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Casa de Balboa

Balboa Park (San Diego)Buildings and structures in San DiegoCalifornia stubs
SanDiegoCasaDeBalboa
SanDiegoCasaDeBalboa

Casa de Balboa is a building in San Diego's Balboa Park, in the U.S. state of California. The building was originally known as the Commerce and Industries Building, and later called the Canadian Building, the Palace of Better Housing, and the Electric Building. It is currently home to the Museum of Photographic Arts, the San Diego History Center, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, and the Balboa Art Conservation Center.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Casa de Balboa (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Casa de Balboa
El Prado, San Diego Banker's Hill

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

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N 32.7311 ° E -117.1487 °
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Casa de Balboa Building

El Prado
92134 San Diego, Banker's Hill
California, United States
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Zoro Garden Nudist Colony
Zoro Garden Nudist Colony

Zorro Garden Nudist Colony was an attraction at the 1935-36 Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was located in Zoro Garden, a sunken garden originally created for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition. Billed as a nudist colony, it was populated by hired performers rather than actual practicing nudists. The women wore only G-strings; the men wore loincloths or trunks. The participants lounged around in their "colony", played volleyball and other games, and performed a quasi-religious "Sacrifice to the Sun God" five times a day. Fair attendees could pay for admission to bleacher-type seats, or they could peek through knotholes in a wooden fence for free. On August 27, 1936, the colony closed, allegedly "after an argument with Exposition officials about finances."Contemporary newspaper accounts indicate the "colony" was composed of actual nudists, but local historian Matthew Alice has stated that the women were "wearing flesh-colored bras, G-strings, or body stockings so everything was zipped up tight." However, the women were indeed topless, as countless un-doctored photographs plainly show. Nate Eagle, a sideshow promoter who, with partner Stanley R. Graham, created the scandalous Zoro Garden nudist colony. Located in a sunken garden east of the Palace of Better Housing (today's Casa de Balboa), Zoro Garden was, according to the Zoro Garden program, "designed to explain to the general public the ideals and advantages of natural outdoor life." Topless women and bearded men in loincloths read books, sunbathed, and acted in pseudo-religious rituals to the Sun God. According to the program, "Healthy young men and women, indulging in the freedom of outdoor living in which they so devoutly believe, have opened their colony to the friendly, curious gaze of the public." The public's curious gaze quickly turned Zorro Garden into the Exposition's most lucrative outdoor attraction. Despite protests, Zorro Garden lasted for the entire run of the Exposition. The area is now the Zoro Butterfly Garden.

Japanese Friendship Garden (Balboa Park)
Japanese Friendship Garden (Balboa Park)

The Japanese Friendship Garden, also known as Sankei-en ( 三渓園 ) is a twelve-acre Japanese garden located within Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It is an expression of friendship between San Diego and its Japanese sister city Yokohama that binds the two cultures to create a unique experience for visitors from all over the world; over 240,000 people from across the United States and the world visit the garden annually. Representing a new concept in the development of a Japanese garden outside Japan, the Japanese Friendship Garden is designed to present an atmosphere of elegant simplicity (shibui) and quiet beauty. The garden's naturalistic design is guided by the original principles/techniques of the Japanese garden while incorporating elements of the regional San Diego landscape and climate; in terms of features, the garden is well-known for its unique placement, sukiya-style buildings, koi ponds, and landscape exhibits. The Japanese Friendship Garden also hosts many local educational programs, activities, festivals, and horticultural classes that focus on the relationship between nature and Japanese culture.The Japanese Friendship Garden was built and continues to be maintained under the philosophy that, "a garden is always in a state of change but the basic elements of trees, shrubs, rocks and water designed in natural balance create a peaceful, harmonious, and transcendental environment conducive to contemplation and meditation."