Balboa Park (San Diego)

Balboa Park is a historic urban cultural park in San Diego, California, United States. In addition to open space areas, natural vegetation zones, green belts, gardens, and walking paths, it contains museums, several theaters, and the San Diego Zoo. There are also many recreational facilities and several gift shops and restaurants within the boundaries of the park. Placed in reserve in 1835, the park's site is one of the oldest in the United States dedicated to public recreational use. Balboa Park is managed and maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of San Diego.

Balboa Park hosted the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and 1935–36 California Pacific International Exposition, both of which left architectural landmarks. The park and its historic Exposition buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District in 1977, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. and  

Park attractions

Balboa Park contains museums, gardens, attractions, and venues.

Museums

*Centro Cultural de la Raza
*Comic-Con Museum
*George W. Marston House
* Mingei International Museum
* Museum of Photographic Arts
* Museum of Us (formerly the ''Museum of Man'')
* Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
* San Diego Air & Space Museum
* San Diego Art Institute
* San Diego Automotive Museum
*San Diego History Center
* San Diego Model Railroad Museum
* San Diego Museum of Art
* San Diego Natural History Museum
*Timken Museum of Art
* Veterans Museum and Memorial Center

Gardens

*1935 (Old) Cactus Garden
* Alcazar Garden
*Australian Garden
*Botanical Building
*California Native Plant Garden
*Casa del Rey Moro Garden
*Desert Garden
*Florida Canyon Native Plant Preserve
* Marston House Garden
*George Washington Carver Children's Ethnobotany Garden
*Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden
* Japanese Friendship Garden
*Lily Pond
*Palm Canyon
*Trees for Health Garden
*Veterans Memorial Garden
*Zoro Garden

Attractions and venues

* Balboa Park Activity Center
* Balboa Park Carousel, built in 2010 and located in Balboa Park since 1922. It was originally in the location where the Fleet Science Center is now, and was moved to its current spot near the Zoo entrance in 1968. It retains most of its 100-year-old original equipment: 52 hand-carved wooden animals and four chariots, a 10-horsepower General Electric motor, same music, same oil paintings.
* Balboa Park Club
* Balboa Park Lawn Bowling Greens

Rube Powell Archery Range
* Balboa Stadium
* Casa de Balboa
* Casa del Prado
**home of San Diego Youth Symphony and the San Diego Junior Theatre
* Electriquettes (1915 electric-powered wicker carts)
* House of Pacific Relations International Cottages
* Morley Field Sports Complex
** Balboa Park Golf Course
** Bud Kearns Memorial Swimming Pool
** Morley Field Archery Range
** Morley Field Ballpark & baseball/softball complex
** Morley Field Bocce Ball Courts
** Morley Field Cross Country Course
** Morley Field Disc Golf Course
** Morley Field Dog Park
** Morley Field Petanqueodrome
** Morley Field Remote Control Race Car Track
** Morley Field Tennis Stadium & Balboa Tennis Club complex
** San Diego Velodrome
* Municipal Gymnasium
* Old Globe Theatre
* Palisades Building
**home of Recital Hall and the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
* San Diego Zoo
** the Zoo operates the Balboa Park Miniature Train ( gauge)
* Spanish Village Art Center
** home of the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society
* Spreckels Organ Pavilion
* Starlight Bowl
* War Memorial Building
* WorldBeat Cultural Center

Geography

The park is essentially rectangular, bounded by Sixth Avenue to the west, Upas Street to the north, 28th Street to the east, and Russ Boulevard to the south. The rectangle has been modified by the addition of the Marston Hills natural area in the northwest corner of the park, while the southwest corner of the rectangle is occupied by a portion of the Cortez Hill neighborhood of Downtown San Diego and San Diego High School, both of which are separated from the park by Interstate 5. Also encroaching on the northern perimeter of the park is Roosevelt Middle School.

Two north-south canyons—Cabrillo Canyon and Florida Canyon—traverse the park and separate it into three mesas. The Sixth Avenue Mesa is a narrow strip bordering Sixth Avenue on the western edge of the park, which provides areas of passive recreation, grassy spaces, and tree groves, and a camp for Camp Fire. The Central Mesa is home to much of the park's cultural facilities, and includes scout camps, the San Diego Zoo, the Prado, and Inspiration Point. East Mesa is home to Morley Field and many of the active recreation facilities in the park.

The park is crossed by several freeways, which take up a total of once designated for parkland. In 1948, State Route 163 was built through Cabrillo Canyon and under the Cabrillo Bridge.Showley (1999), p. 135 This stretch of road, initially named the Cabrillo Freeway, has been called one of America's most beautiful parkways. A portion of Interstate 5 was built in the park in the 1950s.

Surrounding the park are many of San Diego's older neighborhoods, including Downtown, Bankers Hill, North Park, and Golden Hill.

