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The Painted Desert It was an idea that captured the imagination. Recreate the Painted Desert of the American Southwest and invite Native American tribes to live in it and demonstrate the Indian way of life. Built by the Santa Fe Railroad for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and officially named the Painted Desert, the exhibit was…
Return of the Electriquette “That’s so cool!” “It looks like patio furniture on wheels.” “It reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” “Can I drive it?” What is causing all this excitement and chatter on the Prado? The return of the famous “Electriquette” to Balboa Park. The little wicker vehicle is powered by electricity…
Japanese Teahouse & Garden Among the many exhibits at the Panama-California Exposition were a Japanese teahouse and garden. They were created by Watanabe and Shibada, a firm based in San Francisco, and all the building components were made in Japan and shipped to San Diego. Though the original building appeared to have two roofs, it…
Tales of the 1915 Exposition Colonel David Charles Collier was the man in charge of the Panama-California Exposition, as director-general from 1909 until 1912, and as exposition president from 1912 until 1914. He was a lawyer and a developer of real estate who championed parks in the city and county of San Diego. The title…
Preserving the Past Featured on these pages are photos of Panama-California Exposition “lost buildings,” from the Panama-California Exposition Digital Archive. Prior to the formation of this committee in 1967, many structures from the 1915 Exposition were torn down. Although they were temporary buildings for the Exposition, their beauty inspired many people. As a result, the…
Lily Pond The Lily Pond in 1915 Several years before the Panama-California Exposition opened, Balboa Park was desert-like with hard soil and little to no vegetation. Sage, cactus, and chaparral dominated the scene. The groundbreaking ceremonies took place over four days, July 19-22, 1911, and between then and December 31, 1914, the entire Panama-California…
Botanical Building Surely, every visitor to Balboa Park’s Botanical Building will attest to the restorative beauty of the place — another legacy of the great 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition. Alfred D. Robinson, one of the founders of the San Diego Floral Association, as well as a gardener, horticulturalist, and writer, envisioned a lath house in Balboa…
Legacy of the Foreign Arts Building Balboa Park’s House of Hospitality attracts myriad visitors. The handsome, Spanish Colonial Revival style structure sits on the southeastern portion of Plaza de Panama, providing beautiful rooms and a picturesque courtyard in which guests can meet, dine, shop, and celebrate. The current interior, however, is unlike that of the…
Gardens of the Panama-California Exposition The 1915 Panama California Exposition turned a desert into exquisite gardens, as Balboa Park was transformed into a gardener’s delight. Indeed, the Exposition was sometimes referred to as Garden Fair. The park was embellished with thousands of glorious plants of many varieties. There were hundreds of trees and shrubs and…
On many weekends or summer nights, crowds fill the plaza of Balboa Park’s Organ Pavilion to hear music. Two generous men may be thanked for that. Brothers Adolph B. and John D. Spreckels envisioned and funded the remarkable pipe organ and its imposing pavilion. The impetus, of course, was the 1915 Panama California Exposition, and…
Walking east along El Prado, visitors to the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition passed Montezuma Gardens (later Alcazar Garden) and arrived at the expansive Plaza de Panama, a cherished gathering place. Following World War II, the area became increasingly clogged with vehicles, leading traffic to be cleared from the entire plaza this past June. For the 1915…
The Administration Building was the first building completed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, and is the first structure encountered when entering the park via Cabrillo Bridge. Compared to the Spanish-Colonial style of most of the buildings erected for the fair, it possesses an architectural simplicity. Frequently credited to architect Irving Gill, there…
The Great Panama-California Exposition As all of us who live here know, San Diego is blessed with many extraordinary resources, both natural and man-made. Among these is Balboa Park, which is fast approaching a momentous anniversary. Though its history dates back to 1868, the park as we know it really began to take shape in…