This current heatwave makes you want to go out and visit more outdoor spots and we're are lucky to have one of the few places with more than 1,400 acres of plants, trails, exhibitions and museums: The Balboa Park. This place, which recently celebrated it's 100th anniversary, is not just grass and exhibitions, the place is full of history that you probably didn't know.
The lifestyle experts at Thrillist.com, have 12 curious Balboa Park facts, so we gathered a few of those and added a few others that they missed:
1 - It's bigger than Manhattan's Central Park
Let's compare Central Park's 843 acres to Balboa Park's 1,200 acres if you include the world-famous San Diego Zoo.
2 - Its original name was "City Park"
Before being renamed Balboa in 1910, named after Spanish maritime explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to have seen or reached the Pacific Ocean, this park was known as "City Park" around 1868.
3 - Created to coincide with the 1915 opening of the Panama Canal
Before 1914, the park's land was mostly just open space, lacking trees and covered in native wildflowers. Soon after finishing the construction of Panama Canal in that same year, the place became an oasis after being designated to be the site to celebrate its completion with the Panama-California Exposition in 1915.
4 - The park buildings where used by the military during WWI and WWII
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style buildings, which are now different artistic and history museums, were used by the U.S. military for training, sleeping quarters and even a hospital, especially during World War II.
5 - There was a nudist colony
Yeah, you read that right, there used to be a nudist colony in Balboa Park, known as the Zoro Garden Nudist Colony during 1935 1936, during the Central Pacific International Exposition. It's not known if they were actual nudists or just performance artists.
6 - The Beatles and the Rolling Stones played there
The Beatles played their first and only San Diego show there in 1965, the same year they released Rubber Soul. Where did they play? At Balboa Stadium now known as The Starlight Bowl.
7 - It's the third most visited urban park in the U.S.
Balboa Park is one of the most visited parks in the country, this is mainly due because of the world-famous San Diego Zoo, and its visits account as visits to the park. However, this puts it on the Top 5 most visited parks in the U.S. and even the world.
In total, it received durante el 2014 recibieron14 million visitors in 2014[/url], almost as much as Disneyland! Actually, it's the third or fourth most visited park depending on how many visitors its neighboring park, San Diego's Mission Bay Park, gets.
Via Thrillist
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miranda.garcia@sandiegored.com
Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com
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