When I first visited Balboa Park in San Diego, California one Summer evening several years ago to attend a performance of a Shakespeare play at its Old Globe Theatre, I was totally captivated as I entered the Park, driving over a bridge dotted with vintage street lamps flickering in the early evening.
It was magical and exceptionally beautiful -- memories which have lasted to this day.
Balboa Park is an integral part of the history of San Diego. What started out as barren land only a decade after California achieved Statehood in 1850, and following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, was developed by the town's civic leaders in 1868 into what gradually became the exceptionally beautiful cultural arts location and wonder of design that it is today, 155 years later.
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| Vintage Photo of Balboa Park circa 1915 |
The development of Balboa Park is particularly remarkable when one considers what the town of San Diego was like in 1868, and its prior history.
What became San Diego Bay was first discovered by the explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 who claimed the area for the Spanish Empire. This became the basis for the later settlement of "Alta California", some 200 years later. In 1769 the Mission San Diego de Alcala and the Presidio were founded, becoming the first European settlement in what now is California.
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| Vintage Photo of Mission San Diego de Alcalá |
In 1821, after a conflict between Spain and Mexico, San Diego became part of the Mexican Empire, and in 1823 it was re-formed as the First Mexican Republic. Following the Mexican-American War in 1848, California became a U.S. territory, and Statehood followed in 1850. During the American Civil War from 1861-1865, California sided with the Union, sending troops into the conflict and being the site of a couple of skirmishes even though it was geographically remote.
It is, therefore, rather remarkable, that only 3 years after the Civil War, San Diego's civic leaders had the foresight to develop barren land into a city park -- particularly since the population in 1868 was around 2,000 people -- AND San Diego was considered at the time to be a "backwater town".
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| Downtown San Diego, 1887 Photo taken by Herve Friend for Douglas Gunn's book "Picturesque San Diego" |
The San Diego Tourism Authority published earlier this year a well-researched, extensive blog article about the history of Balboa Park entitled "Balboa Park, History of San Diego's Magnificent Cultural Center" which is well worth reading and is set forth herein below.
"Balboa Park is central to the story of San Diego. In 1868, civic leaders took the audacious step of setting aside 1,400 acres of a scrub-filled mesa, an area that now overlooks what is downtown San Diego. While San Diego was home to just 2,300 residents back then, its leaders had the vision and desire to create an iconic park that would serve its citizens and its visitors for years to come. In fact, San Diego was the second city to dedicate a large urban park behind only New York City’s Central Park. In 1870, the state legislature passed a law stating that the lands would be held in trust for a park forever.
"For many years, there was little development of "City Park" as it was then known. A high school, which later became San Diego High School, was built and several gardens were created by various private groups. Then in 1892, local horticulturist and botanist Kate Sessions leased 36 acres for a nursery. In exchange for using the land, she agreed that the nursery would be open to the public and that she would donate hundreds of trees and plants to the city every year for its beautification. Sessions, who would become known as "the mother of Balboa Park," is credited with bringing in many of the different varieties of native and exotic plants to the park, and many of her original trees are alive and visible today.
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| Vintage Photo of Palm Trees planted in Balboa Park |
"In 1910, with preparations already underway to hold an expo to coincide with the opening of the Panama Canal, the park was named for the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to cross Central America and see the Pacific Ocean. Several of the buildings as well as much of the present-day look and feel of the park can be attributed to the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Built in the Spanish Colonial-revival style, the park’s highly ornamental style was the first of its kind in the United States. Scheduled to last only one year, the 1915 Expo was extended for a second year, and more than 3.7 million visitors came to the expo during its run.
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| Aerial Photo of 1915 Panama California Exposition in Balboa Park |
"Twenty years later, San Diego hosted the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition to boost the local economy during the Great Depression. Additional structures and landscaping were added to the park, including the Old Globe Theatre, International Cottages, and Spanish Village, all of which are still in use today.
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| Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park circa 1937 |
"In 1977, Balboa Park, and historic Exposition buildings from 1915 and 1935, were declared a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places."
Today, visitors from all over the world enjoy Balboa Park, not only for its various annual visual and performing arts events and the exhibitions at its various museums, but also for its spectacularly beautiful architecture. Recognized by the State of California as one of its 14 "cultural districts", Balboa Park continues in the 21st Century to serve its community as the epicenter for the arts and culture in San Diego.
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| Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park Photo credit: Mark Osterbloom |
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| San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park |
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| Museum of Man in Balboa Park Photo credit: Bernard Gagnon |
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(Primary Sources and Photo Credits: San Diego Tourism Authority Blog Article, "Balboa Park, History of San Diego's Magnificent Cultural Center" ©2023; sandiego.org; theoldglobe.org; sandiego.gov; missionsandiego.org)
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