Sprucing Up a Historic ‘Disgrace’ : Old Balboa Park Building to Be Used for Museum Offices

The Museum of Man in Balboa Park is filled with evidence of mankind’s climb from primordial beginnings to the Space Age. Adjoining the 70-year-old anthropology museum is another building that tells the story of how quickly human achievements can crumble and be forgotten.

Museum and city officials Wednesday toured the old Balboa Park administration building, declared a national historic monument less than a decade ago but now an empty, broken hulk.

Renowned architect Irving Gill designed the building in 1912 as the headquarters for the Panama-California Exposition. It was the first building in Balboa Park and served for many years as the headquarters for the city’s Park and Recreation Department, which left in 1970 for more spacious offices in another part of the park.

The building’s interior has since been punctured with holes, piled high with garbage and filled with pigeon droppings. Birds, transients and teen-age graffiti artists are the only regular occupants.

“It’s just an absolute disgrace,” City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez said after touring the building. “It’s just not worthy of description. It’s terrible.”

Martinez and museum director Douglas Sharon announced plans Wednesday to clean and restore the building so that it can be used for museum offices.

The councilman said he learned about the condition of the three-story building this week from Sharon. Martinez blamed the city for letting the building fall into disrepair.

“Frankly, we dropped the ball,” Martinez said. “It’s the city’s fault. But we are going to have to stop worrying about whose fault it is and just fix it.”

Misuse of the building is especially disturbing because office space is at a premium in Balboa Park, Martinez said. “Frankly, I thought Park and Recreation was doing a survey of the space available in the park, but the building never entered my mind,” he said.

George Loveland, director of the park department, said money has not been available to maintain the building. But he accepted no blame for the damage. “The building had no use,” he said. “Like any abandoned building, it receives abuse.”

Loveland said the structure should be razed if a renovation plan cannot be devised.

The abandoned building sits on El Prado, the principal west entry to the park. A stucco arch links it to the museum just to the east.

The building features the boxlike shapes and flat stucco walls characteristic of Gill, who worked in San Diego from 1893 until his death in 1936. But the architecture has been obscured by years of abuse, which have left entire walls bare.

“I’m worried I’ll find a body in here one of these times,” said Ralph Telles, chief of security at the museum.

City officials almost tore the building down several years after park officials moved out in 1970, but relented when they discovered the national historic status, Sharon said.

The museum director said he hopes that the building can be refurbished for about $1 million, then converted to offices for the Museum of Man.

“We’ve had the hope of doing this ever since I got here four years ago,” Sharon said, “but we haven’t had the finances.”

The museum’s board of directors in seven months has raised $200,000 in cash and pledges, Sharon said, and is now ready to go ahead with the cooperation of the state and city. “We wanted to see if we had the capability to raise the money,” Sharon said. “And then we wanted to go to the state with the money in hand.”

Gallery space in the Museum of Man could be increased by as much as 20% if the museum staff can move into the abandoned building, Sharon said. The additional space would open the fourth side of the quadrangular museum, making it easier to accommodate visitors. “Our story of mankind will be told much more effectively,” Sharon said. “We would go a quantum leap forward as far as better exhibits.”

A construction company has volunteered to complete a free estimate of the cost of restoration. Sharon guessed that the work will cost $1 million.

But before the appraisal can begin, city work crews will clear out the debris and pigeon droppings. “It’s really a health hazard the way it is now,” Sharon said.

Martinez said he has already asked the city manager’s office to begin looking for sources of money to rebuild the park building.

“We can’t demolish it because it has been designated as a historic place,” Martinez said. “Our other choice is to make it a functional part of Balboa Park, and that is what we have decided to do.”