George Marston and his father came to San Diego from Wisconsin in 1870. The younger Marston was involved in protecting and preserving the original 1,400 acre City Park for years before building his family home in 1905 in the park’s northwest corner. City Park would become Balboa Park five years later.
Marston and his wife Anna spent the rest of their lives in the home. Their daughter Mary lived there until she died in 1987 at the age of 107.
She left the house to the city of San Diego. SOHO, the Save Our Heritage Organisation, took over management of the property in 2009.
Robin Lakin is the site manager, curator and historian of the Marston House.
Lakin is a walking encyclopedia on the house, and the Marston family — especially its patriarch, George.
As soon as we walked through the front door, she began telling us all about the Marston legacy.
“He’s the father of Balboa Park, the father of Presidio Park. He provided San Diego with about a million acres of parkland … Anza Borrego to Torrey Pines State Reserve. He’s the reason why we don’t have private beaches in San Diego,” Lakin said.
The 8,500 square foot home is situated on a 5.5 acre plot, surrounded by lawns and gardens. It’s chock full of Marston family history, which is reflective of San Diego’s modern history. The home was built in the Arts and Crafts style by famed architects Sterling Hebbard and Irving Gill.
Lakin told us right up front that the house no longer holds much of the Marston’s original furniture. She said she and her team have done their best to mimic what they know was here originally.
Pointing at the walls in the library, Lakin said, “The room has its original burlap linen wall covering which was a very popular treatment in Arts and Crafts homes.”
Longtime San Diegans will remember Marston’s Department Stores. But it’s here in the library where we start to learn about Marston’s philanthropic gifts to this city.
“George Marston was the founder of the San Diego Public Library, so it’s apropos he has a nice library of his own,” Lakin said.
In a room across the hall, we spot a piano. Lakin explained that, “This is the music room. It was designed to house a baby grand piano and as I mentioned the Marstons were all accomplished pianists.”
It’s here where Lakin also told us about the 1915 Panama - California Exposition.
“This is one of the promotional posters. This is an original from the time,” Lakin said pointing to a frame hanging on the wall. She said much of the planning for the event was done in the Marston home.
Then it was on to the living room, and more fascinating history. Lakin directed our attention to a round table in the center of the room.
“People seated at this table were Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor, Teddy and his wife, Mrs. Grover T. Cleveland along with our notable locals, Spreckels, Scripps, Sessions,” she said.
We move on to an adjacent room at the end of the first floor hallway.
“This is the dining room,” Lakin said as we entered the spacious room. It’s bright and airy with a Stickley dining room set. Next to that, the butler’s pantry where staff plated up food and washed dishes.
Adjacent to the butler’s pantry is the kitchen. Lakin said that Mary Marston upgraded it in the 1930s, but it didn’t change much after that.
“Thereafter, they only upgraded refrigerators,” Lakin said with a laugh.
We return to the hallway, to the foot of the grand staircase. Before climbing to the second floor, Lakin told us that Marston founded Pomona College in 1887, one of the first institutions of higher learning in Southern California. And she had more to say about what was important to George Marston.
“Green spaces for everyone for emotional and physical health and educational resources. Everyone deserves educational resources,” she said, reminding us that that was one of the reasons Marston founded the San Diego Public Library.”
George Marston’s official portrait hangs at the top of the stairs. It is a copy of the original that hangs in the dean’s office at Pomona College.
At the southeast corner of the second floor, we find George and Anna’s bedroom.
“And George as a very early bird every day, could sit out here and watch the sun rise. He missed an opportunity for nothing. He used every minute of every day of his life,” Lakin said.
Both George and Anna died in their bedroom, he in 1940, she in 1946. The suite consists of a bathroom, double walk-in closets and a sitting room.
As we chatted in the bedroom, we heard the sounds of children playing on the lawn below. It was a moment where time seemed to collapse in on itself as Lakin said that the Marstons would enjoy hearing their children, and later grandchildren playing downstairs.
There’s a charge to tour the house, but the lawn and gardens are open to the public.
The Marston house features 10 bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
“All the bathrooms with the exception of Arthur’s (the Marston’s only son) who had a walk-in shower, looked like this,” Lakin said as she pointed out the green colored walls that appear to be tile. Instead, Lakin said they’re a kind of concrete that is scored to look like tile. She called the shade “Gill green” — explaining that the color was a favorite of the architect, Irving Gill.
“This is the smallest of the 10 bedrooms,” Lakin said as we walked into the bedroom with a commanding view of the garden below.
Elsewhere upstairs, more bedrooms, one with examples of period furniture. And there is Mary’s bedroom. Mary, the eldest child, took care of her parents until their deaths. The walls of the room are now filled with pictures and text telling of Marston’s legacy, all reflected in what is now the motto of San Diego County, ‘the noblest motive is the public good.’
“He founded the San Diego Public Library, the Humane Society, the YMCA, the SPCA, the San Diego Historical Society … George Marston was among the first to provide equal pay for equal work between men and women in San Diego. He gave profit-sharing to his employees,” Lakin said.
We end our tour in what Lakin said was the Marston’s favorite space, especially the children; the sleeping porch. It’s a screened-in balcony on the home’s north side.
“There would’ve been four of these little cots out here lined up for the girls to sleep on and spend the night and they reminisced about the coyotes, you’d hear the birds and the coyotes. And then in 1915 when the Expo comes and they bring in the animals that wind up becoming our San Diego Zoo,” said Lakin.
The second part of August’s Museum A Month takes us out to the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House in Warner Springs. That story will post next week.
