1915 San Diego Expo Signed Photo Julia B. Wendt - Only Known Image Of Sculpture!

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Seller: Top-Rated Seller seb9 ✉️ (4,300) 100%, Location: Mentor, Ohio, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 291413194209 1915 SAN DIEGO EXPO SIGNED PHOTO JULIA B. WENDT - ONLY KNOWN IMAGE OF SCULPTURE!. *****See my other auctions for more great historic items!***** ***'Property of seb9' does not appear on actual photograph*** PUBLISHING/USING COPIES OR IMAGES OF THIS HISTORIC POSSIBLY ONE-OF-A-KIND VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH BY ANY PARTY OTHER THAN THE CURRENT OWNER ARE EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN. 1915 SAN DIEGO EXPO SIGNED PHOTO JULIA BRACKEN WENDT - ONLY KNOWN IMAGE OF SCULPTURE!

Description:

This is a find of a lifetime!  Offered here is a gorgeous vintage original possibly one-of-a-kind gelatin silver albumen 4" x 7" (actual photo size) photograph showing famous woman artist Julia Bracken Wendt standing next to her Gold Winning sculpture in the Southern California Counties Building during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition held at Balboa Park, San Diego.  This incredible RARE photograph has immense historic value as (to my knowledge) it is the only known extant image of this mysterious sculpture by this famous Artist!!!  

See attached scans for some biographical histories on Julia Bracken Wendt (1871-1942).  The undisputed BEST researched biographical essay on Julia Wendt can be found in the excellent 2001 book: "Women Building Chicago 1790-1990" .  Page 962 of that book reveals that "Bracken Wendt earned a gold medal for her work; this piece remains unidentified ."   Not only is the whereabouts of this sculpture unknown, but the only way anyone would know what it looks like is if they went to see it at the 1915 San Diego Exposition!  Even original 1914-1915 literature & periodical material from the Expo did not publish an image of this Art Work.  I found reference that Julia Wendt may have left her sculpture there to be displayed for another year during 1916, but I can find no record of this piece after that. Finding this photograph is almost equivalent or even surpasses finding an original Bracken Wendt work of art!  

Her breathtaking (what appears to be) Bronze Sculpture depicts a beautiful winged Goddess of Liberty holding shield standing atop a human-supported World Globe waving & beckoning to people to come hither.  This represents San Diego, being the first port of call after the opening of the Panama Canal, beckoning to all passing ships to stop in and pay a visit to beautiful sunny San Diego. Her work was the PERFECT subject matter to win a gold medal for this Expo!

Even better, this photograph is actually signed & notated by Julia B. Wendt to her also famous friend Ida Josephine Burgess (1855-1934).  100% Guaranteed Authentic Original  to be penned by, & in the hand of, Julia Bracken Wendt: "With Love and The Dearest Best wishes To Dear Ida Burgess from her (friend?) Julia Bracken-Wendt, Christmas 1915" .  Also in pencil lower left corner is the signature of the original female photographer "Maud D. Baka".  Photo is mounted to larger card stock & was originally intended to serve as a Christmas Greetings card from Julia to Ida, who most definitely forged a life-long friendship while working together to make female Art &  suffragist history at the 1893 World's Fair Columbian Expo.

The San Diego Expo was open for the entire year of 1915, so it is even more special that this photograph was taken as a sort of celebration for Julia Wendt's gold medal just before the close of the Expo on Jan 1st 1916 (though the Fair was extended through 1916 due to popular demand) .  Also of interesting note is the Bldg where this picture was taken: the  Southern California Counties Building (1915), later re-named the Civic Auditorium & burned down in 1925 was replaced in 1933 with San Diego Natural History Museum.  Is it possible that Julia Bracken-Wendt left her prize winning sculpture as a gift or on extended loan only to be destroyed by fire in 1925???    You can see just a bit of another sculpture in background right.  No other known images of this Exhibit are known to exist!  It is also extremely rare to find anything signed or written by Julia Bracken-Wendt!  This is a priceless find in so many ways!!!  Make sure to read the great biographies I scanned in the included pictures, & also see below for some related informational historic data.

