BGuthrie Photos: CA -- San Diego -- Serra Museum

CA -- San Diego -- Serra Museum:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SERRA_070724_025.JPG: Introduction: The Serra Museum, frequently confused for the Mission San Diego de Alcala, was built in 1929 by George W. Marston to memorialize Father Junipero Serra. Designed by William Templeton Johnson, it represents a time when Spanish conquest was glorified, and a time when San Diego was trying to prove to the rest of the nation that it was viable. The use of this hill, we now know as Presidio Hill, has changed with its inhabitants. Each type of impact felt by the land directly related to the visions and perspectives of the time as well as the peoples that used it. The history of Presidio Hill begins with the indigenous Tipai-Kumeyaay peoples, a Yuman-speaking group from southern San Diego County. Cultural variations occurred with Spanish contact, led by Father Junipero Serra, and further cultural variations took place during Mexican rule and later American use. The physical appearance of the Presidio Hill area consists of a mesa, which developed from the then full and rushing San Diego River this created a canyon 500 feet deep and 2,000 feet wide, which separated Linda Vista from Mission Hills. The river carried mud and debris into the open sea, creating a delta from Point Loma to the mainland, closing off what we now know as Mission Bay from San Diego Bay. This resulted in a flat area at the base of Presidio Hill, an ideal location for people to live.
2. SERRA_070724_031.JPG: America and Presidio Hill during 1870-1930: The gold rush in northern California brought San Diego new wealth. Numerous entrepreneurs came to San Diego with many schemes for development. In 1871, Alonzo Horton, with his marketing campaign and political maneuvers, established New Town as the center of business and government. Between 1871 and 1915, New Town grew and flourished, while Presidio Hill remained abandoned until 1920. In 1920, preservation did not mean, as it does today, the effort to keep environments and landscapes as they occur in nature, but rather a beautification of nature. Presidio Hill, with its native scrub brush and wildlife did not measure up as a picturesque and pastoral landscape. George Marston, a merchant and prominent San Diegan, began to take an interest in Presidio Hill in 1907. Marston commissioned John Nolen, a city planned and landscape architect from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to prepare the urban plan for the development of Presidio Hill. The landscape plan reflected early 20th century American values, tightly tied to European standards of landscape design and a 20th century perception of beautification. Today, Presidio Hill remains a tribute to George Marston's dream to create a park for all people to enjoy.
3. SERRA_070724_035.JPG: Historic map of the Presidio. The road runs straight through the old fort.
4. SERRA_070724_037.JPG: Archaeology 1930-1999: For over 34 years, the exploration and excavation of the ruins of the Presidio have been used to educate San Diego about early daily life. Prior to 1965, the only information available about the Spanish and Mexican periods was found in diaries left behind by the hill's occupants. Since then, five archaeological digs have revealed vast amounts of information on the use of Presidio Hill. Beginning in the 1930s, Percy Broell did some simple archaeological surveys however, a substantial archaeological program of excavations did not begin until 1965. The San Diego State University Chapel/South Wing project from 1965 through 1976 uncovered the chapel complex. From 1976 through 1983, Mesa Community College conducted the first methodical exploration of the North area of the Presidio. Dr. Jack Williams further expanded the North area work from 1992 through 1997; this period saw extensive use of the hill through excavation and education. In 1999, the City of San Diego, the San Diego Historical Society, and a diverse group of archaeologists, conservators, and historians recommended the refill of the archaeological dig. At this time, the site has yielded all the information it is able to, but in the future when technology or methodology changes, the site may be re-opened.
5. SERRA_070724_042.JPG: Native American 1000-1769: It was upon the flat area at the base of Presidio Hill that a sizable Tipai-Kumeyaay village was situated. The Tipai-Kumeyaay peoples lived in small groups. Each group had a specific territory, with political and economic control of that area which contained anywhere from ten to thirty square miles, including river drainage. The Tipai-Kumeyaay managed the land to provide food for the surrounding families, and distributed the food by trading. This distribution allowed groups to possess benefits from every ecological zone. From the ocean to the mountains, people had continual access to specific hunting, gathering and fishing areas. The Tipai-Kumeyaay used slash and burn agricultural techniques. Controlled burning serves two purposes; it allows the chaparral to re-seed and produce more food; and it controls what would be spontaneous and life-threatening fires at other times. The Tipai-Kumeyaay utilized plant and land management techniques in the foothills, the canyons and hillsides, the river bottoms, and the marshes. Before Spanish contact in 1769, the occupants of the Presidio Hill area lived in tules (pronounced toolees), woven grass-like homes. Extended families lived together in one tule, and the villages or groups consisted of populations of approximately 300 people. Tools and implements were fashioned out of sandstone, stone, wood, bone, and soapstone from the Channel Islands. The temperate San Diego climate meant the Tipai-Kumeyaay needed only minimal clothing except during periods of cold weather, when rabbit skin or willow bark robes also doubled as bedding. The climate and the resource-based land management skills of the Tipai-Kumeyaay were conducive to a productive life in the region of Presidio Hill.
