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Something I can note, there must have been a lot of Corvairs sold in Southern California in the 60's; so many of the slides I have from this set have a Corvair in the background. I am not sure where this was taken, only I know it was somewhere in SoCal, San Diego maybe? View full size.
Where did you get it?
[Some of his other Member Gallery postings mention they come from a series of slides his father took in Southern California in 1967. -tterrace]
DoninVA is correct. The building now houses the Visitors' Center in San Diego's Balboa Park. As seen in the 1967 photo, it was a survivor from the 1915-16 Panama California Exposition, when it was called the "Foreign Liberal Arts" exposition hall. In 1933-1935 it was remodeled as a civic auditorium with an open patio garden and included meeting rooms and offices for San Diego women's civic groups. It was renamed the House of Hospitality for the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition, and also housed a popular restaurant, the Cafe del Rey Moro. From 1942 to 1946 it served as barracks for US Navy nurses when most of the park was converted to use as the Balboa Naval Hospital Annex for the war in the Pacific. By 1967 the old wood frame building had become dangerously unsound, and was demolished and completely reconstructed in 1995-96, reusing more than 1500 types of salvaged parts from the old building and restoring many of its long-lost original decorative features. I worked on the planning and construction phases of that project for seven years. Here's a 1915 postcard view of the building.
My family used to rent a cottage at Balboa Beach every summer, and I have quite a few color slides of the area from the mid-1950s. Now I'll have to dig them up and post a few here.
Balboa Park many fond memories from my childhood second only to a trip to Belmont in Mission Beach. Lovely grounds and gorgeous buildings.
Visitor Center at Balboa Park, San Diego.
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