Payment must be made within 3 days of purchase.    Please see attached pics & make all inquiries prior to purchasing.

HISTORY:

Julia Bracken Wendt, (1870–1942) a notable American sculptor, was born in Apple River, Illinois, the twelfth of thirteen children in an Irish Catholic family. Unsupported at home following the death of her mother when she was nine years old, she ran away from home at thirteen. By sixteen she was working as a domestic servant for a woman who recognized her talent and drive and paid to enroll her in the Chicago Art Institute. There she studies with Lorado Taft and by 1887 she had advanced to become his studio and teaching assistant. In 1893, during the Columbian Exposition she was one of several women sculptors nicknamed the White Rabbits who helped produce some of the architectural sculpture that graced the exposition buildings. Aside from that she was awarded a commission to produce Illinois Welcoming the Nations for the Fair. The work was later cast in bronze and unveiled at the Illinois State Capitol, at which time Governor Altgeld was the main speaker.

After successfully pursuing her career for a number of years in 1906 she married painter William Wendt and moved to Los Angeles, California where she continued her success. In California she taught at the Otis Art Institute.

 

Wendt was a member of the National Sculpture Society and exhibited and was featured in both the 1923 and 1929 Exhibitions and the resulting catalogues.

 

Her work can be found in:

 

Chicago Historical Society

Civil War Monument, Missionary Ridge,Chattanooga, Tennessee

Laguna Art Museum

Harvard University Portrait Collection

old Los Angeles City Hall (now located in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)

Lincoln Park, Los Angeles, California

as well as in numerous private collections

Miss Ida Josephine Burgess (1855-1934)

 

Ida J. Burgess was born in Chicago and began her art studies at the Cooper School of Design.  She also studied art in New York at the Art Students League  under William Merritt Chase and Walter Shirlaw and in Paris under L. D. Merson.  At the 1893 exposition, her mural decoration "Dawn" could be seen in the Women's Reception Room of the Illinois State Building.  As consumer markets grew, many women artists supported themselves by preparing illustrations for advertising agencies, newspapers and books. They designed furniture and carvings, copper hinges and handles for the Krayle Company, a guild organized by muralist Ida Burgess and sculptor Julia Bracken-Wendt.  She also worked with stained glass and wrote articles on that subject.  She was a suffragist.

 

Birth Place: Chicago, Cook County   -   Death Place:  NYC

 

 

Medium: Mural Painting

 

 

Exhibitions: Annual Exhibition, Bohemian Art Club, AIC, 1883 - Annual Exhibition, Palette Club, AIC, 1891 -  World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

 

 

Awards: Prize, World' Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.

 

MORE ON JULIA BRACKEN-WENDT:

 

Exhibitions:

 

World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

 

Annual Exhibition, Palette Club, AIC, 1895

 

Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, AIC, 1899-1910 (9 times)

 

St Louis/Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904

 

Chicago Municipal League, 1905

 

Pan-California Expo, San Diego (CA), 1915

 

California Art Club, 1918

 

Solo exhibits with husband, AIC, 1909-21

 

National Sculpture Society, 1929

 

National Sculpture Society, Los Angeles (CA) Museum

 

Awards:

 

Commission, "Illinois Welcoming the Nations" for Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1892

 

Commission, Exposition Park, Los Angeles (CA). Commission, Battle Monument, Missionary Ridge (TN)

 

Sculpture Prize, Chicago, 1898

 

Municipal Art League Prize, Chicago, 1905

 

Gold Medal, Pan-California Expo, San Diego (CA), 1915

 

Harrison Prize, Los Angeles (CA), 1918

 

Memberships:

 

Chicago Society of Artists

 

Chicago Municipal Art League

 

Society of Western Artists

 

Los Angeles (CA) Fine Art Association

 

California Art Club, Los Angeles

 

NAC

 

Three Arts Club of Los Angeles (CA)

 

Laguna Beach Art Association

 

Collections:

 

Los Angeles (CA) County Museum of Art

 

Training:

 

AIC, 1887-92

 

Related To/Associated With:

 

Student of Lorado Taft, AIC

 

