The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Fall 1971, Volume 17, Number 4
James E Moss, Editor
By MARTIN E. PETERSEN
At their seventy-first annual meeting in Washington, D.C., September 25, 1939, William Templeton Johnson became a Fellow in the prestigious American Institute of Architects. At that time, less than three hundred architects throughout the country associated with the institute had been so honored. The award was bestowed upon Johnson because: “The profession of architecture has been well served by Mr. Johnson. His contributions to design, research, literature, education and public service fulfill the exacting criteria of a vital architecture.”1
The lasting legacy of Johnson, manifest particularly in his public buildings in San Diego, is implicit in the personal philosophy that underlies them. According to a family member, “he studied the simple, beautiful lines of California Mission Architecture and shuddered at the ugly, unsuited lines of an architecture imported from the East in the new San Diego’s early growth.”2 During the first quarter of the twentieth century and throughout his life, he encouraged an adaptation of the Spanish Mission architectural style with its red tile roof and warm stucco walls, and discouraged any style he felt out of keeping with the climate and scenic background of Southern California.
His concern for an attractive and appealing San Diego extended beyond his architectural contributions however, as he directed his attention to a variety of worthwhile activities to better the community. His involvement in San Diego’s civic and cultural affairs is significant, and reflects the diversity of his interests in the community. He served on the Park Commission from 1920 to 1925, and in 1939 he was elected President of the Fine Arts Society, an organization which long held a special interest for him.3
An outdoor man, the architect was an active sportsman, an imposing figure standing six feet tall with blue eyes and brown hair, with a youthful appearance that in the later years of his life was greatly admired. Decidedly better than average at tennis, he and his sister Margaret (Mrs. William Tidball) were at one time runners-up in-the United States mixed doubles. Golf was another pastime he enjoyed. His golf companion was his friend, George W. Marston, one of San Diego’s pioneers and leading lights, who was also interested in a unified and harmonious architectural character for the city.
William Templeton Johnson’s life began on Shore Road, West New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, August 31, 1877, the pride and joy of Oliver and Caroline Sophia (Thomas) Johnson.4 Tragedy came early into his life when his father died, and the twelve year old boy went to work in the roofing business for the Warren Chemical and Manufacturing Company, 81 Foulton Street, New York. This was his initiation into the field of architecture.
Johnson married Clara Delafield Sturges, January 21, 1905, and to this union were born three sons and a daughter, Winthrop, Arthur, Alan and Katherine.5
After completing his schooling at Columbia University, 1906-1907, he went to Paris where he continued his studies in architecture at Atelier Chifflot, 1907-1908, and the Academie des Beaux Artes, 1908-1911. In 1911 he practiced briefly in New York, but by 1912 he had settled with his family in San Diego. In these early years he designed several homes for his own use in Coronado and in Mission Hills.6
From the first, Johnson set about to establish a reputation as a major architect in the community. Concerned about the children’s education, Mrs. Johnson founded the private and independent Francis W. Parker School in 1912, a school that has produced many of the community’s business, civic and cultural leaders. Based on the concept of Chicago educational philosopher, Colonel Francis W. Parker, a belief of relevancy of education, the school’s tenets stressed a sense of community and the development of character.7 In retrospect it could be considered progressive for the time.
For these students, the architect designed a building of a Spanish Mission character with a portico exposed to a central open course. This quadrangle was built in stages. It was undistinguished except for the unique California inndvation of open-air classrooms with sliding-folding doors that could be closed should southern California endure inclement weather.8 The first units were dedicated in January, 1913. An auditorium was added in 1919-1920, and four years later the quadrangle was completed. The “stripped” architecture of the building was similar to work being done by a contemporary architect, Irving Gill.
At the time, Irving Gill was working on the La Jolla Women’s Club building. Seven years Johnson’s senior, Gill was the most distinctive leading architect in San Diego and in Southern California.9 He was then at the height of his career. Essentially self trained, he picked up what knowledge he possessed in the Chicago office of Louis Sullivan where he had worked for a short time. His major production consisted of residential structures. Unfortunately many of his structures have been demolished or remodeled.
