Category Archives: Halls of History
Then & Now: The Village in La Mesa, California
I live in La Mesa, which we call the “Jewel of the Hills.”
All it really means is that we’re far enough inland so we don’t have to worry about oceanfront property prices or about escaping tsunamis.
Each year in October, downtown La Mesa, known as The Village, hosts the best and largest Oktoberfest in all of San Diego County.
On Thursday afternoons during the summer they host a Classic Car Cruise. Lovingly restored and cared for cars from decades gone by cruise The Village:
Here is a picture of The Village from 1910:
Notice the train at the end of the street? That’s a San Diego & Cuyamaca Eastern Railway train which stopped at the La Mesa Depot just a few yards to the right. Of course, I had to go update the photo:
I even waited for about twenty minutes for a train to come by, the famous red cars of the San Diego Trolley. The old La Mesa Depot is now a museum, and the San Diego Trolley stops several yards to the left of this street.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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James Frimmer, Realtor
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If you’re looking for a home inspector,
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San Diego Then & Now — The Bank of East San Diego
I have many “Images of America” in my library. They are little booklets, 125 pages or so, about the smaller places in America that probably didn’t make the books about the big cities. They are published by Arcadia Publishing (online at www.arcadiapublishing.com). It is such a successful series that there are now many similar publications, from self-publishers to city historical associations.
These little books are wonderful glimpses in the American past, and Arcadia Publishing is great a not only providing permission to use their pictures in a post like this, but if you ask nicely, and sometimes even if you don’t ask at all, they’ll offer to provide JPG files of the pictures in the books so that you don’t have to take a picture of a picture.
One book in my collection, published by the San Diego Police Historical Association, is this one:
I met the author, Gary E. Mitrovich, three years ago shortly after I bought the book. He also graciously provided permission to use the pictures in the book in a post like this but he didn’t have JPG files to provide. So pictures of pictures it is.
East San Diego was a short-lived city, previously known as the San Diego neighborhood of City Heights. It voted for incorporation on November 2, 1912, by a vote of 288 to 212, and officially became East San Diego on November 7. On June 26, 1923, a vote was held in East San Diego to determine if the city wanted to be annexed by San Diego. By a vote of 1,344 to 1,109, East San Diego declared an end to its experiment as a city. At noon on December 23, 1923, East San Diego once again became the San Diego neighborhood of City Heights, which it is to this day.
On page 75 is a picture of the Bank of East San Diego, located at 4246 University Avenue:
The Bank of East San Diego was established on June 25, 1923, and opened its doors for business on August 11, 1923. You already know that the city of East San Diego ceased to exist in December 1923. I could not find when the bank closed, but it was still listed as an operating bank in a 1925 directory of City Heights.
The building was restored in 2004 and looked like this in May 2010:
Nancy’s Pub closed in 2011 and the building now houses the Black Cat Bar. I’m wanting to go inside to see if if the old vault still exists, and if I can have a drink in it. I remember when I lived in Houston back in 1977-1983, there was an old bank that had been converted into a bar, and the bar in the vault was the coolest thing.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Music on Mondays — Brown sugar and rough justice for those honky tonk women
On this date in 2006, The Rolling Stones performed in concert at the Grand Stage Theatre in Shanghai, China.
It was their first appearance ever in mainland China.
Their playlist for the concert had to be pre-approved by Chinese censorship authorities, and three songs were banned from the performance: Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, and Rough Justice.
Wouldn’t it be great to be a Chinese music censor and sit around all day listening to such bad music?
Just for you today on Music on Mondays, here are those three songs:
“Honky Tonk Women” was released as a single in the United Kingdom on July 4, 1969, and a week later in the United States. It peaked at #1 in the UK and the US.
“Brown Sugar” was the Stones’s follow-up single to “Honky Tonk Women,” released almost two years later, on April 16, 1971. It hit #1 in the US and #2 in the UK.
I was not familiar with “Rough Justice,” having lost track of the Rolling Stones in April 1993 when I came to San Diego. Just never hooked up with them again. It was released on August 22, 2005, and hit #25 in the US and #15 in the UK. “Rough Justice” was one of the three songs performed by the Stones at Super Bowl XL on February 5, 2006, in Detroit, Michigan, although the ABC television censors bleeped out the word “cocks” in the broadcast.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
San Diego Historical Landmarks — #1: El Prado Area Designation, part 4
For the introductory blog post to San Diego’s historical landmarks, click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.
