La Mesa Historical Society

Dear LMHS Members, Friends and Supporters, Thanks to all who are sacrificing for the community and supporting our local businesses and healthcare providers. See our latest update as the McKinney House Museum and Society Research Archives will continue to be closed for now as we prepare for a hoped for return to full function this Summer.

Continuing A Community Tradition: Easter Sunrise Services Once again we thank our partners at the Mt. Helix Park Foundation for continuing one of the most revered La Mesa traditions, Easter Morning sunrise services. Although no one will be in attendance at the historic Nature Theater this year, prudently there will be a virtual ceremony again (go to MtHelixPark.org for more info). Mt Helix has hosted this now historical annual event since 1917. To learn about the local events' origins on La Mesa's Mt. Nebo, and its shift to Mt Helix take a look at a recorded presentation from historian and author Jim Newland on the history of the area Around Mt. Helix--and specifically on the Easter Services origins (at 1h 16m into the video). https://youtu.be/pgp0cnuwVsg

Although the McKinney House Museum is still closed due to COVID precautions, you can find interesting information on the history of our area on our website. Check it out! https://lamesahistory.com/history/

Welcoming a La Mesa New Year--Roaring 20s Style From La Mesa Scout publisher C.S. Smith's hopes for a fresh start in 1925, wise words from an American sage reprinted for New Year 1926, a not-so subtle New Year's Eve "frolic" promotional to greet 1928 (fun was allowed--even during Prohibition), or a welcome to fated Baby New Year 1929, we at the La Mesa Historical Society thought to share some New Years memories from the 1920s. The Roaring 20s successfully rebounded from global catastrophes such as World War I and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic to become a decade of prosperity and change--especially here in La Mesa. Here is to a similar rebound for 2021 and beyond. Take care, be safe during these challenging times and see you all soon with more memories, perspective and history!

SANTA CLAUS SPOTTED OVER LA MESA TONIGHT! c1938 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from La Mesa Historical Society! We hope you are having a happy, warm and safe Holidays.... We wanted to share some images from La Mesa Christmas’ past. Here are links to some fun historic photograph puzzles from our Archives. Click on the link and assemble the image to see a La Mesa Holiday memory. Historical Society Home: https://jigex.com/Moyi A Boy and His Tree https://jigex.com/acFa Santa Arrives in Style: https://jigex.com/zW1K If you are looking for a last minute gift consider our Buy A Brick program fundraiser for the McKinney Landscape. Recognize and document your family or friends with an etched brick for years to come. Donations for our Landscape Campaign or other Society programs are always appreciated and tax deductible within the law. Go to lamesahistory.com/shop/ See you next year! Cheers! LMHS Board of Directors

LA MESA THANKSGIVING MEMORIES Since Pres. Lincoln established the last Thursday in November in 1863 (Pres. Franklin Roosevelt moving it to 4th Thursday in 1939) as the Thanksgiving National Holiday, Americans have used this date to gather family and give thanks to friends and community. From local elementary schoolers of the 1960s (below) to Thanksgiving Day festival programs atop Mt Helix in the late 1920s or far back to the community's origins, this national holiday is well... and fondly remembered here. One of the early years that received extensive coverage was Thanksgiving 1898. The then rural La Mesa community, centered at today's 70th & El Cajon Blvd reported numerous family feasts with many gorging on turkey and plum pudding (tryptophan comas another tradition). Then in the afternoon, they gathered at the La Mesa school baseball diamond for youngsters versus elders game--won by the juveniles 32 to 12! Spring Valley residents reported similar family events along with the community's annual picnic held in Merritt Canyon (today's Eucalyptus Park). In El Cajon Valley locals complimented their family gatherings with bicycle races (La Mesa's lads being invited to compete) during the day and a masquerade ball in the evening. Although we must be extra safe during our public health focused 2020 Holiday, we hope that these more traditional thanksgiving memories help counter the more unique ones we will make this year. Thanks to all of you for supporting the Society and a have a safe Thanksgiving!