Other Occupations:

 

Member of White Rabbits group helping Lorado Taft complete sculpture for Columbian Expo 1893

 

Teacher, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles (CA)

 

Sculptor, Active and Honorary CAC Member. A prolific and widely acclaimed sculptress, Julia Bracken married William Wendt and moved into the Wachtel’s former studio on Sichel Street. The Painters’ Club of Los Angeles visited the Wendt’s home on at least two occasions (William was a member, but as a woman Julia was not allowed to join). The Wendts were instrumental in creating the California Art Club from its predecessor, the Painters’ Club. Julia first appears in the new club as an exhibitor in their exhibit at the Long Beach Library (July 1910), and soon after in the 1st Annual Exhibit. The Wendts are mentioned in "Artistwocky" (Dec. 1928 CAC Bulletin). Pres. Paval awarded Honorary Life Memberships to the wives of the first 20 CAC Presidents.  William Wendt was elected as an Active Member of the Painters’ Club of Los Angeles on August 4, 1908, and was quite possibly a Founder (along with his wife Julia) of the California Art Club in Dec. 1909. An Active Member as well as an Exhibition Committee Member of the CAC, Wendt is often referred to as the "Dean of Southern California," for his highly recognizable artwork. A self-taught painter, Wendt served two terms as CAC President. The Wendts are referenced in Artistwocky (Dec. 1928 CAC Bulletin); William was given the honorary office of President Emeritus in Apr. 1930 (CAC Bulletin).

 

Julia Bracken Wendt was born in Apple River, Illinois, to Andrew and Mary MacNamara Bracken, one of 12 children. She moved with her parents to Galena, Illinois in 1876.

 

 While working as a domestic, at 17 years old, her employer Alice Stahl became so interested in her art that she sponsored her education at the Art Institute of Chicago. She became one of Lorado Taft's female assistants (known as 'White Rabbits') helping to complete the decorations at the 1893 World Fair where her independently-commissioned statue representing the women of Illinois ("Illinois Welcoming the Nations") was exhibited at the Illinois pavilion and later placed in the Illinois state capitol building along with her statue of James Monroe.

 

 

 She married William Wendt, also an artist, 27 June 1906 in the Holy Name Cathedral. They soon moved to California, and where she created an eleven-foot high work "The Three Graces: Art, Science and History (1914)--draped goddesses holding up electrically lit globes--on display in the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Julia taught sculpture for seven years at the Otis Art Institute. Julia and William had no children.

 

 

 Some of her other works include:

 

 

*Battle Monument-Missionary Ridge, Tenn.

 

*James W. Scott Bust-housed at the Galena Library

 

*"Florence", bust of a child

 

*Flint Memorial- L.A. City Hall

 

*Lincoln the Lawyer-stands in Lincoln Park, L.A.

 

*John Steven McGroarty bust-donated to the San Gabriel Mission

 

*Drawing of the National Women's Trade Union League seal, ca. 1908-9

 

*relief sculpture of John Muir

 

* Birds, c. 1930

 

*The Tree of Life

 

 Some of the prizes she won:

 

 

1898-1st Sculpture prize in Chicago

 

1905-1st prize of the Municipal Art League in Chicago

 

1915-won a gold medal in the San Diego exposition

 

1918- Mrs. William Preston Harrison prize, California

 

Julia Bracken Wendt (1871-1942), a successful sculptor, was also a leader in the Laguna Beach arts community. Having studied in Chicago with Laredo Taft in the 1890s, she achieved success as a portrait sculptor. In 1906 she married painter William Wendt, and together they moved to California, settling in Laguna Beach in 1911. William Wendt became one of the most influential artist/teachers in Southern California, and Julia Wendt continued her own work, receiving numerous commissions nationwide.

 

JULIA BRACKEN WENDT

 

  Southern California prides itself on the development of art which has accompanied the growth of commerce, industry and business enterprises, and among those individuals who have created this cultural and artistic phase of progress a very prominent figure is that of Julia Bracken Wendt, of Los Angeles, who, as a sculptress, and as an artistic creator with native talents, has achieved national repute.  It is difficult to describe in the space available for this biography the monumental work this woman has done in one of the most difficult of the arts, but her works and creations stand in themselves as proof of the inspired and beautiful conceptions and interpretations she has achieved.