San Diego Historical Landmarks
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 1
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 2
#1: El Prado Area Designation, part 3
Next to the California Tower is a huge dome:
Under the Dome (you’re welcome, Stephen King), is the Museum of Man where the history of man is documented from his earliest primate appearances to what might be in store for our future, and everything in between. There are permanent exhibits and rotating exhibits. Here is some of what I saw on my visit:
A stella is a tall shaft of carved stone usually incorporating a calendar depicting a lengthy period of time, a sculptured portrait of a ruler, and hieroglyphic texts recounting historical, mythological, and astronomical events. The are three stella in the center of the picture.
Zoomorphism is the shaping of something in animal forms or terms. For example, “Russel is a real dodo bird.” Zoomorphs often are boulder-like, so the two zoomorphs in the picture are at the left and right. The zoomorph at the left depicts the “Cosmic Monster,” a mythical waterbeast that swam in the primordial sea of the Underworld.
The Peruvian mummy is from Lupo, Peru, and is about 550 years old. To me it looks like it was frightened out of its skin, so to speak. It is a result of natural mummification which can occur in a perpetually dry or frozen climate, as long as a few other conditions are also present.
When an enemy was killed in battle, he would be decapitated and have his head shrunk.
To create a shrunken head:
Peel the skin and hair carefully from the skull; discard the skull.
Turn the skin inside out, clean, and simmer in a large pot of water.
Turn the skin right-side-out and sew the bottom, lips, and eyes shut.
Fill the head with hot sand or pebbles and smoke over a fire to complete the drying and shrinking.
After the face was burnished and dyed black, the victorious warrior would wear the shrunken head on a cord around his neck to transfer any remaining power of the dead warrior to the victor and his family.
I think I would have found a different tribe to belong to.
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, Australopithecus afarensis. It was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. She is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago, and the several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton was an astonishing discovery that provided an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence. Lucy was named after The Beatle’s song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was playing loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp when Lucy was brought in. She was about 3’7″ tall and weighed about 64 pounds. Lucy’s arms and fingers indicated that she spent time in the trees, but her spine, pelvis, knee, and foot bones, as well as her having a case of “knock knees,” indicated that she walked upright.
The San Diego Museum of Man’s Armana Collection provided one of the most exciting finds relating to Egyptian studies. The Armana Collection was given to the Museum of Man by Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932). Ellen was a great philanthropist, well-known to audiences throughout Southern California. Some of her major philanthropic gestures include founding or subsidizing the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla Women’s Club, Scripps Aquarium, Torrey Pines State Park, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Scripps College in Claremont California, Bishop’s School in La Jolla, and the La Jolla Public Library.
This limestone fragment has the missing cartouche of Nefertiti at the left center of the limestone fragment. A cartouche is an oval with a horizontal line erected at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. Cartouches came into use during the beginning of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu.
In September 1996, Egyptologist Dr. W. Raymond Johnson discovered that the limestone fragment in the Museum of Man’s collection fit perfectly into a blank area at the bottom right of a shrine in Egypt from the House of Panehsy, Akhenatan’s High Priest. The shrine, now almost complete, is one of the most important stone monuments ever discovered at Armana.
The Museum of Man has a Children’s Discovery Center where a periaktoi is displayed on the wall:
Peraktois were wall puzzles owned by wealthy Egyptian families to keep their children occupied. The puzzles were made of rotating triangles, providing three separate puzzles:
If you were creative like me, you could create a puzzle within a puzzle. Compare the following to the first periaktoi picture above.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Thy name shall be Russell
A couple of weeks ago Google sent me an email informing me that they were holding money for me.
Phishing spam.
Nope.
They really were.
Back in November 2011 when I set up my YouTube account, I monetized my videos. What that means is that if you watch one of my videos, after a few seconds you’ll see an advertisement. They always irritated me, but I always just clicked on the X to close the advertisement.
What I never could understand is why Apple, or IBM, or General Electric, or any of the Big Boys would monetize their videos.
Now I understand.
I don’t have a lot of videos on YouTube but the amount of money that had been collecting in my account since November 2011 certainly encourages me to upload a lot more videos.
Now I also understand why the Big Boys surf YouTube looking for stuff of theirs that has been used illicitly. It’s called copyright infringement, and if it’s sufficiently valuable, and popular, and it’s been monetized by the illicit uploader, it can pull in a lot of money!
I won’t tell you how much Google is sending me, but it will buy a few gallons of gasoline to get me to the store to buy lots and lots of cans of cat food for Zoey the Cool Cat, after which I will be able to stop by On The Border for about a dozen weeks and have nice Mexican fiestas accompanied by Grandé Raspberry Swirl margaritas. I might even be able to buy a new car. Well, maybe not. But it’s a nice windfall!
My most popular video has 118,551 views. With what I’ve told you, imagine if a monetized video gets, say, a million views! We’re talking rich!
Don’t be surprised if you see a lot more videos on my blog, beginning today.
