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Guide to the Helen Bloomenshine Balboa Park Protective Association Collection MS 171
MS 171  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • 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    The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials.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