The History of the Scripps Aquarium : Its Predecessors Look Downright Primitive : Aquarium: From plaster fish to flying concrete, the facility has come a long way.

At the old Scripps Aquarium, the problem was too many schools.

Not fish, kids.

Hordes of schoolchildren always toured the T. Wayland Vaughan Aquarium. They packed into the dark 12,500-square-foot building, pressed up against the 20 tanks, oohing and ahhing at the creatures of the deep.

The cement began to crack, the tanks began to leak, and the dripping salt water caused the reinforcement supports in the building to rust. And cars began to stack up, searching for parking spaces near the La Jolla Shores Road aquarium.

“By the early ‘60s, the aquarium (completed in 1950) really wasn’t adequate,” said Donald W. Wilkie, who has been the director of UC San Diego’s aquarium-museum since 1965. “It was really pretty modest in the original design.”

Modest? Indeed.

It did, however, make its predecessors look downright primitive.

In the summer of 1903, a group of San Diego businessmen urged William E. Ritter, then chairman of the department of zoology at UC Berkeley, to come summer here and conduct studies of the marine life.

Ritter, eager to explore new territory, set up shop at the Hotel del Coronado’s boathouse. He and others initially called the fledgling organization the Marine Biology Assn. of San Diego. But the modest group soon grew to include the wealthy newspaper philanthropists Ellen Browning Scripps and her half brother, E.W. Scripps.

The Scripps got swept up with the notion of a more permanent, year-round facility. To carry out scientific studies, the researchers needed to be located in a more pristine, isolated area. From 1905 to 1910, they relocated at La Jolla Cove park. Visitors were welcome to stroll through their one building but it was not billed as an aquarium; it was a research laboratory.

When the city auctioned off 170 acres of La Jolla land in 1907, the group--funded largely by the Scripps--paid $1,000 for the parcel, lot No. 1298. They had the city’s blessings.

“This auction was, you might say, rigged because the association was the only bidder and it was intended to be the only bidder,” said Betty Shor, historian and author of “Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Probing the Oceans.”

An actual aquarium, however, did not open until 1915. In those days, the aquarium was a 24-by-48-foot wooden building that held 19 tanks, ranging in size from 96 to 228 gallons.

Percy S. Barnhart, the first curator of the aquarium and museum, focused on filling the tanks with local marine animals. Not only did Barnhart catch most of the specimens himself right off the Scripps pier, but he also had to dig for worms and cut up fish for his charges. It was basically a one-man show. To help make ends meet, he sold specimens to other researchers.

In the museum, he featured displays of fishes created from plaster casts that were painted to look real. He also set out shells as well as stuffed fish. Barnhart, author of the reference book “Marine Fishes of Southern California,” was clearly frustrated by the limitations of the existing Scripps facility.

Barnhart longed to create a new building with well-lit tanks. But World War II put the kibosh on those plans.

Barnhart’s successor, Sam Hinton, helped design the next aquarium and museum--the one that shut its doors to visitors for the last time Monday. In 1946, Scripps officials gathered for the groundbreaking, and this three-story building--dedicated to the second director of Scripps--was finished some four years later.

When it opened, the cement T. Wayland Vaughan Aquarium seemed leagues ahead of its old wooden counterpart. The tanks ranged in sizes up to 2,000 gallons.

But only a decade after it opened, the aquarium had become outdated. And it didn’t wear well. A chunk of concrete landed on the director’s desk one day. And Donald Wilkie, who succeeded Hinton, realized it was time to think about yet another new facility.

“You feel like you are working in Czechoslovakia somewhere. There is no carpeting, no paint, just cement. It is pretty bleak,” said Heidi Hahn, describing the offices in the basement of the old aquarium where the staff worked.

Like the directors before him, Wilkie saw the limitations of the existing aquarium and set about obtaining a better one. He had to struggle with fund-raising, irate neighbors who didn’t want their view or neighborhood spoiled. The project had to be scaled back; cost estimates came in too high.

But finally, Sept. 16, the new Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum will open its doors to the public.

“When I came to Scripps, I wanted the aquarium to reflect the quality of the Institution,” said Wilkie, smiling with obvious satisfaction, “Now it does.”

Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum Entrance 1. Sardine and Anchovies Northwest Coast 2. Salmon 3. Caves and Crevices 4. Wolf Eel 5. Giant octopus Southern California 6. Octopus (2-spot) 7. Lobsters 8. Jellyfish 9. Drifters 10. Penasquitos Lagoon 11. Abalone 12. Goby Colony 13. Sand Dollar Community 14. Scripps Pier Habitat 15. Garibaldi 16. Scripps Canyon 17. Scripps Canyon 18. San Clemente Island Kelp Forest 19. Giant Kelp Tank Mexico 20. Magdalena Bay 21. Cabo San Lucus 22. Los Islotes Reef 23. Nocturnal Life 24. Seahorse and Black Coral 26. Socorro Island Expedition Group Initial Exhibit Fiji 25. Moturiki Channel 27. Living Coral Reef 28. Beqa Barrier Reef 29. Anemone Fishes 30. Flashlight Fishes 31. Damselfishes 32. Noutilus 33. Venomous Fishes Tidepool Plaza 34. Tidepool Habitat

Aquarium Fees and Hours

The Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum at 2300 Expedition Way will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The bookshop will stay open until 6 p.m.

While the old facility charged a voluntary admission fee, the new one will charge: $6.50 for adults, $5.50 for seniors (60+), $4.50 for students (13-18) and active duty military, $3.50 for children (4-12), and children under 4 free.

For more information, call: 534-FISH.