Following is a short video of a steam tractor from the 1890s plugging along at the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum in Vista. Notice its name!
I have always loved complicated machinery and the Museum has so much equipment in working order and traversing around their 55 acres of land, including a garden railroad for the young’uns to ride and a model railroad exhibit.
The annual Antique Engine & Tractor show is coming up soon, June 15, 16, 22, & 23. Except for working railroad museums, the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum has to be one of my favorites, definitely my favorite non-railroad museum. Head on out with the family and have some fun!
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
The rest of Heritage Park in San Diego
If you want to see what you missed before you see the rest of Heritage Park, visit Temple Beth Israel in San Diego’s Heritage Park.
Following are some pictures of the rest of the historic buildings in Heritage Park and a little snippet of information about each building.
The following is the doorway on the Senlis Cottage, a house built for Eugene Senlis in 1896. Senlis was an employee of Kate Sessions, San Diego’s pioneering horticulturist. The picture also is a self-portrait.
The Senlis Cottage did not have water, sewer, electricity, or gas, common amongst the working class people of the period.
The Sherman-Gilbert House, Stick-Eastlake architecture built in 1887:
John Sherman, cousin of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, hired architects Nelson Comstock and Carl Trotsche to build the house. Sisters Bess and Gertrude Gilbert bought the house in 1892 and proceeded to bring internationally famous entertainers to receptions in their home, including dancer Anna Pavlova and Arthur Rubinstein.
Bushyhead House, an example of Italianate architecture, built in 1887 for Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead, an early San Diego sheriff, chief of police and San Diego Union newspaper owner:
The Burton House, a Classic Revival style home built in 1893 for Henry Guild Burton, a retired Army physician:
The Christian House, Queen Anne architecture built in 1889 for Harfield Lakefield Christian, founder of an early San Diego abstract and title company:
The McConaughy House, Stick-Eastlake architecture built in 1887 for John McConaughy:
John McConaughy founded the first scheduled passenger and freight service in San Diego County. His four-horse passenger stages and six-horse freight wagons operated between San Diego and Julian, a gold-mining community at the time. Now Julian is more famous for its apple pies; I can highly recommend the peach apple crumb and the cherry apple crumb pies. Sadly, after buying Julian pies almost every weekend since 1999, I don’t have a single picture of one. I’ll have to remedy that this weekend!
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Temple Beth Israel in San Diego’s Heritage Park
San Diego has a population of 1,322,553 (2012 estimate), making it the eighth largest city in the United States and the second largest in California. The area was the site of the first visit by Europeans, specifically Juan Cabrillo of Spain in 1542, on what now comprises the west coast of the United States. Presidio San Diego and Mission San Diego were founded in 1769, making it the birthplace of California. San Diego became part of Mexico in 1821 and, in 1850, part of the United States.
So where are all the old buildings? One would think that there might be a few buildings that are at least 200 years old. Not. Perhaps they were destroyed by earthquakes or washed out to sea in the winter rains.
The few really really old buildings that are left can be found in Heritage Park’s Victorian Village.
Heritage Park comprises almost eight acres dedicated to the preservation of Victorian architecture in San Diego. Most of the buildings in the park were marked for demolition after World War II during a San Diego building boom. Fortunately, some people, including some government officials, with vision and a sense of history paid for the acquisition, relocation to Heritage Park, and restoration. The buildings in the Park include Italianate, Stick-Eastlake, Queen Anne, and Classic Revival architecture styles.
One of the most beautiful buildings in the park (in my opinion, of course), is Temple Beth Israel.
It was built by Congregation Beth Israel and opened in 1889; first services were held on September 25, 1889. Reflecting church styles of the late 1800s, it was San Diego’s first synagogue and quite often served as the temporary home for other religious congregations before constructing churches of their own.
Temple Beth Israel is open to the public daily from 9:00 a.m. to
5:00 p.m. unless there is a private event since it is also available for bar mitzvahs, weddings, and public meetings.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Friday Flower Fiesta (3/8/13) — Flowers on stamps
I thought I would take a break from orchids today (we’ll get back to them next week) and combine my love of philately with my love of nature.
Here, then, are some flowers from my photograph collection and a United States postage stamps featuring that flower.
Kansas entered the Union on January 29, 1861, and its 100th anniversary of statehood was celebrated with the release of Scott #1183 on May 10, 1961 — why the Post Office didn’t release it on January 29, 1961, is beyond me. Its official nickname is the Sunflower State, and the highest point in the state is Mount Sunflower at 4,041 feet above sea level.