The California Pacific International Exposition of 1915, with its highly creative and elaborate architectural setting designed by Bertram Goodhue, had focused community attention on a more refined and sophisticated style of architecture steeped in a Churrigueresque, Plataresque and even Moorish tradition. It was at this time that Johnson’s work began to reflect an obvious changing public taste. The creativeness expressed in in the work of Gill began to give way to the romantic character of Johnson’s style. An appreciation for Gill’s clean and simplified concept diminished after 1915. Johnson became San Diego’s leading practicing architect when Gill closed his office the following year. Gill’s activity in the community had spanned the years from 1895 to 1916.
Johnson enjoyed a successful career. If not surpassing Gill’s, it was at least comparable. It is the art of Johnson that has most shaped the character of San Diego in the first half of the twentieth century principally through his public buildings. In this respect he had few peers, if any, among his contemporaries.10 His structures remain stalwart and useful. This in itself is meritorious testimony to their design and construction.
For Johnson’s architectural career, 1916 was a critical year. With greater concentration he studied and applied the Spanish Mission styles prevalent in the Southwest.11 This style, most frequently identified with him, he practiced on a number of public buildings. His preference for residential homes, however, can best be described as Mediterranean and find their prototypes in Italy and in the theory of Vitruvius. The outstanding example of this style is the Peckham house (1927) on Point Loma, a marvelous and harmonious structure with a formal setting to match its formality of design.12
Johnson’s crowning achievement was to be a commission in Spain in 1929, the country that fostered his artistic creations and fired his imagination, although he is best known as the designer of the public buildings in Presidio and Balboa Parks.
The imposing Serra Museum in Presidio Park was the dream of George W. Marston. When the building was dedicated on July 16, 1929, a local newspaper account described it in glowing terms as “an outstanding modern example of the best of our heritage of Mission Architecture, admirably fitted to a commanding site, and expressing with remarkable vigor the fine dignity of Father Serra.”13
John Nolen, landscape architect of Presidio Park, originally conceived of a building as a monument in the area. His associate, Hale J. Walker, roughed a sketch and his basic idea was incorporated by Johnson into his final design for the building. The function of the structure was to serve a threefold purpose: To house the San Diego History Center, to serve as a tribute to Father Junipero Serra, and to complement its setting. It was not intended to be a museum in the traditional sense, although in its original objectives, it can be considered a success .14
The building’s prominent tower has a sweeping view about Mission Valley and toward the ocean. A long covered ambulatory with its red tile roof and arcade leads the visitor into a large single room with high walls and beamed ceiling. Its three feet thick walls are of reinforced concrete for permanency and its tile floor echoes the footsteps of the guest within.
Johnson considered this museum among his finest achievements of Spanish Colonial style.15 Although it lacks the exterior ornateness to be found in some of his earlier public buildings, some historians consider it the most successful expression in his chosen stylistic idiom.
In Balboa Park, the Museum of Natural History and the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego are important examples of Johnson’s work. A $125,000 gift from Miss Ellen Scripps provided the impetus and necessary funds to construct a new building for the Natural History Society which traced its origins to the late 19th century. Begun in December, 1931, the building was dedicated January 14, 1933.
The three-storied building is crowned by a screen and balustrade combination consisting of two imaginative and stylized sea creatures supporting a circular element. This cresting is contrary to the tile roof line normally expected in the works of Johnson. The main entrance, leading to entry on the second floor, is reached by ascending a massive flight of stairs. A design pattern of yellow and blue tile beneath each window seems derivative of Moslem-Arabian influence and the decorative scheme around the doorway is one of incongruous complexity. Two engaged columns flank the main entrance. Above their modified Corinthian capital, not an architrave, but the head of an American bison balances a finial in the form of a cat, whose ancestory can be traced back naturally and artistically to ancient Egypt. It sits rather stoically staring into space observing nothing and is somewhat remote for adequate viewing. The discordant element established by the decoration scheme seems unworthy of the architect. Esthetically it appears chaotic rather than harmonious. The west side of the building also presented a problem, for the architect extended the height of the wall for assumably better proportion. Such a deliberate act produced a pseudo-false front effect reminiscent of the facades of the main streets to be found in many early American Western frontier towns. The structure gives the im- pression of incompleteness and is not to be considered among Johnson’s most successful endeavors.