6. SERRA_070724_046.JPG: Spanish and Father Junipero Serra 1769-1821: The first Kumeyaay contact with European contact with European explorers occurred on September 28, 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay and dropped anchor near Point Loma. Sixty years later in 1602, Sebastian Vizcaino entered the bay and claiming not to recognize the area as that which was described by Cabrillo, he renamed the Spot San Diego de Alcala. It would be 167 years before another Spanish explorer would set food in Alta California. In 1768, Spanish royalty feared that the Russians, who had started colonies in northern California, might venture south to claim the southern California coast. In order to deter what appeared to be a possible threat to the Spanish claim, the Crown ordered the establishment of settlements to provide a buffer from foreign powers such as the Russians and English ships, which were beginning to frequent the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish launched "The Sacred Exploration of 1769" from Mexico, led by Father Junipero Serra, the future president of the mission chain. Presidio Hill, a place of prominence for the Kumeyaay, offered a strategic location for the Spanish to establish control over the land and its people. On July 16th, 1769, Father Serra dedicated the mission and the Presidio to San Diego de Alcala. Construction began at once to establish a garrison, which became the first European settlement in California. The first structures built by the Spanish were wood and brush huts, later, stronger wooden and adobe structures were constructed. Over time, Spanish practices of land management and use of resources began to dominate the region. European animal husbandry depleted native grasses and drove game into less accessible inland valleys. Intensive agricultural and livestock husbandry forever changed the landscape surrounding Presidio Hill, and Tipai-Kumeyaay land management practices were altered forever.
7. SERRA_070724_053.JPG: Mexico 1821-1849: With the end of the war for Mexican independence, the Spanish officially relinquished the Presidio to Mexico. In 1833, the newly empowered Mexican leaders divided the former mission lands as well as lands held by the Kumeyaay into large rancheros, thus providing the emerging ruling class with extensive grazing lands for cattle, now in demand by America's east coast population. Mexico encouraged foreign trade along the California coast, and San Diego Bay became a prime location for the hide trade, as detailed in Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast." The development of a central town as the base of Presidio Hill, known today as Old Town, together with the increasing prosperity of the hide trade gave San Diego one of the highest revenues of any California port. Old Town was granted "Pueblo Status" in 1834 and became the center of social and political life. The Mexican social structure and land use traditionally included a central hub with commerce and activity in the outlying areas. During the Mexican-American War, Commodore Robert Stockton used Presidio Hill as a garrison until 1849. In 1850, California became a state and began defining its boundaries and laws. Mexican Californios were fighting legal battles to retain land rights, and under the Department of the Interior, Native Americans were being misrepresented and moved to reservations. By 1851, 22,000 Native Americans had died. The years of 1862-1863 saw a smallpox epidemic followed by a drought in 1864-1865, which further reduced Native American numbers in San Diego. America focused its attention to the Civil War, while the town at the base of Presidio Hill was prospering.
8. SERRA_070724_057.JPG: Water: Finding enough water to drink has always been a problem in San Diego. There is just enough rain in our desert-like climate to give our rivers much water. Kumeyaay and later Spanish explorers and settlers had to gather water in special clay pots called ollas and in buckets made of leather, and carried the water to where it was used by people or animals. Places where there was more water were the first places that people lived. Sometimes the rivers dried up, and the people had to move away. For the Kumeyaay, moving was easy. They just left their old home and built a new home from bark and grass when they found food or water. Spanish priests and soldiers who lived on Presidio Hill had a long way to carry their water from the river. It was dry and windy at the top of Presidio Hill, which made it very hard to grow food for the people. The priests soon got tired of working so hard to grow food on Presidio Hill, and moved the mission six miles up the river to be closer to water.
9. SERRA_070724_059.JPG: Archaeological Dig Box: In the places where people have lived, whether the people were Kumeyaay or shopkeepers, things are left behind that might help us understand something about the people. Kumeyaay people left behind the hard shells of acorns close to holes in rocks where the acorn nuts were pounded into flour for food. Spanish soldiers dropped bullets, broken tools, or buttons from their uniforms, which were trampled into the earth and forgotten. Today, around your house you might by dropping pencils or parts of toys that might be found 100 years from now! Scientists who study the things that people leave behind are called archaeologists. It is from the work of archaeologists in finding the evidence from people who lived in the past that we know so much about how things were done then. Sometimes objects from the past are very breakable. Other times, it was because an object had already been broken or gotten dirty that it was tossed aside. There are some things that stay in good condition while they are buried in the dirt, but which get damage just by being exposed to air and sunshine. Archaeologists work very carefully, and with special tools, to keep things from the past in good condition until they can be studied and maybe put into museum collections.
10. SERRA_070724_063.JPG: Life in an American Town: As people came to San Diego to live, they wanted to live closer to the harbor where the ships were and where more of the business was being done. These new people, who mostly arrived by ship, came from places in the Eastern United States where cities looked different and other languages and religions were common. New Town, as Alonzo Horton called his settlement, grew at the edge of San Diego Bay. The houses and buildings in Old Town got dirtier and shabbier as people moved away and soon Old Town and Presidio Hill were almost forgotten. In New Town, stores and businesses sold cloth, food, tools, and other things the people wanted. The opera house and public hall is where opera singers performed. Restaurants and bars served food and drink. Visitors who came by ship stayed at the Horton House hotel before finding a place to stay in the booming New Town. On the streets of New Town, you might see a Spanish-speaking vaquero or cowboy, a Chinese cook, an Indian in work clothes, or a lady dressed in fine clothing. The streets were busy with horses, wagons, horse-drawn streetcars, and even bicycles. Newspapers told people about all the things that were happening in their town. They also helped people in San Diego keep in contact with the rest of the world. When the railroad came to San Diego in the 1880s, another connection with the East Coast was made, and it was even easier for people to move to San Diego. People who lived in town did not usually grow their own food or raise animals for meat. Other people did these things, and sold what was made or grown. People who lived in towns did not each have their own shoemaker or carpenter or winemaker. They relied on businesses to do these things for them. Sometimes the jobs that were done, like blacksmith, butcher, or running a stable for horses, were dirty, smelly, and people did not want to live near these businesses, in a town, people live closer together than on the ranchos. They have to find ways to get along and not bother each other.
