Saturday, June 01, 2013

Heritage Park



Heritage Park in San Diego County is located near Old Town and is a collection of historic Victorian architecture including Italianate, Stick-Eastlake, Queen Anne and classic revival styles. Each home was relocated from its original location with the help of San Diego County and Save Our Heritage Organisation.



Walking through this area, you would think that it had always meant to be this way. Sort of like an upscale Victorian version of Calico. Here are some of the buildings you'll find there:



McConaughy House (above) is an 1887 Stick-Eastlake-style cottage. The original owner founded the first scheduled passenger and freight service in San Diego.



Christian House (above and below), a Queen Anne–style home from 1889 built by Harfield Christian, founder of an early San Diego abstract company.





Sherman-Gilbert House was owned by John Sherman, cousin of General William Tecumseh Sherman. He hired architects Nelson Comstock and Carl Trotsche to build this Stick-Eastlake–style home in 1887. Many internationally famous entertainers were brought to receptions in this house; Anna Pavlova danced in the music room and Artur Rubinstein played piano here. The Sherman-Gilbert House was also the first house Save Our Heritage Organisation restored and relocated to Heritage Park.



The Bushyhead House, built in 1887 for Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead, an early San Diego sheriff, chief of police and San Diego Union newspaper owner.



Temple Beth Israel (shown in the photos below) is a classic revival building was used by many religious sects before it was relocated to Heritage Park. It also contains two reed/pump organs in its choir loft, which are usable, playable; an Estey and a Western Cottage.









When looking at these photos, you might notice a lot of differences in the style/quality. Some date back to my film camera of 1989, and some are from just a few weeks ago.

See more Heritage Park and Old Town photos on my Old Town web page.

3 comments:

K. Martinez said...

Everything about the Sherman-Gilbert House is awesome. The architecture, the color styling and landscape all fantastic. The Temple Beth Israel building is a nice one too!

It's amazing that they relocated these buildings to the present location.

Major Pepperidge said...

Yeah, that one is amazing. I'd never heard of Heritage Park, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Never knew of this place before. I'm putting it on my list for a future trip. I'm spending more time in San Diego now for work, so there might be a minute to run up here from downtown.

Thank you, Dave.

JG