The Fine Arts Gallery is often considered Johnson’s outstanding achievement in San Diego. Construction of the $400,000 gallery began in April, 1924. It opened its doors to the public in February, 1926. Basically an Italian Renaissance edifice with a richly embellished entrance decorated in a Plataresque style, it conjures up visions of the Colonial Spanish era.16 The gallery replaced the Sacramento Valley Building, referred to by some as the United States Building, designed by Bertram Goodhue for the Exposition of 1915. The facade space of the new gallery equalled that of its predecessor, thereby retaining the unity and harmony of the entire area as conceived by Goodhue. The new facade was far less complicated than the earlier building, which had been based on an Italian Renaissance model of Verona. It contrasts a broad flat wall surface with a resplendent entrance, window openings and with a decorated cornice. The elaboration was inspired by a prototype of the Old World, The University of Salamanca.17 While similarities may be noted in comparison, the Gallery’s decoration was an invention of Johnson. In niches and on medallions about the door the Baroque Spanish painters, Murillo, Ribera, Velazquez, Zurbaran and El Greco, coexist in absolute harmony with the Italian Renaissance sculptors, Donatello and Michelangelo, represented by replicas of St. George and David respectively.
Heraldic devices and coats-of-arms of Spain, America, California and San Diego surmount the main portico. The sea shell which provides the central motif of the decorative scheme, and which is to be noted above the door and repeated beneath the cornice in the guise of the arch frieze is a reference to Saint James (San Diego). According to legend, Saint James was transported to the coast of Spain on a shell, as the early Spaniards were carried to the New World in galleons. The shell has traditionally become the symbol of the saint in the arts. This motif can be found on a number of buildings by Johnson seemingly a signature and an allusion of San Diego. For example, the La Jolla High School, also by Johnson, bears this emblem of Saint James in a design framing the door of its main entrance. On the interior in the foyer immediately within, a coffered ceiling reflects possible sources from Spanish models. It is the extravagantly covered entrance, however, that suggests the treasures within. The building is a worthy repository for the wealth it contains.18
A second phase of the Gallery’s architectural history occurred in 1947 following World War II upon the return of the Park and the buildings to the city by the military. Johnson was called upon to remodel it and other Park facilities. The Fine Arts Gallery had been a 423 bed hospital during the duration of the war. This $30,000 project was the first in the area Johnson undertook.19 In addition he added a school room, no longer extant. At the same time he also proposed a new wing. It was to have contained space for the exhibition of Venetian and American art, a library to hold at least 3500 volumes, a basement for storage, and a small auditorium that would hold 700. Despite the fact that the later additions were never constructed, Johnson’s original design for the Fine Arts Gallery proved to be of special significance for his career.
In competition for the commission to design three buildings to house the American exhibits for the United States Government in Seville, Spain, at the 1929 Exposition, the original design for the Fine Arts Gallery and the La Jolla Library played a decisive factor in the selection of Johnson.
Outstanding among his achievements and one of his most pleasant structures, the La Jolla library was dedicated October 10, 1921.20 It is a low, one-storied building with a red tiled roof. The decoration is restrained, a small portico with refined pillars and pilasters capped by modified Corinthian inspired capitals form the principal facade decoration. Recessed windows add a low keyed decor. The sea shell makes its appearance on the capital decoration.
When he was invited by Commissioner General Thomas E. Campbell, to submit examples of his work, these two buildings were submitted by Johnson in competition with six other architects in the United States. The decision to award the honor to Johnson was based upon them.
Honoring the arts, specifically a Commemorative Centenary Celebration of the Art of Goya, the Iberian-American Exposition was held in Seville, Spain, June, 1929, through June, 1930. Of the three buildings erected for the occasion only one was made the permanent official United States Consulate. Johnson attended the inaugural ceremonies and personally received special recognition and honor from King Alfonso XIII. The building is a two-storied structure, with sparse decoration emphasizing the entry, roof line and window openings. This characteristic architectural concept associated with Johnson indicates the preference of a prevalent Baroque style not only in Nueva Espana, but also in the mother country, and demonstrates an element of tradition rigidly adhered to and seemingly preferred by the populace. The commission earned him an international reputation.
