Balboa Park - History & Overview

Photo by @leslie_outofdoors

Introduction

Balboa Park is a 1,200-acre cultural oasis in San Diego. With more than 15 museums, extensive gardens and attractions, there's no shortage of things to do, see and explore. It’s also the home of the San Diego Zoo, an 18-hole golf course and 9-hole executive course, a frisbee golf course, and much more!

Balboa Park is one of California’s oldest parks, dating back to 1868, although not much was done with the land until the 1890’s when Kate Sessions began planting trees as part of a nursery.

1915 Panama-California Exposition

Balboa Park is perhaps most famously the home of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition which was held to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Many of the buildings in the park were built for this exposition. The goal was to showcase San Diego as a potential site for industrial development, but more importantly it celebrated California and its Spanish heritage. The fair boasted many exhibits from around Mexico as well as an extensive collection of art by Mexican artists such as Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros - some of which can still be found scattered throughout Balboa Park today!

Museums & Attractions

Ther are over 15 museums and performance arts centers located within Balboa Park including The Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Museum of Art, Mingei International Museum, San Diego History Center and Fleet Science Center to name a few. Balboa Park is even home to one of the largest model train museums in the world, with over 27,000 square feet of exhibits and true to life scale representations of famous rail lines!

Entrance to Mingei Museum

Balboa Park Model Train Museum. Photo by @cultivar413

The 18-hole Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course is a challenging and well-maintained golf course in the heart of San Diego. Residents with a resident ID card enjoy discounted rates. If you are short on time, try the 37 par 9-hole course which features over 3,300 yards of play and two par 5’s, so it’s not just a chip and putt. There’s also the Morley Field Disc Golf Course which is actually one of the world’s first frisbee golf courses, established in 1978!

Photo by @cultivar413

Don’t forget about the San Diego Zoo either which is also located within Balboa Park. And adjacent to the zoo, you can also find the Balboa Park Miniature Railroad where you can take a ride on a miniature train! From the train, you may spot the Balboa Park Carousel, an almost entirely original carousel dating back to 1910! While you’re in this section of Balboa Park, we highly recommend checking out the Spanish Village Art Center, home to over 200 working art studios.

There’s even more to explore within Balboa Park, from miles of hiking and jogging trails to lawn bowling, bocce ball courts, archery, and countless gardens and open spaces.

More to Come

We barely scratched the surface of what Balboa Park has to offer in this post, but we plan to update it in the future. In the meantime, we hope that we’ve at least given you some inspiration to visit San Diego's historic Balboa Park.