plus photographs of the many celebrities, movie stars and United States Presidents who’ve visited the Victorian resort over the years. I blogged about the museum two years ago here.

In the rear of the ice house is this plaque…

Ice House, established 1889.

Ice was originally produced with a small machine inside the Power Plant until this masonry structure was built to house a new 10-ton De Coppet ice machine. Renowned for excellent tasting ice, the De Coppet system was cutting edge technology at the time and allowed The Del to manufacture and supply ice throughout Southern California. In 1909, the building was converted into a storeroom with later uses including an upholstery shop and offices.

Lastly, north of the ice house is the old power plant with its tall, striped smokestack.

Power Plant, established 1887.

Built in 1887 to house the incandescent electric light plant, laundry, and engine house, the Power Plant supplied electricity to all of Coronado Island until service was established with SDG&E in 1922. The Power Plant housed five Mather dynamos, two Hazelton boilers, and heavy pumping and heating machinery. To this day, a utility tunnel connects the Power Plant to the historic hotel.

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Santee plaque and trail honors U.S. Marines.

A bronze plaque in Town Center Community Park in Santee honors local U.S. Marines. The plaque stands behind an outdoor performance stage near a flagpole, and points the way to the Marine Memorial Trail, which runs around the perimeter of the public park.

I photographed the plaque a number of weeks ago during an event in Santee promoting San Diego FC’s inaugural soccer season in 2025. As you can see in these pictures, it was raining that day. Today as I sit here it’s raining, too, and I’m going through old photos.

To read a great article concerning this 2011 plaque, click here.

The plaque reads:

CITY OF SANTEE MARINE MEMORIAL TRAILS

THE PASSAGE OF TIME WILL NOT DIMINISH THE GRATITUDE THIS COMMUNITY HAS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED WITH OUR ADOPTED UNITS OF THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS 2ND BATTALION, 1ST MARINES AND MARINE HEAVY HELICOPTER SQUADRON 462. THE CITIZENS OF SANTEE CALIFORNIA REMEMBER WITH PRIDE AND RESPECT THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES RO PRESERVE AND DEFEND FREEDOM THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

THE PROFESSIONALS MEMORIAL TRAIL

HEAVY HAULERS MEMORIAL TRAIL

SEMPER FIDELIS

I also noticed another small plaque at the base of the flagpole.

It reads:

In honor of Randy Voepel for 20 years of service to the City of Santee. Mayor and Council Member. 1996-2016

His patriotism and allegiance to community and country will forever wave.

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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!

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Memorial for those who donated their bodies to science.

This unique memorial was created several years ago in La Jolla, on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus. Words on a circular plaque read: IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DONATED THEIR BODIES TO SCIENCE – UC SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.

Walk down the Coastal Meander Trail, look for two benches above the beautiful Pacific Ocean, and then look for this memorial.

The memorial plaque points to where the sun sets during the Winter Solstice, Spring/Autumn Equinox and Summer Solstice. A quote on the plaque, by Carl Sagan, reads: We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

Families remembering loved ones who gave their bodies to further scientific knowledge can sit on the benches and enjoy a sunny day, and watch a beautiful sunset over the wide ocean.

You can read more about the UC San Diego School of Medicine Body Donation Program Memorial Site by clicking here.

UPDATE!

I took the next photo during a later walk…

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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!

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Oceanside plaque for transportation visionary.

Byron Nordberg — In recognition of his many contributions to the development of passenger rail in Oceanside, San Diego County, California and the United States.

A plaque honoring Byron Nordberg is embedded in a boulder near the train platforms at the Oceanside Transit Center. It recognizes a visionary mover and shaker, who is largely responsible for the creation of this regional transportation center, where Amtrak, Metrolink, the Coaster, the Sprinter, plus Greyhound buses and several North County Transit District bus routes conveniently come together.

Here’s a great article that concerns the work of Byron Nordberg. And here’s a press release regarding his death in 1997. If you ride the San Diego trolley or the aforementioned trains, you might appreciate his early advocacy of rail in Southern California, as well as innovations that allow passengers to easily board trains without stepping up, safe tunnels and overpasses under and over tracks, and double tracks at stations that prevent unnecessary delays in the system.

From his childhood he was a lover a trains. I am, too. So I thank him.

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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)!

Children play in rain, and hope for the homeless.

As it rained in San Diego yesterday, children played hide and seek on a sidewalk near Father Joe’s Villages. The bronze sculptures of small children caught my eye as I rode a bus past the Saint Teresa of Calcutta Villa, where homeless people transition into permanent housing.

I had discovered the Father Joe Memorial Promenade.

The promenade was completed two years ago. It honors Father Joe Carroll, who during his life helped thousands of unsheltered people in San Diego. His footprints are in the sidewalk. A memorial plaque remembers his unselfish love. There are words to be read on several planters. More plaques can be read near the Saint Teresa of Calcutta Villa entrance.

The Father Joe Memorial Promenade and its hopeful sculptures were designed by architect Jowaan Lee from J2 Ventures.

Would you like to follow Father Joe’s footsteps? Will you touch many in San Diego who feel hopeless, and provide hope?

Learn more, and perhaps provide a donation to Father Joe’s Villages on their website here.