In passing, it is of interest to note how even the slightest detail of architectural harmony concerned the architect. On July 5, 1930, on the occasion of the dedication in Balboa Park of the statue of El Cid by Anna Hyatt Huntington, another work by Johnson made its first appearance after a few apprehensive moments when the covering for the statue became ensnarled in the warrior’s spear.21 The heroic statue of the Spanish savior who united Spain in common cause and became legendary was put upon a base of stone the architect had designed. Of Indiana limestone, fifteen feet long, fourteen feet high and eight feet wide, the base conveys a feeling of simple dignity and solidity characteristic of the buildings of the master architect. Interestingly enough, this was the first public sculpture erected in San Diego. The architect was never pleased with the location of the monument. He visualized it as a terminal element for Laurel Street. Approaching the area the viewer would then see a silhouette of the equestrian. The side view of El Cid is the most powerful perspective, and would effect a greater visual impact on the viewer .22
Finished with his Spanish commission and upon his return to San Diego, Johnson, it was announced in the local news, would supervise the construction of a new building for the San Diego Trust & Savings Bank at 6th and Broadway. A European Renaissance Palace-Fortress is suggested by the facade of the bank building paralleling Broadway. Massive and substantial in appearance, it suggests security within. Dominating the San Diego skyline for many years, the building offers a good balance of functionalism and esthetic appeal. The impression of monumentality and durability which permeates from its block surfaces is softened by an introduction of decorative elements such as Romanesque arches, engaged columns, fanciful friezes, and patterned windows, all subtly incorporated and which divide the surface into harmonious and balanced units. The walls and the decorative schemes, treated with restraint, serve as a foil for each other.
In the downtown area his talents may be observed not only in the San Diego Trust & Savings Bank, but also in the Lion Clothing Company building, formerly the Samuel I. Fox Building, located on Broadway at Sixth street across from the bank building. A handsome building, it was constructed as a department store and has endured with little change during the last fifty years.
Unlike its neighbor across the street, the Fox building has a feeling of lightness despite the larger proportion of the upper floors in ratio to the lower ground floor. The architect used walls of glass with tracery of engaged slender pillars separated by a screening device to sustain them and to conceal the actual number of floors. One is reminded of the Medieval master builders who created the clerestory to lighten the wall as well as the interior darkness in the massive cathedrals dotting Gothic Europe. Exterior emphasis on verticality enhances the size of the building and adds a sense of greater height. Finials depicting a lion holding a shield seem appropriate to the richness of the building’s decoration. These cement creatures alternate with a basin like projection based on the shell design. Beneath the overhanging tile roof, evidence of painted design can still be detected between the eaves. Although different in feeling and concept, the Bank building and the Fox building are in complete concert, unified by their decoration and evident Spanish ancestry.
The County Administration Building located on Harbor Drive owes its existence in part to the talents of Johnson, who with three other architects, supervised the main building (1935-1938) .23
The cycle of his career now reached its conclusion, as civic and government building were undertaken. His career followed the usual pattern of architects: Designing residential homes, then public buildings and finally commercial and governmental structures. Most of the later projects by Johnson, now working with associates, are undistinguished. Among these works the two most prominent buildings are the main Post Office Building (1937) and the Public Library (1954). The former’s “Art-deco” style, considered the latest in good taste in its day, of ornamentation characterized by curved lines and streamline effect, unfortunately date it.
Although Johnson is considered primarily a San Diego architect, his activities extended beyond local limits. In addition to his Seville commission, Johnson was particularly proud of the Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium at Claremont College, Pomona, dedicated February 26, 193324. The 2,500 capacity auditorium was designed in an Italian Renaissance style, its eclecticism most obvious in its entrance arcades and monumental masses. The following year the architect was appointed by the Long Beach Board of Education to supervise the construction of thirty-seven new school buildings in that city following the destructive earthquake in 1933.