11. SERRA_070724_066.JPG: Barter and Trade: At the mission, the priests brought in cattle and sheep. These animals ate up all the grass and brush on the flat places around the mission. The animals that the Kumeyaay used for food, like squirrels, deer and antelope, had to go into the canyons and up into the hills to find food, which made it harder for the Kumeyaay to hunt them. Under the laws of the Spanish king, food and things that were made in the San Diego area had to stay in the area. Beginning in 1821, when the country of Mexico took over the land from Spain, the people could sell their goods to anyone they wanted. Most of the good land was taken away from the missions, who had taken it away from the Indians. The land was given to important men who started great ranchos with cattle and sheep that had belonged to the mission. Soon there were huge herds of cattle grazing all around San Diego. When the cattle were killed for their hides, there were many uses for the parts left over. Meat, horns, hooves and other body parts each had their uses. This was the start of a great time of trading in San Diego, as ships started coming into the harbor to buy the hides, animal fat for making into candles and soap, and spoons and buttons made from the horns of the animals. Many things were brought to San Diego on these ships, and it was an exciting day when a ship's storeroom was open for business. Sometimes the whole day was passed on board ship, shopping and trading news and gossip with the sailors. By looking at the records kept by the ship captains, we get an idea of the things that people were buying.
12. SERRA_070724_070.JPG: Mission and Rancho Life: The Spanish priests and soldiers who came to San Diego in 1769 did not bring much food with them, and they did not know how to gather, catch, or prepare the foods that the Kumeyaay ate. The first groups of European settlers almost starved as they waited for Spanish ships to bring the food they were used to eating. Seeds, tools, and animals like cattle, sheep, and goats were brought from Spain so the settlers could raise their own food. There was no way for the people to get things except by ship, so if they needed something, they either had to make it themselves, or wait. The priests and soldiers already knew how to do and make many of the things that would be needed in Alta California. Kumeyaay and other local Indians who agreed to live at the Mission and become Christians were used as free labor and taught how to make adobe bricks, clay tiles, and build buildings. They made candles, sewed clothes, and grew and prepared the foods that the Spanish liked to eat. After Mexico took control of Alta California, large ranchos, or farms, were given to some of the leaders' friends. The owner of the rancho was like a king. His whole family would live on the rancho, and often a large group of Indians lived there, too. The Indians did almost all of the work on the rancho. They were not paid money for their work, but were given food, clothes, and a place to live by the ranchero, or owner. There were many parties and fiestas held by the rancheros, and the Indians did all the cooking, cleaning, and hard work while the owners and their families enjoyed the party. Since there were no telephones, radios, or regular newspapers, these fiestas were a way that the people learned the news about other people. Sometimes the fiestas lasted many days.
13. SERRA_070724_072.JPG: Shelter: Although San Diego doesn't get very cold, people have always wanted a place to get out of the wind to sleep. The Kumeyaay needed to find the right kinds of branches and grasses to make a house, and when that one got dirty, they just burned it down and made a new one. As the Kumeyaay moved to different places to be close to food and water, they made new houses, as they needed them. When Spanish settlers came, they also wanted to sleep out of the sun and wind. The Spanish were used to a different kind of house in Spain. They also had another reason for wanting sturdy shelters: they were afraid of the Kumeyaay and wanted a strong wall to keep the Kumeyaay out of their private places. The Spanish needed to use things they could find easily to build their houses, so they made bricks from mud, straw and water. These bricks were called adobe. When the American settlers came to San Diego, they wanted wood houses to look like the houses they had left behind on the East Coast of the United States. San Diego didn't have many trees, so trees had to be chopped down other places and taken to San Diego Bay to be made into boards. The houses were made from these wood boards.
14. SERRA_070724_075.JPG: Food: The first people who lived in the San Diego area ate what the land and the oceans and rivers provided. They ate parts of many plants, fish and shellfish, and even insects and snakes! The people spent a lot of time each day just trying to find the food for that day's meals, and scattering seeds so the plants would grow again. Women and children did most of the harvesting work, while the men used their throwing sticks to kill small animals. Because some plants and animals lived in different parts of the land, people like the Kumeyaay either made long walking trips into the mountains or down to the coast to gather food, or they traded with other groups for the kind of food they wanted. Kumeyaay loved acorns, and in the Fall after a long walk into the mountains to find the oak trees, the women climbed the trees to shake the ripe acorns loose. Acorns gathered from the ground were taken to holes in the nearby rocks, where the shells were pounded off, and the softer nut inside was ground into coarse flour that was used to make different kinds of food.
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Wikipedia Description: Presidio of San Diego
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