 

 

            Julia Bracken Wendt was born in picturesque Apple River, Illinois, on the 11th day of June in the year 1871, and is the daughter of Andrew and Mary (Bracken) Wendt.  From early girlhood she manifested artistic inclinations, and in 1887 began her studies in the Chicago Art Institute and in the Lorado Taft Institute, where she was a student until 1892.  She took active part in the decoration of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892, during which service she produced the work “Illinois Welcoming the Nations,” which was an outstanding product of Mrs. Wendt’s creative mind.  This was afterward presented to the state of Illinois by the Women’s Exposition Board.  Mrs. Wendt was the recipient of the first sculpture prize offered in Chicago in 1898.  In 1904, she was appointed on the sculptor’s staff of the St. Louis Exposition, and in 1905 she won a first prize in sculpture given by the Municipal Art League of Chicago.  A gold medal was given to Mrs. Wendt at the San Diego Exposition in 1915, and in 1918 she received the Mrs. W. P. Harrison prize in Los Angeles.  She also received the Grand Prize awarded at the San Diego Exposition.  In 1917, she was honored with the Clarence S. Black prize offered by the California Art Club and in 1922 she won the Mrs. Keith Spaulding prize donated by the Chicago Art Institute.  At the Pan-American Exposition she was given the Second Balch Purchase and in 1926 received the Ranger Fund Purchase prize.

 

            In many of the more prominent permanent collections of art in the country Mrs. Wendt is represented.  The large group “Art, Science and History” which stands in Exposition Park in Los Angeles is one of her masterpieces and other works of notable character are the memorial fountain for the New Ebell Club; the memorial for the Hollywood High School; and the memorial relief of Lord Lister for the John Murphy Memorial Hospital in Chicago, also the memorial tablet for Red Cross Ambulance Corps No. 1, in Pasadena.  Many busts of prominent individuals have been created by Mrs. Wendt, including such men as Charles D. Willard, Edward B. Butler, Charles F. Summis, Frank Daggett, Judge William Rhodes Hervey, Percy M. Weidner, Charles S. Walton, the Very Rev. Dean William McCormick, and John Steven McGroarty.  Mrs. Wendt is a member of the American Federation of Artists, the Chicago Society of Artists, the California Art Club, the Friday Morning Club (honorary), the Browning Club (honorary) and the California History and Landmarks Club.

 

            On June 22, 1906, in the city of Chicago, Julia Bracken became the wife of William Wendt, who was born in Germany February 20, 1865, and is one of the foremost painters in American art.  Many honors have been achieved by Mr. Wendt during his career and his canvases hang in many of the largest galleries both in America and abroad.

 

PANAMA-CALIFORNIA EXPOSITION ~ SAN DIEGO ~ 1915-1916

 

San Diego staged this Exposition in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. San Diego would be the first American port of call north of the Panama Canal on the Pacific coast. An exposition would call attention to the city and bolster an economy still shaky from the Wall Street panic of 1907. In 1910 San Diego had a population of 39,578, San Diego County 61,665, Los Angeles 319,198, and San Francisco 416,912. San Diego's scant population, the smallest of any city ever to attempt holding an international exposition, testified to the city's pluck and vitality.

 

The Panama–California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego,California, between 1915, and January 1, 1916. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward through the canal. The fair was held in San Diego's large urban Balboa Park.

 

Real estate developer"Colonel" David Collier, at the time often referred to as San Diego's greatest asset, was made General Director of the exposition. He was responsible for selecting both the location in the city park and the Pueblo Revival and Mission Revival architectural styles. Collier was tasked with steering the exposition in 'the proper direction,' ensuring that every decision made reflected his vision of what the exposition could accomplish. Collier once stated "The purpose of the Panama-California Exposition is to illustrate the progress and possibility of the human race, not for the exposition only, but for a permanent contribution to the world's progress". The city received no federal support to host the Expo, because the U.S. government had decided to support the rival Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco instead.