Earlier, during World War I, he had designed an entire emergency community in Philadelphia, and records exist referring to his Mid-City Trust and Saving Bank in Chicago. Few local architects today have equalled this record.
During the last years of his life associates in his firm handled much of his work. Three projects between 1947 and 1957 were on the drawing board: a baseball stadium, an administration building for Solar Aircraft, and one for Lindbergh Field. None, however, were ever realized.
When Johnson died in 1957 at the age of eighty, few remembered his energetic enthusiasm and dedication to create a Southern California Utopia. His legacy remains in the monuments which have been a source of pleasure and education to many who have passed by the way.
As an architect he proved to be a traditionalist rather than an innovator. His works based on a Colonial Spanish, Mission, or Mediterranean style suitable to San Diego’s geography and climate, and bathed in an aura of romance inspired by European architectural models, are lasting reflections of the lure of Spain and the Conquistadores, when Nueva Espana came into being in the shadow of the cross and the sword. The cultural influence of Spain ostensibly and romantically remains in San Diego. The community’s tenacious desire to maintain Balboa Park with its architectural fairyland setting based on Spanish models of the Old World is a nostalgic reminder of the ties to another era. His sensitivity to the environment and to what seemed a fitting and proper stage for man’s daily activity can be easily appreciated in an age so concerned with ecology, clean air, and a good place in which to live and work. In this sense Johnson proved to be a man of vision.
BUILDINGS BY WILLIAM TEMPLETON JOHNSON
1912-1916 Coronado and Mission Hills residences.
1913 Francis W. Parker School, first units 1913. Finished, 1924.
W.W.I. An emergency community near the shipyards at Philadelphia.
1916 San Diego residence (see Architectural Record, XL, November, 1916).
c. 1917 Dent H. Robert residence, Coronado.
1921 La Jolla Library.
1922-1924 La Jolla Junior High School.
1924-1926 Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego.
c. 1926 Henry Lippitt residence, San Diego.
c. 1926 Mrs. Arthur Brock residence, San Diego.
1926 La Valencia Hotel, La Jolla, first unit (originally “Los Apartmentos de Seville”).
1927 Peckham residence, Point Loma.
1927-1928
San Diego Trust & Savings Building.
Samuel I. Fox Building, now Lion’s Clothing Store.
Serra Museum.
1930 Base (El Cid), Balboa Park.
1930-1933 Museum of Natural History, Balboa Park.
1932 Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, Claremont College, Pomona.
1934 Supervised the construction of thirty-seven new schools, Long Beach.
1936-1938 County Administrative Building, Harbor Drive (with three others, Requa, I. Gill, S. W. Hamill).
1937 U.S. Post Office, Main Office, San Diego.
1940 Classroom and administrative unit, Muir Elementary School.
1940-1943 Fourth Church of Christ Scientist, La Jolla.
1942 Jackson Elementary School.
1943 Linda Vista Elementary School.
1947 Classroom, Fine Arts Gallery (demolished), also a proposed new wing.
1948 Bandini Elementary School (Old Sunshine School).
1948 Fremont Elementary School.
1948 Ocean Beach Community Center.
1949 Music Building, Roosevelt Junior High School.
1954 San Diego Public Library, main branch.
Music Building, Wilson Junior High School (now a physical education building).
Between 1947-1957 three major projects designed, but never completed:
Stadium for Padres Baseball Team.
Administration Building for Lindbergh Field.
Administration Building, Solar.
NOTE: This list is representative only. When structures were designed by his firm, Johnson is credited as the major architect and received full acknowledgement. A number of these projects, particularly in his later years, were designed with associates.
NOTES
1. San Diego Union, September 25, 1939.
2. Ibid.
3. Johnson was also a member of the City Planning Commission (1912-1935); the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (1920) serving as president (1925, 1930 and 1931); The San Diego Library Commission; the Board of the San Diego Symphony Association. Nationally, he was a member of the Century Association, Washington, D.C., a very single honor; the Architectural League, New York; and the Executive Committee of the National Conference on City Planning (1912-1916).
4. Many details have been related through family, friends and acquaintances contacted during the course of research. There is discrepancy in many of the brief newspaper accounts relating to the life of Johnson.