The poinsettia is native to Mexico and was introduced to the United States in 1825. The poinsettia industry was started by Albert Ecke in Los Angeles in 1900. His son, Paul Ecke, developed a specific grafting technique that allowed the poinsettia industry to expand, but it was Paul Ecke Jr. who was responsible for advancing the association between Christmas and poinsettias. Paul Jr. changed the market from mature plants shipped by rail to cuttings shipped by air, sent free plants to television stations for them to display on air from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and appeared on The Tonight Show and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials to promote poinsettias.
The Ecke family poinsettia operation moved to Encinitas (that’s right here in San Diego County!) in 1923.
Left to grow on their own, poinsettias will grow tall and scragly. The Eckes developed a grafting method, known only to them, that allowed them to create a compact, bushier plant. In the 1990s, a university researcher discovered, and published, the grafting method, allowing competitors to flourish, particularly those using low-cost labor in foreign countries.
In 2008, Paul Ecke III decided to stop producing plants in the U.S. The Ecke Family operations still control about 70% of the United States market and 50% of the worldwide market.
Roses are used to make perfumes, jams, jellies, marmalade, tea, rose syrup, and skin products. Some rose petals are candied, and rose creams are a traditional English confectionery.
Several Camellias are used to make tea, Camellia sinensis, known as the “tea plant,” being the most popular because its tea is considered the finest made from Camellias. Camellias also produce cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people in China and Southeast Asia. Camellia oil is also used to clean and protect the blades of cutting instruments.
There are a great variety of dahlias, resulting from their eight sets of chromosomes; most plants have only two sets of chromosomes. The best place to see dahlias in San Diego County is at the annual San Diego County Fair in June and July. For as long as I have been going to the Fair (18 years), there has always been a dahlia show with hundreds of beautiful flowers on display.
Some lilies, especially Lilium longiflorum (the common Easter Lily), are toxic to cats. The mechanism of toxicity is not understood but it involves damage to the renal tubular epithelium, causing acute kidney failure.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I can recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Skip the traffic and see San Diego from the sky!
Although San Diego’s traffic isn’t anything like Los Angeles, Houston, or Boston (three that I’m intimately familiar with), it still takes time to get around and see everything. Might I suggest, then, a tour by airplane?
Downtown San Diego:
San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge and downtown San Diego:
Ocean Beach in the foreground and downtown San Diego in the background:
San Diego International Airport and Harbor Island marina:
Shamu Stadium at SeaWorld San Diego. You can see one of the Shamus in the pool at center left:
Old Point Loma Lighthouse. First lighted on November 15, 1855, the lens was 462 feet above sea level, making it visible for 28 miles. Unfortunately, when the marine layer rolled in each evening, the light could not be seen, making it visible for 0 miles when it was most needed.
New Point Loma Lighthouse, built in 1891 at about 20 feet above sea level. Although you can visit the Old Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument, the new lighthouse is not accessible to the public.
The end of the Ocean Beach Pier, the longest pier on the West Coast at 1,971 feet.
And a 29-second video coming in for a landing at Montgomery Field after a San Diego Sky Tour:
For more about exploring San Diego from the sky with San Diego Sky Tours, see Explore San Diego…….from the sky.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Eye in the Sky on Coronado California
In May 2012, Jim and I took a 20-minute flight over San Diego for our 18th anniversary. I didn’t get many good pictures because it had been 35 years since I had been flying in a little puddle jumper. I just didn’t know what camera settings to use. Here is one of the best pictures from the flight:
I lettered the picture to tell you what’s being shown:
a – Coronado Shores condominiums — These condominium towers were built in the early 1970s. Since they block the ocean views for many inland businesses and residences, after they were built the city passed a building height ordinance. Maximum height in most cases, I believe, is 35 feet.
b – Hotel del Coronado — This historic and haunted (Room 3327) hotel was opened in 1887. I believe every president since then has stayed at the hotel, and “Some Like It Hot” starring Marilyn Monroe was filmed here. It is the most expensive piece of real estate in the United States, selling most recently for something like $384 million and currently valued at $519 million.
c – Coronado Golf Course — Opened in 1957, it is a public golf course, but it’s hard to play golf here if it’s your first time on the course since there simply are too many awesome views of everything! Par 72 and 6,590 yards from the blue tees.
d – San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge — Opened in August 1969, this bridge is 2.1 miles long and reaches a top height of 200 feet above the water, high enough to allow military ships to pass under it on their way to the 32nd Street Naval Station. Until 2008 it was the longest box girder bridge in the world. It is the third deadliest suicide bridge, behind the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Aurora Bridge in Seattle. There is a suicide hotline number posted on the bridge. The supporting pillars on the bridge’s east end are painted with huge murals as part of Chicano Park and comprises the largest collection of Chicano murals in the world.
e – Glorietta Bay — A beautiful little bay and beach for the Coronado rich to play on and park their boats.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