Dear LMHS Members and Followers The La Mesa Historical Society is thinking of you as you celebrate the lights and traditions of this season in unique and meaningful ways. Our thoughts are with you as we miss seeing each of you in-person this year. We hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well. If there is one thing history teaches us, it’s the resiliency of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and that hard times have hope-filled silver linings, just waiting ...Continue reading

THANKSGIVING WEEK - DAY 4 THANKS! Society member and skilled volunteer Brian Pedersen preparing a piece of our long-standing old friend for its transport to the mill. Brian will be repurposing this into lumber for a new bench for the landscape renovation project. He is also preparing a core of this 100 plus year old pine for a future interpretive element. Thanks to our multi-talented and community-minded members for supporting us. The Society benefits greatly from our talented and generous volunteers. If you have some time and skills to share contact us at [email protected].

THANKSGIVING WEEK - DAY 3 THANKS! To Israel Marquez and the crew at Marquez Landscape for helping complete our historical period property fence. This fence was similar to the one that surrounded the McKinney House and lemon ranch circa 1910. The Plan is coming to life with such skilled contractor partners. More funds are needed, donations and "Buy a Brick" opportunities help cover costs so we can add the next pieces to our historic landscape renovation. Go to www.lamesahistory.com/shop to learn more and donate.

THANKSGIVING WEEK - DAY 2 THANKS Thanks to Melissa Price and her crew at Artistic Arbor Gardens for our new pine tree. Generous donors and quality local businesses are key to our success in bringing the McKinney House historic landscape back in time!

15th Annual La Mesa Home Tour Goes Virtual Celebrating Our Community's Architectural Gems Save November 14th at 10am for our Virtual Home Tour streaming live on Facebook! The tour will feature homes from the last 14 tours and will be hosted by local historian James Newland!

THANKSGIVING WEEK - DAY 1 THANKS Don Cary and crew for the wonderful job in repainting the McKinney House and outbuildings. Thanks to our friends and partners for making us look so good!

The "best of" virtual tour of our favorite and most treasured local architectural gems from the past 15 years. Narrated by our noted local historian and our own La Mesa gem, Jim Newland.

RIGHTFULLY HERS EXHIBIT GOES WELL. Thanks to all who organized and participated in our first Outdoor Exhibit. Society volunteers and guests also safely experienced our first on the new McKinney House grounds on September 19th and 26th. Take care and we'll see you all soon with more fascinating La Mesa history.

"POP-UP" OUTDOOR EXHIBIT will commemorate Women's Suffrage Centennial Saturdays September 19th and 26th 1-4pm. Display of National Archives "Rightfully Hers" Exhibit with additional panels on La Mesa's role in California suffrage and politics one hundred years ago to be available for "socially distanced" viewing on McKinney House grounds. Come learn how La Mesa's ladies fought for what was rightfully theirs. Bring your fashionable face covering, follow the pathways and learn a bit about our nation's--and local--women's history! MCKINNEY HOUSE LOCATED 8369 UNIVERSITY AVE, LA MESA Unfortunately due to County Health restrictions neither the McKinney House Museum or Archives building will be open. No restroom facilities will be available. If public health conditions change, event may be cancelled.

Centennial of National Women's Suffrage 1920 On August 18, 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote in all states and territories of the United States. La Mesa's ladies had obtained the right along with all Californian women in October 1911. The La Mesa Scout had followed the votes in many states over the previous year and documented Tennessee's highly contested vote in their August 27, 1920 edition. The small article was located at the bottom of the front page. It was duly noted by the ladies of the La Mesa Women's Club, seen here in a 1921 photo. The Historical Society will be celebrating this year's Suffrage Centennial in a special outdoor exhibit on the McKinney House grounds in September. Stay tuned for more info on this coming outdoor exhibit.