5. This marriage ended in divorce. In 1935 he married Helen Hayes Gleason.
6. His address in Coronado was at 631 Ocean Blvd. According to his son this was the first attempt at practicing architecture. However, his achievements in other parts of the country indicate otherwise. Syd Love, San Diego, Portrait of a Spectacular City (San Diego, Ca.,san Diego Magazine Publishing Co., 1969). His residence in Mission Hills was by his own hand also. He died at 4284 Jackdaw in 1957. These houses still stand although with modifications.
7. Information and background material regarding Colonel Parker was gleaned from source material in the possession of the Francis W. Parker School. 8. It is believed to be the first school in the United States for which folding-sliding doors have been used in making the building an open air school. Architectural Record, XXXVII (January, 1915), p. 96.
9. For an account of the life of Irving Gill see Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Irving Gill, 1870-1936, Los Angeles, Ca., 1958.
10. Gill did few works of a public nature. His basic contributions were residential in nature and in this respect he stands unequalled in Southern California in creative imagination. Perhaps some may consider a comparison of these two architects a bit unrealistic. However, Johnson’s residences show knowledge and skill of adaptation of previous styles which he employed with an adroitness, unmatched by local architects.
11. Syd Love, Ibid. 1969, p. 62.
12. Some early residences Johnson designed can best be described as Southwestern, influenced by the low and long adobe Pueblo structures of New Mexico, i.e. Arthur Brock home, 1926.
13. San Diego Evening Tribune, July 1, 1933.
14. The Journal of San Diego History, Vol. XV, No. 3 (Summer 1969).
15. Ibid.
16. Plataresque refers to silver. The rich design around the door is suggestive of the art of the silversmith, hence the stylistic name. Some credit for the building design belongs to Johnson’s associate Robert W. Snyder whose name also appears on the cornerstone.
17. Letter, November 16, 1964, from the architect Samuel Wood Hamill to Warren Beach, Director, Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, points out the influence of the Spanish source. For a comparison of ornamental decoration see Americas, XVI (September, 1964), p. 5, illus. Also, A. Byne and D. Stapley, Spanish Architecture of the 16th Century (New York, 1917), p. 137, illus.
18. Independent, San Diego, February 26, 1927, announced that the architect was the recipient of an Honor Award for designing the best building for the years 1925-1926 by the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The Gallery earned him that distinction.
19. Correspondence and builder’s contracts in the Gallery files.
20. H. S. F. Randolph, La Jolla Year by Year, 1955.
21. San Diego Union, June 28, 1930. The sculptor of El Cid was Anna Hyatt Huntington who was an acquaintance of Johnson. The sculpture is a replica of one in the collection of the Hispanic Society, New York, and another is in Seville, Spain. The subject, called El Cid, was Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, 11th century chief or champion (El Cid) who drove the Moors from Spain. The bronze work dates from 1927. It was presented to the Fine Arts Society by the Hispanic Society which in turn presented it to the Community. Alejandro Padilla y Bell, representing the Spanish government, arrived in town to perform the honor of unveiling and dedication.
22. Substantiated by conversation with Mr. George Hatch and Mrs. E. Johnson, San Diego.
23. Other architects assigned to the main unit were Louis Gill, Samuel Wood Hamill and Richard Requa. According to George Hatch, a former associate of Johnson, the actual drawing of the plans and design were done by Jesse Earl Stanton, who was hired to draw up the design.
24. The auditorium was built in memory of A. S. Bridge’s daughter, who had been a student there. The will of Bridge stipulated Johnson as his choice of architect for the auditorium. See: San Diego Union, May 21, 1929. This building earned Johnson an Honor Award from the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1933.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Architecture, CXXXIII (June 20, 1928), p. 837, illus. re Iberian-American Exposition; CXXXIV (August, 5, 1928, pp. 177-182, illus.
American Institute of Architectural Journal, VII (1919), pp. 65-70, illus. re Mid-City Trust & Savings Bank, Chicago. American Institute of Architects,American Architects Directory (New York, 1955), p. 280.