Park layout

Balboa Park is a primary attraction in San Diego and the region. Its many mature, and sometimes rare, trees and groves comprise an urban forest. Many of the original trees were planted by the renowned American landscape architect, botanist, plantswoman, and gardener Kate Sessions and California native plants in garden design, Sessions established a nursery to propagate and grow for the park and the public.

The park's gardens include Alcazar Garden, Botanical Building, Desert Cactus Garden, Casa del Rey Moro Garden, Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden, Japanese Friendship Garden, Bird Park, George W. Marston House and Gardens, Palm Canyon, and Zoro Garden.

The main entrance to the park is via the Cabrillo Bridge and through the California Quadrangle. That entry is currently a two-lane road providing vehicle access to the park. A plan to divert vehicle traffic around to the south of the California Quadrangle, so as to restore it as a pedestrian-only promenade, was dropped after legal challenges, but was reapproved after the legal challenges failed and is scheduled for completion in 2019.

El Prado, a long, wide promenade and boulevard, runs through the park's center. Most of the buildings lining this street are in the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture style, a richly ornamented mixture of European Spanish architecture and the Spanish Colonial architecture of New Spain-Mexico. Along this boulevard are many of the park's museums and cultural attractions, including the Museum of Us, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego Art Institute, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego History Center, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, and the Timken Museum of Art. Other features along El Prado include the Reflection Pond, the latticed Botanical Building, and the Bea Evenson Fountain. Next to the promenade are the San Diego Air & Space Museum and the San Diego Automotive Museum.

Theatrical and musical venues include the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, featuring one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs; the Old Globe Theatre complex, which includes a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre as well as an outdoor stage and a theatre in the round; and the Starlight Bowl – an outdoor amphitheatre. The Casa Del Prado Theater is the home of San Diego Junior Theatre, the country's oldest children's theatre program. The House of Pacific Relations International Cottages collected on El Prado offer free entertainment shows.

The Botanical Building, designed by Carleton Winslow, was the largest wood lath structure in the world when it was built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. It contains large specimen palms and other plants and sits next to a long reflecting pool on the El Prado side.

Located in the eastern third of the park is the Morley Field Sports Complex, which includes the Balboa Park Golf Complex, which contains a public 18-hole golf course and 9-hole executive course; the San Diego Velodrome; baseball and softball fields; cross country running course; the USTA-honored Balboa Tennis Club and tennis courts; archery ranges; the Bud Kearn public swimming pool; and a disc golf course.

Among the institutions and facilities within the park's borders but not administered by the city's Parks Department are the San Diego Zoo, the Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), and San Diego High School. Other attractions in various areas of the park include chess and bridge outdoor tables, horseshoe pits, playgrounds, walking and jogging trails, sports fields and courts, and picnic areas. Clubs and facilities for pétanque and lawn bowling are based in the park. There is also Spanish Art Village which consists of art shops.

History

Kumeyaay village and native Californian/Bajeño neighborhood

Prior to the establishment of the park, the area was home to a Kumeyaay village informally known as Hatam's Village (or Hata'am) in Florida Canyon just south of what is now the Naval Medical Center. Its existence survived the 1852 effort to remove Kumeyaay villages within half a mile of the city. The village was kept active under Jośe Manuel Polton, also known as Hatam, who transformed the village into an urban Native American neighborhood for urbanized Native Californians and Baja Californians in San Diego seeking jobs. The neighborhood lasted into the 1890s through the advocacy of Hatam and his successor Juan Gonzales before it was dismantled and became Balboa Park.

Land reserved

Spain and later Mexico made a practice of setting aside large tracts of land for the common use of citizens. In 1835, the Alta California authorities set aside a tract of pueblo land in San Diego to be used for the public's recreational purposes.Christman (1985), p. 11 This land included the site of present-day Balboa Park, making it one of the oldest places in the United States dedicated to public recreational usage.

No further activity took place until 1845, when a survey was done by Henry D. Fitch to map the 47,000 acres. Three years later, the Mexican government was forced by the Mexican–American War to cede Alta California, including San Diego, to the United States.

On February 15, 1868, the city's Board of Trustees was asked to create a public park out of two plots of land just northeast of the growing urban center of "New Town"—present-day Downtown San Diego. The request was made by one of the Trustees, E. W. Morse, who had picked the site in coordination with real estate developer Alonzo Horton. There is a sculptural group of Horton, Marston, and Morse by Ruth Hayward in the park.

