More than a hundred years ago, it would have been hard to find a clear association with San Diego. In fact, it was a small town that did not differ much from any other city in the south of the USA. It continued until citizens started to take care after the oldest recreational park in the country. They put in a great deal of effort in order to keep a fragile beauty of nature and open special places for the needs of the community. In 1909, a City Council committee decided to take advantage of the former devotion to the place and celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal in Balboa Park by holding an international exposition (Collier). It was a particularly significant event for the present and future of the city.
Further analysis of the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park suggests that the attempts to turn the city into a tourist destination might not make it the most visited place in the world, but these intentions definitely bring a positive influence on the community of the city and give it a special place in the history. How exactly could a World’s Fair in 1915-1916 contribute to the urban and cultural development of San Diego? Part of the answer is that Balboa Park was primarily built for the public use. This purpose had been followed during the exposition as well in order to maintain a direct relation of the place to society. Thus, while the Panama-California Exposition was an effort to commercialize Balboa Park to attract tourists from all over the world, the new urban solutions were implemented to preserve a landscape oasis full of breathtaking architecture.
Balboa Park has its origin in the times when San Diego belonged to Spain and, later, to Mexico. During that period, more than 40,000 acres of land were municipally-owned (Engstrand 154). The size of land was reduced several times before, in 1870, the California legislature confirmed 1,440 acres to be “a free and public park” (Engstrand 157). It was the beginning of park development. The concept of the recreational area was to preserve nature by giving citizens an opportunity to be involved. However, for some time, the public space remained untouched. It was Ephraim W. Morse who made one of the first efforts to make the park greener. The understanding of given opportunities inspired people to create Russ High School and an orphanage (Engstrand 160). Apart from those institutions, Kate Sessions built a nursery in the area promising to plant 100 trees (Engstrand 160). Her intention to gather the plants from the whole world in one place made Balboa Park an exquisite place and her the “mother” of the park. Actually, many guarded the beauty of the park to make it as attractive as possible. Their actions reached a crescendo when it was decided to host the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego in order to show the unique charm of the park for others in the world.
The Panama-California Exposition in 1915-1916 primarily aimed at inviting people to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal as San Diego was the first port city on the Pacific coast of the USA (Amero). A City Council committee believed that this event would attract tourists to come and explore San Diego. Indeed, many came to visit the city and wander around Balboa Park. However, the number could have been bigger because, after the end of the exposition, San Diego remained among the less visited destinations if compared to New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. The authority was eager to benefit from Balboa Park and its vast opportunities. Obviously, the first ideas about hosting an exposition were based on the desire to commercialize the place. It could be vividly perceived during Gilbert Aubrey Davidson’s speech in which he compared Balboa Park to an El Dorado (Amero). Its extraordinary beauty and hidden treasure for entertainment were supposed to allure the artists, travelers, celebrities, and ordinary people.
Although the main purpose might have been based on the deliberate strategy to encourage people to visit San Diego, it is vital to admit that with the hosting of the Panama-California Exposition people had been pursuing other important goals which also influenced the level of public appearance in the closest city to the Panama Canal. A City Council committee believed that the visitors would like to learn something new during the fair. According to D. C. Collier, the director of San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition, they wanted to impress and made something that people had never seen before. They were eager to show the progress that different generations in the whole world had been making (Collier). It was a great tactic as the experts of various fields took part in the exhibition displaying “the progress of the past in such a way that it will tell the possibilities of the future” (Collier). Consequently, not only did the exposition entertain, but it also educated the visitors about the innovations and achievements. Eventually, the Panama-California Exposition did manage to host various exhibits concerning the progress and future. Balboa Park had been transformed significantly in order to highlight this goal and amuse with unique constructions.
Fortunately, the ideas to entertain and educate did not damage ‘the land of delight,’ Balboa park. Of course, some of the visitors might not have noticed an intimate atmosphere in the park during the first days of running around the inside exhibits. However, the team of architects, gardeners, and designers did their best in order to compose a balanced picture of nature and architecture while striving to also add a modern touch to help people perceive the purpose of exposition better. This decision defined Balboa as one of the most admired urban cultural parks (Reynolds). It proves that in spite of not being able to reach the popularity of other big cities, Balboa park’s initial function to serve as an open public space was preserved during the Panama-California Exposition. The exposition did not steal the right of every citizen to stroll and enjoy an intrusion of architecture into the amazing gardens. In fact, the architecture highlighted the genuine atmosphere in the park so vividly that it was decided to keep most of the buildings in the area after the end of the exposition.
What immensely influenced the atmosphere of Balboa park during the Panama-California Exposition was an intention to establish the Spanish Colonial style which once prevailed in the local community (Collier). It helped Balboa Park keep the authenticity of the history and show simple forms with sophisticated ornaments. One of the most prominent examples of this style was The California Building which is known as the Museum of Man (Reynolds). Not only did the building speak about the history from the exterior, but also it showed the culture of Maya Indians. It means that the organizers of the event cared tremendously about the past of their nation. It was vital for the citizens of San Diego to display their origin because a healthy urban community could only exist in the accordance with the past. As a result, the architecture established a defining characteristic of Balboa park. However, regardless of the intensity of human attempts to create attractive forms and entertainments, nature made the exposition so valuable for San Diego. The best solution a City Council committee could come up with was to let nature continue to grow, bloom, bud, and root during 1915-1916. It contributed a lot to the present and future of Balboa park making it an escape from the industrial city.
Nowadays, San Diego is known for its urban cultural park all around the world. Starting from its birth, Balboa park was and always will be an open space where people could find different ways to entertain themselves. The first massive attempt to make it more popular was the Panama-California Exposition devoted to the opening of the Panama Canal. The exposition served various purposes. The most important one was to attract visitors to explore San Diego. While a City Council committee tried to entertain people with the future progress and past history ingraining manmade wonders in the area, nature played the main role to make visitors and citizens comfortable in San Diego.
Works Cited
Amero, Richard W. Balboa Park and the 1915 Exposition. Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2013, 286. Google books. Web. 22 Apr., 2016. <https://goo.gl/naI9bg>.
Collier, D.C. “What an Exposition Is For.” Sunset. July 1913, 145-150.
Reynolds, Christopher. “How San Diego's, San Francisco's rival 1915 expositions shaped them.” Los Angeles Times. Web. 22 Apr., 2016. <http://www.latimes.com/travel/california/la-tr-d-sd-sf-1915-panama-expos-20150104-story.html>
