Where can you find one of the best burger and fries combinations in San Diego? At the downtown Santa Fe Depot!
You don’t need to be an Amtrak or Coaster passenger to enjoy this tasty, restaurant quality meal. Simply walk into the train station and place your order at the Silver Streak Cafe.
What you’re seeing is today’s cheeseburger and French fries lunch, which I enjoyed inside the beautiful old train station. The historic Santa Fe Depot was built to accomodate people arriving in San Diego for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.
And here’s a smile at the Silver Streak Cafe kiosk that will greet you!
As you step through the front door of the old Santa Fe Depot in Escondido, take a look left and right. You’ll see two large paintings which show how Escondido appeared about a century ago.
The old Santa Fe Depot is part of the Escondido History Center in Grape Day Park. Inside the depot building you can view many great displays concerning every aspect of Escondido’s history–from its early beginnings, its agriculture, gold mining, and more as the city developed over the decades.
The two paintings I photographed yesterday stand out among the displays. They were created by artist Henry Thees and were commissioned in 1928 for the First National Bank of Escondido, which was built in 1886. The artist never saw Escondido–they were painted from postcards!
Henry W. D. Thees (1882 – 1942) was born in Hamburg, Germany. He settled in Los Angeles in 1927 where he was active as an artist. I can’t find much more that is definite about him.
The two paintings, eventually given to the Escondido Historical Society in 1973, have moved around over time. They arrived at the old Santa Fe Depot in 1988.
The painting in my first two photos is on the south wall. It is a 1927 view looking east toward the first and second Escondido High Schools. The huge building with a tower that looks a bit like a church with steeple was actually the first high school!
The second painting on the north wall is a 1905 view looking west from Curve Street, which today is Ivy. I was told the artist might have included some embellishment in his paintings.
It would be interesting to compare these paintings to the original postcards that inspired them!
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Long construction fences along Kettner Boulevard in downtown San Diego protect workers who are implementing a public transit upgrade. The work is being undertaken by the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS).
As this webpage explains: MTS has embarked on the America Plaza/Santa Fe Depot Pedestrian Enhancement Project to improve the pedestrian experience in and around this important transit hub.
Today, while walking past Santa Fe Depot’s old baggage terminal building, I noticed how the sidewalk is being widened and made more attractive. Several bus routes have stops in the vicinity.
(Years ago the historic baggage terminal was the downtown location of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. In the future, the roomy building will be part of a new UC San Diego arts campus, referred to as “The Depot.”)
MTS will be making different improvements in the neighborhood of the Santa Fe Depot and America Plaza, and I’ll continue to follow the progress!
UPDATE!
Three months later, I saw how the different bus routes will have their own loading spaces, as is the case at other transit centers…
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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.
In this photograph and the next two, you can see art created by and artist who has been called “one of his era’s greatest sculptors.” Can you find it?
These photos were taken a couple days ago behind the old luggage terminal of Santa Fe Depot, in downtown San Diego. The historic terminal, needed back in the days when train travel was a very common mode of transportation, would become the downtown home of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. A year or so ago the museum moved entirely up to their beautiful La Jolla location.
What you see here is the patio between the old luggage terminal and a Santa Fe Depot trolley platform.
What are those metal cubes?
Those six large cubes, together weighing 156 tons, is an art installation commissioned by MCASD in 2004 titled Santa Fe Depot. The artist is Richard Serra.
Richard Serra was a giant in the art world. He died earlier this year, March 26, 2024, at the age of 85.
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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.
In mid-September I noted colorful new trashcans are being placed in the various neighborhoods of downtown San Diego. The one’s I photographed back then celebrate the Business District and Cortez Hill.
Today, during a downtown walk, I noticed additional new trashcans that celebrate East Village and the Columbia District!
These colorful trashcans are being placed on street corners by the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s Clean and Safe program.
Here’s what I spotted today…
The East Village trashcan design features Petco Park on one side and a flowery East Village mural on the other.
(To see photographs I once took of the actual flower mural, click here.)
The Columbia District trashcans depict three prominent downtown buildings: Emerald Plaza, One America Plaza, and the Santa Fe Depot. On the other side is an image of the America Plaza trolley station at night.
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
I believe that efforts to revive the life and beauty of historically important buildings should be celebrated. So today let me celebrate a project underway inside San Diego’s historic 1915 Santa Fe Depot.
Earlier this week, as I was waiting for Jimmy at the Santa Fe Depot concession stand to microwave a burrito, I noticed some yellow tape. The enormous Waiting Room’s wooden benches were being sanded down and newly varnished!
When I walked through the depot this morning, the work had progressed. More of the benches were richly shining! Jimmy had informed me it took about one day to complete each bench.
The interior of an amazing space in downtown San Diego is becoming even more beautiful.
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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 colorful, truly stunning mosaic greets visitors arriving at the North Island Credit Union building in Kearny Mesa!
The large circular mosaic in the entrance plaza was created in 2008 and is titled Icons of San Diego. It was designed by artist Wick Alexander and installed using the LithoMosaic process.
The artwork pays tribute to iconic sights in San Diego, including the Coronado Bay Bridge, Balboa Park’s California Tower, the Santa Fe Depot and the Hotel del Coronado. Kids make a sandcastle on the beach, a surfer rides a wave, and hot air balloons float overhead!
If you’d like to read about the making of this very fine public art, click here!
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 photos for you to enjoy!
Like many American cities, San Diego’s dynamic past is filled with all sorts of fascinating trains and streetcars.
Over the years, while exploring San Diego County, I’ve learned much about the local history of rail transportation. I’ve taken photographs while riding an old train through the mountains east of San Diego, while riding a restored streetcar downtown, while visiting several historic stations and depots, and at amazing railroad museums. I even attended the big centennial event of the San Diego and Arizona Railway!
If you love old trains and streetcars, be sure to check out the following blog posts! They contain all sorts of unique photos, and you’ll find a fair amount of interesting historical information.
Click the following links to see many past photographs!
This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
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Three panels of painted art have appeared in the breezeway between downtown’s Santa Fe Depot train station and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Together they form a positive message: BE THE CHANGE.