Park establishment

Subsequently, a resolution to set aside for a large city park not just two plots of land, but nine plots totaling , was approved by the city's Board of Trustees on May 26, 1868.Christman (1985), p. 12 Then in 1870, a new law called the "Act to Insure the Permanency of the Park Reservation", was passed by the state legislature, which said, "These lands (lots by number) are to be held in trust forever by the municipal authorities of said city for the purpose of a park".Christman (1985), p. 14

It was around this time that San Diego residents were developing fondness for the park, as illustrated by their insistence on keeping the park intact when in 1871 there was an attempt to overturn the state law so as to allow for private purchase of some of the park land. At the urging of would-be land speculators and the city attorney, State Senator James McCoy quietly introduced a bill in the California state legislature to repeal the 1870 law. A San Diego resident learned of the plan and informed higher powers at the state level in Sacramento, California. The conspiracy was leaked to the press, exposing the city officials involved. A public safety committee formed and collected signatures supporting the current existence of the park. Their plea was successful and the bill was killed in the legislature.Christman (1985), p. 15 San Diego was the second city in the U.S. to dedicate a large park after New York City's 1858 establishment of Central Park.Hudson (2000), p. 16

A City Park: 1872–1909

For the first few decades of its existence, "City Park" remained mostly open space. The land, lacking trees and covered in native wildflowers, was home to bobcats, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and other wildlife.Christman (1985), p. 16 Numerous proposals, some altruistic, some profit-driven, were brought forward for the development and use of the land during this time, but no comprehensive plan for development was adopted until 1902.

Nevertheless, some buildings were constructed, including an orphanage and women's shelter (later burned down), a high school (Russ High School – later San Diego High School), and several gardens maintained by various private groups. One of the most celebrated of these early usages was a 36-acre nursery owned and maintained by local horticulturist and botanist Kate Sessions, who is often referred to as "the mother of Balboa Park." Although owned by Sessions, by agreement with the city the nursery was open to the public, and Sessions donated trees and plants to the city every year for its beautification. Sessions is responsible for bringing in many of the different varieties of native and exotic plants in the park. Her work was so progressive that she was in fact the first woman awarded the Meyer Medal for "foreign plant importation" by the American Genetic Association.

Other developments from this time include two reservoirs, an animal pound in Pound Canyon (later renamed Cabrillo Canyon), and a gunpowder magazine in the area now known as Florida Canyon. The earliest recreational developments in the park were in the "Golden Hill Park" area off 25th street. The National Register listed the rustic stone fountain designed by architect Henry Lord Gay as the oldest surviving designed feature in the park. Other attractions in the area included a children's park, walking trails, and a redwood bird aviary.

Indigenous Californians and Bajenos began to flock to the Kumeyaay village in Florida Canyon looking for work in San Diego during this period. A Native Californian urban exclave was built up in the canyon, which lasted up until the 1900s when the neighborhood was torn down in preparation for the Panama–California Exposition.

Preparation for the 1915 Expo: 1910–1914

Preparations for the 1915 Panama–California Exposition created much of the park's present-day look-and-feel and designed amenities.

Beginning in 1909, San Diego Chamber of Commerce president G. Aubrey Davidson suggested that the park hold an expo to coincide with the 1915 opening of the Panama Canal. Davidson believed an expo would help improve commerce (it would advertise that San Diego was the first U.S. port of call vessels encountered after passing through the canal and sailing north), build the city's population, and expand the infrastructure of the park. He later explained the significance of holding the expo in San Diego:

After a 1910 contest to rename City Park, the park was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to cross Central America and see the Pacific Ocean.

San Diego would be the smallest city to ever hold a World's Fair; its population at the time was less than 40,000. The expo was organized by a group of San Diego business leaders, including Ulysses S. Grant Jr., and was funded at an initial cost of $5 million (including $1 million from voter-approved bonds for landscaping). Developer and civic leader D. C. Collier was chosen as General Director of the expo; he made major decisions such as locating the expo on the park's central mesa, using California Mission Revival Style architecture for the buildings, and featuring "human progress" as the theme. A similar fair, the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, was also planned in "far to the north" San Francisco to celebrate the canal opening. Although $5 million had been set aside by Congress for celebrations of the Panama Canal opening, the majority of the funds went to the San Francisco expo.Showley (2000), p. 94

In anticipation of the exposition, many of San Diego's business and city leaders began to develop separate plans for the park. John D. Spreckels, owner of the San Diego Electric Railway, wanted to shift the location of the main public plaza to add room for exhibitors — and to allow his streetcar system to traverse the park and extend to the North Park and University Heights neighborhoods.

The Exposition's lead designer and site planner was architect Bertram Goodhue, well known for his Gothic Revival Style churches in New York and Boston, who sought a regionally appropriate aesthetic to use in Southern California. Goodhue and associate architect Carleton Winslow chose to use the styles of highly ornamented Spanish Baroque architecture with the Spanish Colonial architecture created during the Spanish colonization era in New Spain-Mexico and the lower Americas, with Churrigueresque and Plateresque detailing "updating" the already popular Mission Revival Style—to create the Spanish Colonial Revival Style.

The buildings and the style were extremely well received by the public and design professionals in California and nationally, becoming a reigning style for decades, and still the primary vernacular style in much of California. Goodhue's associate architect was Carleton M. Winslow, who is solely credited with the lattice-work Botanical Building and other structures. Goodhue's team, which included Kate Sessions

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