Save Our Heritage Organisation
Friday · July 23
Anniversary Open House at the Marston House
11am-4pmJoin us for sweets and refreshments at the carriage house · 50% of admission price in honor of this milestone
Marston House Museum attracts record attendance under SOHO
Attendance at the Marston House Museum & Gardens reached a record high of nearly 7,000 in the first year the Arts & Crafts estate has been operated by Save Our Heritage Organisation, California's oldest continuously operating preservation group.
Since late July 2009, when SOHO reopened the 1905 National Historic Landmark in Balboa Park, attendance doubled compared to annual figures from the former operator. The San Diego Historical Society closed the Marston House in February 2009 due to poor attendance and financial difficulties.
Prior to reopening the house, SOHO staff and volunteers swarmed over the neglected property to clean, repair and assess it for long-term preservation. The dining room was repainted its historic color and a long-closed bedroom wing was prepared for visitors. After less than three hectic weeks, the house was the site of a glamorous cocktail party for SOHO members and special guests, including Marston family members. It opened the next day for public tours Friday through Sunday.Due to ongoing positive response, SOHO recently added more days to the schedule. The Marston House & Gardens are now open Thursday through Monday, 10am-5pm through the summer.In March, the stately house, designed by Hebbard & Gill and owned by the city of San Diego, served as the centerpiece and headquarters for SOHO's annual Historic Home Tour. The one-day tour, which included five other historic homes on the same block of Seventh Avenue, attracted 1,400 people, a SOHO home tour record.
Five weeks later, 1,200 people of all ages attended SOHO's inaugural May Day at the Marston House - San Diego's Garden Party on May 1. Participants enjoyed tours of the house and gardens, plein-air paintings, music, monarch butterflies, and tea and wine gardens. Special guest Suzy Spafford, creator of Suzy's Zoo, was on hand for the launch of three new hybrid geraniums named for characters in her imaginary town, Duckport, and developed by SOHO's nonprofit Geranium George Project. The group sold 1,500 geraniums that day and took orders for 500 more. The plants are available for sale exclusively through SOHO. Faced with ten years of deferred maintenance, SOHO is devising restoration plans for the 8,500-square-foot house and surveying its gardens in preparation for restoration. These include a formal garden and an Arts & Crafts-era garden that dips into Cabrillo Canyon. SOHO also launched a capital campaign for maintenance and preservation of the five-acre estate.
Within weeks, SOHO members and staff made improvements that greatly enhance the visitors' experience, such as installing authentic Arts & Crafts-period furniture, art and decorative objects in the house museum, and opening the carriage house and transforming it into the Marston House Museum Shop.
SOHO also launched an exhibitions program, starting with plein-air paintings by prominent San Diego artists of the Marstons' era and a long-term loan of original redwood furniture designed by Irving J. Gill and other early 20th-century San Diego architects.
Directions & Parking
The Marston House is located at 3525 Seventh Avenue in an early twentieth century historic district. The area is accessed from Upas Street via 6th Avenue. From Interstate 8, take 163 South to the University Street Exit, which will put you on 6th AvenueThere is no parking on this residential street.
For your convenience there are several choices for parking. Utilize the ample free parking all along Balboa Drive, Sixth Avenue, Upas and Thorn Streets. You may also take the free tram providing access to all of Balboa Park's museums and attractions. Just park at the Inspiration Point parking lot, known as Tram Central, which has a shady arbor with benches on the east side of Park Blvd., between Presidents Way and the Balboa Park Activity Center for easy access to the Marston House Museum & Gardens. Trams pick up from Tram Central every 8-10 minutes. Riders may also board at one of the designated pick-up areas around the Park. The Balboa Park Tram is provided as a free public service by the City of San Diego Park and Recreation Department.
Public bathrooms are located in the parking area near the playground on Balboa Drive at Thorn Street, indicated on the parking map with an orange circle. The permanent facilities at the Marston House are limited.
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