 

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture

Fair officials first sought architect John Galen Howard as their supervisory architect. With Howard unavailable, on January 27, 1911, they chose New York architect Bertram Goodhue in that role, also appointing Irving Gill to assist Goodhue. By September 1911 Gill had resigned and was replaced by Carleton Winslow of Goodhue's office, just as the original landscape architects, theOlmsted Brothers had left and were replaced in their role by fair official Frank Allen.

 

Goodhue and Winslow advocated a design that turned away from the more modest, indigenous, horizontally oriented Pueblo Revival and Mission Revival, towards a more ornate and urban Spanish Baroque. Contrasting with bare walls, rich Mexican and Spanish Churrigueresque decoration would be used, with influences from the Islamic and Persian styles in Moorish Revival architecture.

 

For American world's fairs, this was a novelty. The design was intentionally in contrast to most previous Eastern U.S. and European expositions, which had been done in neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles, with large formal buildings around large symmetric spaces. Even the simultaneousPanama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco was largely, though not exclusively, in Beaux-Arts style.

 

Goodhue had already experimented with Spanish Baroque in Havana, at the 1905 La Santisima Trinidad pro-cathedral, and the Hotel Colon in Panama. Some of his specific stylistic sources for San Diego are the Giralda Tower at the Seville Cathedral, the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Oaxaca.

 

Goodhue personally designed the largest and most ornate building on the site, the California Building, with its historical iconography; he sketched two other buildings, provided Winslow and Allen with his photographs and drawings from examples in Spain and Mexico, and reviewed their developed designs. The original ensemble of buildings featured various stylistic and period references. Taken together, they comprised something like a recapitulated history of Spanish colonial in North America, from Renaissance Europe sources, toSpanish colonial, to Mexican Baroque, to the vernacular styles adopted by the Franciscan missions up the California coast.

 

This mix of influences at San Diego proved popular enough to earn its own name: Spanish Colonial Revival. The Exposition brought Spanish Colonial Revival into becoming California's "indigenous historical vernacular style", very popular in poured concrete through the 1920s, still used and reinterpreted in the present day. To some extent it was even adopted as a southwestern regional style, as seen at the Pima County Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona, with a few minor examples in Phoenix.

 

Goodhue moved on to other national projects, while Winslow stayed on in southern California, continued to produce his own variations of the style, at the Bishop's School in La Jolla and the 1926 Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Winslow was also instrumental in persuading the city of Santa Barbara to adopt Spanish Colonial Revival as the officially mandated civic style after its 1925 earthquake. The major example from the rebuilding is the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

 

The temporary installations, decoration, and landscapes of Balboa Park were created with some large spaces and numerous paths, small spaces, and courtyard Spanish gardens. The location was also moved from a small hillock to a larger and more open area, most of which was intended to be reclaimed by the park as gardens.

 

Exposition site

 

 

 

Cabrillo bridge ends at West Gate

Cabrillo Canyon (formerly known as Pound Canyon) forms a deep separation between the exposition site and the park entrance from downtown San Diego. The elegant Cabrillo Bridge was built to span the canyon, and the appearance of its long horizontal stretch ending in a great upright pile of fantasy buildings would be the crux of the whole composition. This design composition and the bridge were designed to remain as a permanent focal point of the city, while many of the exhibit buildings were intended to be temporary.

 

 

 

California Tower: byBertram Goodhue inSpanish Colonial Revival style.

Upon arrival, the focus of the fair was the Plaza de California (California Quadrangle), an arcaded enclosure often containing Spanish dancers and singers, where both the approach bridge and El Prado terminate. The California State Building and the Fine Arts Building framed the plaza, which was surrounded on three sides by exhibition halls set behind an arcade on the lower story. Those three sides, following the heavy massiveness and crude simplicity of the California mission adobestyle, were without ornamentation. This contrasted with the front facade of the California State Building, 'wild' with Churrigueresque complex lines of mouldings and dense ornamentation. Next to the frontispiece, at one corner of the dome, rose the 200 feet (61 m) tower of the California Building, which was echoed in the less prominent turrets of the Southern California counties and the Science and Education buildings. The style of the frontispiece was repeated around the fair.