El Presidio Re�l de San Diego (or Royal Presidio of San Diego) is a historical fort that was first established on May 14, 1769 by Commandant Pedro Fages, under authority of the King of Spain. The site of the original Presidio currently lies on a hill within present-day Presidio Park, between the outlet of Mission Valley and Old Town San Diego. Presidio Park is a National Historic Landmark.

The Presidio was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast of what is now the United States. It was also the base of operations for the Spanish colonization of California, achieved through the development of missions, presidios, and pueblos. The Presidio served as the base for exploration throughout California's interior and it remained the seat of military power in California through the Mexican period.

Nearby, just up the hill from the Presidio site is the Serra Museum, which is maintained by the San Diego Historical Society.

History:

Prior to occupation by the Spanish, the site of the Presidio was home to the Kumeyaay people (called the Diegue�os by the Spaniards).

San Diego, California was first explored by Europeans as early as 1542, but no settlement was made until the fort was built in May 1769. The Presidio had a commanding view of San Diego Bay and the ocean, allowing the Spanish to see potential intruders.

Then, on July 16, 1769, Mission San Diego de Alcal� was established by Jun�pero Serra on Presidio Hill. Less than a month after the Mission was established, an uprising of Indians occurred; four Spaniards were wounded and a boy was killed. After the attack, the Spaniards built a stockade which was finished in March 1770. It included two bronze cannons: one pointed to the bay, the other to the nearby Indian village. (One of the cannons, El Jupiter, is now in the Serra Museum)

In 1773 and 1774, adobe structures were built to replace the temporary wood and brush huts. L ...More...
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2007 photos: Equipment this year: I used the Fuji S9000 almost exclusively except for the period when it broke and I had to send it back for repairs. In August, I bought a Canon Rebel Xti, my first digital SLR (vs regular digital) which I tried as well but I wasn't that excited by it. Trips this year: Two weeks down south (including Graceland, Shiloh, VIcksburg, and New Orleans), a week at a time share in Costa Rica over my 50th birthday, a week off for a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with sidetrips to Dayton, Springfield, and Madison), a week in San Diego for the Comic-Con with a side trip to Michigan for two family reunions, a drive up to Niagara Falls, a couple of weekend jaunts including the Civil War Preservation Trust Grand Review in Vicksburg, and a December journey to three state capitols (Richmond, Raleigh, and Columbia). I saw sites in 18 states and 3 other countries this year -- the first year I'd been to more than two other countries since we lived in Venezuela when I was a little toddler. Ego strokes: A photo that I took at the National Archives was used as the author photo on the book jacket for David A. Nichols' "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution." I became a volunteer photographer at both Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and the Civil War Preservation Trust (later renamed "Civil War Trust").. Number of photos taken this year: 225,000.
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