A Postcard History of Balboa Park

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 14, 2008 at 9:55 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Balboa Park is an urban oasis in the middle of San Diego, but did you know it was once played host to a nudist colony? Or that it was occupied by the US Navy? Historian and architect David Marshall

Tom Fudge: When you look at the history of San Diego, Balboa Park has been a municipal centerpiece for at least 100 years. But it didn't reach it's true glory until the year of the 1915 World's Fair, called the Panama-California Exhibition. That's when the park took the shape and adopted the architecture we still see today. But there's much more to the history of the park than just that. There was another world's fair in 1935. There was the nudist colony. The Midget village. Two naval occupations. And who could forget the Standard Oil building? Most people can't forget it because they've never seen or heard of it.

SOHO presents the Third Thursdays Author Series , a 10-month series of lectures about San Diego's history, architecture and culture. David Marshall will talk about Balboa Park on Thursday May 15th from 6-7:30 p.m. at the SOHO-operated city museum, the Adobe Chapel, located at 3950 Conde Street in historic Old Town San Diego.

Guests

David Marshall, architect and author of the book San Diego's Balboa Park
Bruce Coons, executive director of SOHO, the Save Our Heritage Organization