 

 

 

West Gate

There were three entrances to the Expo site, on the west, north, and east The East Gateway was approached by drive and trolley car winding up from the city through the southern portion of the Park. From the west, the long bridge's entrance was marked with blooming giant century plants and led straight to the dramatic West Gate (or City Gate), with the city's coat-of-arms at its crown. The archway was flanked by engaged Doric orders supporting an entablature, with figures symbolizing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans joining waters together, in commemoration of the opening of the Panama Canal. These figures were the work of Furio Piccirilli. While the west gateway was part of the Fine Arts Building, the east gateway was designed to be the formal entrance for the California State Building. The East or State Gateway carried the California state coat-of-arms over the arch. The spandrels over the arch were filled with glazed colored tile commemorating the 1769 arrival of Spain and the 1846 State Constitutional Convention at Monterey.

 

Opening of the exposition

 

On December 31, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson ceremoniously pushed a button in Washington, D.C. to open the expo by turning on the power at the park. The fair was decorated with over two million plants of 1,200 different types. The event had been successful in attracting national attention. Even Pennsylvania's Liberty Bell made a brief three-day appearance in November 1915. The attempt to "put San Diego on the map" was successful. The event's original 1915 run was so well-attended that the fair was extended through 1916. Over the two years more than 3.7 million visitors were in attendance and a slight profit was earned over the total cost of organizing and hosting the expo.

 

Features of the Exposition

 

Permanent structures

Intended to be permanent were the Cabrillo Bridge, the domed-and-towered California State Building and the low-lying Fine Arts Building; the latter are now part of the National Register of Historic Places-listed California Quadrangle. The Botanical Building would protect heat-loving plants, while the Great Organ would assist open air concerts in its Auditorium.

 

Temporary buildings

 

 

Casa de Balboa, as rebuilt in the 1980s, and the El Prado Arcade

The architecture of the "temporary buildings" was recognized, as Goodhue described, as "being essentially of the fabric of a dream—not to endure but to produce a merely temporary effect. It should provide, after the fashion that stage scenery provides—illusion rather than reality."

 

The "temporary buildings" were formally and informally set on either side of the wide, tree-lined central avenue. El Prado extended along the axis of the bridge and was lined with trees and streetlights, with the front of most buildings lined with covered arcades or portales. The Prado was intended to become the central path of a great and formally designed public garden. The fair's pathways, pools, and watercourses were supposed to remain while the cleared building sites would become garden. Goodhue emphasized that "only by thus razing all of the Temporary Buildings will San Diego enter upon the heritage that is rightfully hers".[8][13]However, many of the "temporary" buildings were retained and reused for the 1935 fair. Four of them were demolished and rebuilt in their original style toward the end of the 20th century; they are now called the House of Charm, the House of Hospitality, Casa del Prado and Casa de Balboa, and are included in the National Register of Historic Places-listed El Prado Complex.

 

William de Leftwich Dodge painted murals at the exposition. Peacock and pheasant wandered through the fair grounds.

 

Streetcars

 

 

One of the San Diego Electric Railway streetcars at 5th and Broadway in San Diego, CA (1915)

One of the main considerations for San Diego leaders concerning the Panama-California Exposition was transportation. In order to service the large number of people that were to attend the Exposition, John D. Spreckelsand his San Diego Electric Railway Company (SDERy) began work on streetcars that could handle the traffic of the event as well as the growing population of San Diego. The routes ultimately spanned from Ocean Beach, through Downtown,Mission Hills, Coronado, North Park, Golden Hill, and Kensington, even briefly serving as a link to the U.S.–Mexico border. Today, only three of the original twenty-four Class 1 streetcars remain in existence.

 

Legacy

 

The Exposition's permanent buildings, still standing, include:

 

 

 

La Laguna de Las Flores

Botanical Building, one of the largest lath-covered structures then in existence, contained a rare collection of tropical and semitropical plants. It is well back from the Prado behind the long pool,La Laguna de Las Flores.

