President's Message
For me, January is a welcome respite from the busy holiday season. It’s an opportunity to look back on the recent and not so recent past, and think about where we may be headed. With a once-in-a-century pandemic still cause for concern, taking time to engage in a little reflection seems apropos. ...Read more
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Tangible Assets:
Our Historic Buildings
Saving an old house or building often starts from an act of love and a reverence for who and what has come before us. Along with the people who inhabit a place, it is our older buildings that give a city or neighborhood its...Read more
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In Memoriam: Welton Jones (1936-2022)
Preservationist, Arts & Theatre Journalist
San Diego has lost a booming voice for historic preservation and the arts, and a larger-than-life personality. A legend in the San Diego Union-Tribune newsrooms, a passionate writer, and a longtime friend, supporter, and advisor to SOHO and other important preservation groups—the Committee of One Hundred, Save Starlight, and the Balboa Theatre Committee—Welton Jones was one of our most avid and thoughtful...Read more
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San Diego City and County
Historic Designations
At its November 2022 meeting, the last of the year, the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board designated one of the city’s most significant contemporary homes and landscape designs: the Joseph and Elizabeth Yamada House in La Jolla, which was recognized on four HRB criteria. Staff also indicated there is enough evidence to elevate Joseph Y. Yamada (1930-2020) to a master landscape architect, and HRB members enthusiastically supported that...Read more
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The California Theatre
Sometimes historic sites become endangered due to economic downturns or disasters that are out of anyone’s control. The California Theatre is a prime example of this. When the pandemic...Read more
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Mexicali’s Curto Cinema Designated
The 1946 Curto movie theater in downtown Mexicali was once the city’s largest and most comfortable building, with 1,700 seats, air conditioning, and beautiful murals. Now a lively mixed-use attraction, the restored and renovated landmark is expected to be designated soon as Baja California cultural heritage by the Consejo del Patrimonio Cultural de Baja California. ...Read more
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Demolish Kensington’s historic street lights?
Not yet.
The City staff told us about how they followed a lengthy, yet flawed process. Someone in the City made the tragic decision which would result...Read more
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Surfing Site Nominated for State Point of Historical Interest Needs Your Support
The nonprofit Sea of Clouds, together with Surfrider Foundation, Long Beach Chapter, have nominated Long Beach's former site of the 1938 National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships as a California Point of Historical Interest to commemorate the area's pre-World War II surfing history. ...Read more
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2022 Countywide Historic Designations in Review
In 2022, in the City of San Diego and in other cities, historic homeowners continued to dominate designations. Many of them also signed Mills Act contracts for property tax reductions in exchange for restoring, preserving, and maintaining their homes. (Commercial buildings are also eligible.) This California program is considered...Read more
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Nominations Open
40th People In Preservation Awards
SOHO invites you to nominate an outstanding preservation project for the 40th annual People In Preservation awards!
If you know of a person, a team, or a project demonstrating excellence in preservation, we want to know about it. This is your chance to recognize those special people who are preserving our collective heritage. ...Read more
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The Marstons: A California Story - Part 4
Ohio native Charles Standart Hamilton arrived in San Diego in 1869 and was promptly hired as a clerk by the merchant Joseph Nash. A year later, George White Marston arrived from Wisconsin, and the two men developed a fast, lifelong friendship. ...Read more
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The Gift of Your Time -
It's the Marston Way
Are you seeking a rewarding way to serve the community, meet people from around the globe, and learn more about San Diego’s rich history? Do you have an interest in San Diego history, architecture, culture, and historic houses? Do you enjoy sharing your...Read more
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Riding high into the Old West
Where would SOHO be without our wonderful volunteers? At our annual Warner-Carrillo Ranch House Museum stagecoach event on November 13, 2022, fearsome, weathered desperados from the Hole In The Wall Gang held up the passengers riding in SOHO's replica Concord stage. ...Read more
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The Four “R”s: Reinvest, Reuse, Retrofit, Respect
Through the Inflation Reduction Act, the EPA has been charged with implementing the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The EPA requested feedback on how to manage the program. This is a tremendous opportunity for historic preservation organizations...Read more
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CARE: Innovative Tool Helps Calculate a Building's Carbon
An innovative, easy-to-use tool known as CARE (Carbon Avoided: Retrofit Estimator) can help architects, developers, policymakers, historic building owners, and others calculate how much carbon you are saving by adaptively reusing or retrofitting a historic building as opposed to building new. Using CARE can help...Read more
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First-of-its-kind labor study on
historic trades in America
Recent analysis of The Campaign for Historic Trades, a national workforce development program, shows the need for a larger and better-trained historic trades workforce; 100,000 workers will be needed within the next decade to preserve and maintain precious historic resources in San Diego and across the country.
In December 2022, The Campaign for Historic Trades announced the completion of a first-of-its...Read more
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If you live in Marston Hills, you will want to know about MarstonHills.org and its historic district program.
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The most prominent Arts and Crafts conference in the country has announced its illustrious February 2023 lineup and it features native San Diegan, architectural historian, and SOHO board member Allen Hazard with his lecture "The Prairie School Goes West."
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Financial support is provided in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. |
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