THE FATHER JOE CARROLL MEMORIAL PROMENADE

During his 40 years of service in downtown, Father Joe Carroll taught the San Diego community to see those living on the streets as neighbors. Through the eyes of grace, he looked beyond the difficulties of the past and the challenges of the present to believe in a better future for each person he met, and taught others to do the same.

As they beckon us to join in their game of hide and seek, the carefree children playing along this path–Faith, Grace, Hope and Peace–remind us that everyone we encounter was once a child whose life was full of possibility…

Faith sees the light in your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.

Grace silences the past and opens you to the opportunities of a brighter future.

Peace hears the calm within you amid the noise of life.

Father Joe’s Villages has always been about neighbors helping neighbors. This is a place where people from all walks of life–rich and poor, educated and not, needy and well-off–come together as equals to change peoples’ lives. –Father Joe Carroll

In 2013 the Congressional Medal of Honor Society honored Father Joe Carroll as a Citizen Hero for his selfless service and dedication to all…

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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)!

A little known, unmapped park in La Mesa.

There’s a small park in La Mesa that is little known and unmapped, even while hundreds of cars pass it by every day. This park doesn’t appear on Google Maps. There is no record of it on the internet. (Until now!)

According to a plaque near the center of the grassy park, embedded in a boulder among plants and flowers, this beautiful place is called George Felix Memorial Park.

It is located where La Mesa Boulevard meets University Avenue.

The old plaque reads:

THE GEORGE FELIX MEMORIAL PARK

DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF

GEORGE FELIX

1934 – 2002

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS COMMITMENT TO THE CITIZENS OF LA MESA THROUGH HIS TIRELESS EFFORTS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE COMMUNITY

DEDICATED JULY 17, 2002

Walk through the park and you’ll find this bench:

Plants donated by La Mesa Beautiful, Inc. 1987

A beautiful rose at George Felix Memorial Park in La Mesa.

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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)!

Original site of the San Diego Peace Memorial.

A little-seen plaque in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park marks the original site of the San Diego Peace Memorial. The bronze plaque is located near the corner of San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street, in an unobtrusive spot behind the Old Town Trolley Tours ticket booth.

The plaque reads: Honoring San Diego’s sons and daughters who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, and remembering those who remain missing. 1964-1975. First dedicated on this site in 1969. Relocated to the Veterans Memorial Center, Balboa Park, 2115 Park Boulevard, San Diego, in 1996.

Back in 1969, volunteers created two concrete monuments on Roman Catholic Diocese land here in Old Town. Plaques listed those from San Diego County who were killed or designated missing in action during the Vietnam War. Two more plaques full of names were added to the San Diego Peace Memorial in 1974. It was one of the first Vietnam War memorials in the United States.

In 1994 the diocese sold the property and the memorial was moved to the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park.

In 2014, on New Year’s Eve, I visited the the renamed Vietnam Veterans Peace Memorial in Balboa Park.

You can revisit that old blog post by clicking here.

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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!

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A mysterious old plaque in Balboa Park.

I often look down at this old plaque in Balboa Park as I walk from the Spreckels Organ Pavilion into the International Cottages. It’s situated next to the walkway after you cross Pan American Road.

To me this little plaque is a mystery.

The name Peggy Angus is probably known by some who are knowledgeable about our city’s history. When I perform a Google search, I see she was an active member of the Kiwanis Club of San Diego. She’s mentioned in two different San Diego Kiwanis Tidings newsletters back in 1955.

The plaque celebrates Peggy’s birthday in 1983. Why was it placed in Balboa Park?

Please leave a comment if you know anything about the history. Other readers might be interested to learn more about Peggy Angus and her birthday plaque, too!

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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)!

Illuminations: mosaic art near Imperial Beach Pier.

Those who approach the Imperial Beach Pier through nearby Portwood Pier Plaza might notice patterned glass tiles on curving, low beachside walls. Illuminations is the title of this colorful mosaic artwork, commissioned by the San Diego Unified Port District. The beautiful public art was created by artist Mary Lynn Dominguez in 1999.

Twenty four years later some of the tiles are damaged or missing, but the overall effect remains vibrant and cheerful. During my visit to Imperial Beach yesterday, I bent down to take several photographs of Illuminations. Then I sat down on a bench and gazed out at the ocean.

A couple years ago I posted a blog about the surfboard benches that fill Portwood Pier Plaza. You can see some of the tiles in those photos.

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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)!

A cracker factory, bakery, and den of immorality!

This old two-story brick building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has a fascinating history.

The property has been home to a factory that made crackers for ships, several other bakeries including the Royal Pie Bakery, and in the early 20th century, an upstairs hotel that was described as a den of rampant immorality!

Standing at 554 Fourth Avenue, the building was most recently home to Dublin Square Irish Pub.

The property’s history is so complex and interesting that one should read this detailed article by the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation.

An aging plaque on front of the building reads:

Royal Pie Bakery 1884

Originally known as the San Diego Steam Cracker Factory, this brick structure has remained a bakery since its construction in 1884. During the first part of the 20th century, when the Gaslamp was deteriorating into a red-light district, the upper floor housed the notorious Empire Hotel, and later the Anchor Hotel. In 1920, Alois Kuhnel and F. A. Smith purchased the bakery. They were partners until 1939. The building was sold to Alois Kuhnel in 1950.

The Royal Pie Bakery finally closed in 1998.

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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)!