Cabrillo Bridge (completed April 12, 1914)

California Bell Tower, completed 1914, 198 feet (60 m) feet tall to the top of the ironweathervane, which is in the form of a Spanish ship; one of the most recognizable sights in San Diego as "San Diego's Icon".

California State Building, completed October 2, 1914, which now houses the San Diego Museum of Man. The design was inspired by the church of San Diego in Guanajuato,Mexico.

Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi (south side of Fine Arts Building); now the Saint Francis Chapel operated by the Museum of Man.

Fine Arts Building (on south side of Plaza of California), now part of the Museum of Man.

 

 

Spreckels Organ pavilion

Spreckels Organ Pavilion(dedicated December 31, 1914).

The fair left a permanent mark in San Diego in its development of Balboa Park. Up to that point, the park had been mainly open space. But with the landscaping and building done for the fair the park was permanently transformed and is now a major cultural center, housing many of San Diego's major museums. The exposition also led to the eventual establishment of the now world-famous San Diego Zoo in the park, which grew out of abandoned exotic animal exhibitions from the exposition.

 

Centennial

 

The City of San Diego is planning a major observation of the 2015 centennial of the Exposition. The park institutions will have special programming for the centennial; specific programming within the park but outside the City leaseholds is under development. The most ambitious proposal was one which would remove vehicle traffic and parking from the central Plaza de California and Plaza de Panama, using a newly constructed ramp off the Cabrillo Bridge to divert vehicles around the California Quadrangle to a parking structure behind the Organ Pavilion.The proposal is controversial and has been delayed due to legal challenges.

 

 

Science & Education Building

 

 

Theosophical Building

 

 

United States Building

Exposition name               Later or alternate name  Notes

Administration Building (1915)     Gill Administration Building           (completed March 1912) now holds offices of the San Diego Museum of Man

Commerce & Industries Building (1915)    Canadian Building (1916) Palace of Better Housing (1935)               renamed Electrical Building and lost in a 1978 arson fire, reconstructed as the Casa de Balboa

Foreign Arts Building (1915)                         altered and renamed House Of Hospitality[16] in 1935, reconstructed to be permanent in 1997

Varied Industries & Food Products Building (1915)               Foreign & Domestic Building (1916) Palace of Food & Beverages (1935)              1971 reconstruction named Casa del Prado[16][19]

Montana State Building (1915)                    demolished

New Mexico State Building (1915)              Palace of Education (1935)           now used byBalboa Park Club

Home Economy Building (1915)   Pan-Pacific Building (1916) Cafe of the World (1935)           Timken Museum of Art built on site in 1965

Indian Arts Building (1915)             Arts & Crafts Building (tentative) Russia & Brazil Building (1916)               rebuilt to exacting specification in 1996 as the House of Charm[20]

San Joaquin Valley Building (1915)                             demolished

Science & Education Building (1915)          Science of Man exhibit, Palace of Science & Photography (1935)    demolished in 1964 (exhibit inspired creation of Museum of Man)

Southern California Counties Building (1915)          Civic Auditorium               burned down in 1925, replaced in 1933 with San Diego Natural History Museum[16]

Kansas State Building (1915)         Theosophical Headquarters (1916) United Nations/House of Italy               designed in the spirit of Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside

Sacramento Valley Building (1915)             United States Building (1916)        replaced by San Diego Museum of Art in 1926

Washington State Building (1915)                              demolished

 

 

Later exposition and rebuilding

 

The California Pacific International Exposition at the same site in 1935 was so popular that some buildings were rebuilt to be made more permanent. Many buildings or reconstructed versions remain in use today, and are used by several museums and theaters in Balboa Park.

 

In the early 1960s destruction of a few of the buildings and replacement by modern, architecturally clashing buildings created an uproar in San Diego. A Committee of One Hundred was formed by citizens in 1967 to protect the park buildings. They convinced the City Council to require new buildings to be built in Spanish Colonial Revival Style and worked with various government agencies to have the remaining buildings declared as a National Historic Landmark in 1978. In the late 1990s, the most deteriorated buildings and burned buildings were rebuilt, preserving the original style.

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