Architect and Engineer, LXC (October, 1929), pp. 49-63, illus. re Exposition and Museum Building; CXXXVIII (July, 1939), pp. 33-35, illus. re San Diego’s Civic Center.
Architectural Record, XXXVII (January, 1915) pp. 88-90, illus. re Francis W. Parker School; XL (October, 1916), pp. 344347, illus. re Coronado home; XL (November, 1916), p. 485, illus.; XLII (October 1917), pp. 358-359, illus.; LX (November, 1926), pp. 467-470, illus.
Balboa Park, San Diego, 1941 (a guide booklet), p. 15, re Fine Arts Gallery.
California Arts & Architecture, XXXVI (October, 1929), p. 56, illus.; XLIII (January, 1933), pp. 18-19, illus. re Mabel Shaw
Bridges Music Auditorium; XLIV (October, 1933), p. 12, illus. re Post Office.
California Review: The Art of Living in La Jolla (1965), illus. re La Valencia Hotel.
Christman, Florence, Romance of Balboa Park (San Diego, 1969), pp. 126 ff., re Fine Arts Gallery, pp. 130-31 re El Cid. Columbia University, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (Boston, 1963); Vol. 6.
San Diego Evening Tribune, June 26, 1930, re El Cid; July 5, 1930, re El Cid; July 1, 1933, re award; April 4, 1947, re Balboa Park buildings, May 29, 1947.
“Francis Parker School,” San Diego Magazine, XXIII (April, 1971), pp. 100 ff., illus.
Gebhard, David and Robert Winter, A Guide to Architecture in Southern California (Los Angeles County Museum, 1965), pp. 133, 136, illus. re Serra Museum and Francis W. Parker School.
Hatch, George C., San Diegan, November, 1957, re obituary and tribute.
Heilbron, Carl H. (ed.), History of San Diego County (San Diego, 1936), pp. 305-306.
Independent, San Diego, February 26, 1927; June 22, 1927, illus. with photograph of the architect; February 12, 1939. Johnson, William Templeton, Beginnings of The Art Gallery, incomplete and unpublished manuscript dated January, 1950. , T. J. Grows Up, unpublished manuscript dated 1957.
Journal, San Diego, May 29, 1947, re Balboa Park buildings.
Journal of San Diego History, Vol. XV (Summer, 1969), No. 3, re Serra Museum.
Love, Syd, San Diego, Portrait of a Spectacular City (San Diego, 1962), pp. 62, 66, 67, 70.
Marston, Mary Gillman, George White Marston (Pasadena, 1956), Vol. II, chaps. 28 and 29, re Presidio Park and Civic Center.
Omniart, I (May, 1962), p. 14, illus. re Library.
Pencil Points, XXI (February, 1940), pp. 92-94, illus. re San Diego Post Office.
Pourade, Richard F., The Rising Tide (San Diego, 1967), p. 138, re Photograph and Serra Museum. Randolph, Howard S. F., La Jolla Year by Year (La Jolla, 1955), re Library.
San Diego Union, December 26, 1926, illus. re San Diego Trust & Savings Bank; May 21, 1929, re Bridges Music Auditorium; July 21, 1929; February 23, 1930; February 24, 1930, illus. with photograph of the architect; June 28, 1930, re El Cid; June 29, 1930, re El Cid; July 6, 1930, reEl Cid; September 9, 1939, re award; September 25, 1939, re award; April 4, 1947, re Balboa Park buildings; October 15, 1957, re obituary; February 21, 1971, re Francis W. Parker School. Sun, San Diego, February 22, 1930; July 7, 1930, re El Cid; June 28, 1930, re El Cid. Sun Tribune, San Diego, February 24, 1930, illus., re Seville Consulate.
Who Was Who in America (New York, 1963), Vol. 3 (1951-60), p. 457.
Martin E. Petersen has been the Curator of Western Arts at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego since 1957. His varied and extensive experience with the arts includes travel in Europe, where he viewed major public and private art collections, and writing and lecturing on a wide range of subjects relating to his major field of interest and study. He is the author of “Contemporary Artists of San Diego,” Journal of San Diego History,Volume XVI, Number 4 (Fall, 1970).
