Balboa Park is a historic urban cultural park in San Diego, California. Placed in reserve in 1835, the park's site is one of the oldest in the United States dedicated to public recreational use. The park hosts various museums, theaters, restaurants, and the San Diego Zoo. It 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 Fleet Science Center George W. Marston House Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego Mingei International Museum Museum of Photographic Arts Museum of Us San Diego Air & Space Museum San Diego Automotive Museum San Diego History Center San Diego Model Railroad Museum The 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 GardenGeorge Washington Carver Children's Ethnobotany Garden website 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 1910 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 Electriquette (1915 electric-powered wicker carts) House of Pacific Relations International Cottages House of France 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.Marshall (2007), p. 110 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 American landscape architect, botanist, plantswoman, and gardener Kate Sessions. An early proponent of drought tolerant 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.Christman (1985), p. 117Showley (1999), pp. 168–169Showley (1999), p. 174
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 to restore it as a pedestrian-only promenade was dropped after legal challenges, but was reapproved after the legal challenges failed and was 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 Morley Field Sports Complex, which includes the Balboa Park Golf Complex, which contains a public 18-hole golf course and 9-hole executive course;Christman (1985), p. 124 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 the Spanish Art Village which consists of art shops.
History
Kumeyaay village and native Californian/Bajeño neighborhood Before 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 Naval Medical Center San Diego. 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. 14Showley (1999), p. 18