Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Processing Information
Preferred Citation
Biographical / Historical Notes
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Immediate Source of Acquistion
Separated Materials
Title: Helen Bloomenshine Balboa Park Protective Association Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS 171
Contributing Institution:
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1896-1983
Abstract: This collection contains items relating to the Balboa Park Protective Association that document their efforts for the preservation
of San Diego’s Balboa Park.
creator:
Bloomenshine, Helen
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. Care must be taken when handling scrapbooks to maintain original order.
Conditions Governing Use
The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Jennifer Ho on October 20, 2011.
Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous
funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Preferred Citation
Helen Bloomenshine Balboa Park Protective Association Collection, MS 171, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San
Diego, CA.
Biographical / Historical Notes
The Balboa Park Protective Association was formed in 1947, and sought to preserve the prevailing architecture in Balboa Park
while preventing further incursion of peripheral roads, encroachment by other buildings and organizations, and the increased
sprawl of parking lots. The Association worked to subvert various plans and projects that called for further development of
the park and its grounds. Helen Bloomenshine was a co-founder of the Balboa Park Protective Association (along with Eleanor
Edmiston). She and her associates lobbied politicians, organized concerned citizens and placed petitions on the ballot in
an effort to enact the desired preservation, but the Association “achieved only slight success,” as Bloomenshine stated. They
succeeded in preventing the incursion of roads called for in the controversial Bartholomew Plan, but failed in thwarting further
development of the park, such as the construction of the Timken Museum building and the relocation of the U.S. Naval Hospital
onto Park grounds. After the Association was ended in 1967, its work and efforts were continued by the Committee of 100.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of documents related to a variety of projects against which Balboa Park Protective Association rallied.
These items include correspondence, newsletters, mailings, court documents, and speeches. There is also information about
club membership, brief reports about the various projects, and local election information and bond propositions. Scrapbooks
include correspondence with city officials, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. Projects mentioned in the collection include:
Maple Canyon Road; Naval Hospital Expansion; Fine Arts Gallery; Timken Museum; Florida Canyon; and Bartholomew Plan.
Arrangement
Items in the collection are arranged by subject. Scrapbooks retain their original order.
Immediate Source of Acquistion
Accession number 830624A.
Separated Materials
Original photographs of Eleanor Edmiston and Harry Haelsig, and Point Loma Junior-Senior High School Student Body (1941) now
in SDHC Photographic Department, OP12590 and OP12591, respectively.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Balboa Park Protective Association.
Bloomenshine, Helen
Citizens Coordinate for Century 3.
Citizens Coordinate.
Committee of 100 (San Diego, Calif.).
Edmiston, Eleanor
Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego.
Fine Arts Society of San Diego (Calif.).
Harland Bartholomew & Associates.
Hatch, Ruby
Jacot, Henri
Marston, Hamilton
Martin, Philip P.
Putnam Foundation.
San Diego Museum of Art.
San Diego Museum of Man.
Sessions, Kate Olivia, 1857-1940
Tharp, Ross
Timken Museum of Art.
Architecture -- Conservation and restoration
Architecture -- Societies, etc.
Balboa Park (San Diego, Calif.)
History -- Societies, etc.
Maple Canyon
Public architecture
Ron Pekarek plan
San Diego (Calif.)
Urban parks