La Mesa Springs 4th of July Parade and Celebration, 1911. Our young, growing suburban community is seen in this popular image of the then annual event centered at the corner of Spring and Lookout (now La Mesa Boulevard). Although La Mesa will not have such a public celebration this year, we thought we would remind all of our tradition of 4th of July Spirit! Here is wishing you all an extra safe and healthy Independence Day 2020.

LA MESA COMMUNITY ART DOCUMENTATION PROJECT https://docs.google.com//17mM22T9sJrVavV5GlNelerPcTCN/edit https://docs.google.com//17mM22T9sJrVavV5GlNelerPcTCN/edit We want to thank all of you for the support of the beautiful and poignant artwork created in La Mesa after the events of May 30th. As of this weekend, approximately half of these wonderful pieces of art had already been removed/dismantled as La Mesa reopens. ... Therefore, we want to pass on this great archiving project partnership with SDSU and the Society to document the temporary and ephemeral artwork and its stories. Jim Newland, LMHS President LA MESA COMMUNITY ART DOCUMENTATION PROJECT This project is a crowd-sourced documentation project aimed at collecting and curating digital media files (images, videos, audio) of spontaneous public art that has appeared all around the City of La Mesa in recent weeks. These pieces of art have been created on transitory media, such as plywood, cardboard, river rocks, or sidewalk chalk, or are themselves singular events, such as musical performances, spoken poems, vigils, and more. The main goal of this project is to collect and preserve digital recordings of these pieces of art for future generations. The long-term plan is to curate them in a robust, publicly-accessible digital repository for future study and/or interpretive display in a museum or online educational context. The project is working with both SDSU and the La Mesa Historical Society to accomplish these goals and is grounded in an inclusive and community-engaged public history approach to local history. All information and media uploaded to this form will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, allowing for unrestricted public-domain reuse and republication of these media (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). By entering any information and uploading any media to this form, you agree to the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license. This project is headed by Dr. Isaac Ullah. Dr. Ullah is a La Mesa resident, a professional Archaeologist, and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at San Diego State University. Issac is also a City Historic Preservation Commissioner. You can read more about Dr. Ullah at his website: http://isaacullah.github.io

Dear LMHS Members, Friends and Followers, The past few weeks’ events and experiences, including those in our local community, can only remind us of our nation’s challenging history of discrimination, violence and racism. This is a very personal history for many that sadly continues into the present. We, the La Mesa Historical Society Board of Directors, wish to acknowledge the loss of life, injury, pain, anger, and emotional impacts of events nationally, as well as those t...hat have come to pass here in our community. As an institution charged with collecting, preserving and educating on the values and worth of history and historic preservation, we are dedicated to ensuring that all stories of the Greater La Mesa communities are captured, preserved and made available to inspire a better tomorrow. We commit that our non-profit organization will endeavor to be an institution that collects, preserves, studies and presents the cultural history of all of us without ignoring the stories of any race, gender or creed. Yet, any great societal movements require ordinary people to come together to effect real and meaningful change. The uplifting response of hundreds of volunteers, including some of our own Board and Society members and partners on Sunday morning May 31st in our downtown is one such effort. Their bringing brooms, brushes, paint and materials to clean up and secure the damaged businesses is a sign of our community’s underlying character. These were not just City of La Mesa residents but those from the entire Greater La Mesa area and beyond. Over the following days numerous artists and community members created beautiful and poignant murals and art that reflected and demonstrated not only our community’s pride and spirit to persevere and overcomebut sending a clear message of empathy and compassion for the greater cause of justice and equality for all Americans. It is with such actions that our community can continue to live up to its now nearly century old motto of Jewel of the Hills. Significant and lasting improvements are still needed but it is a renewed start for fulfilling our potential to provide those opportunities for everyone, especially our communities of color. A goal that La Mesa Historical Society fully supports. Jim Newland, President On behalf of the La Mesa Historical Society Board of Directors

MEMORIAL DAY LA MESA La Mesa's earliest record of special "Memorial Day" services date back to the 1890s. Often referred to as "Decoration Day" from its 1868 origins to honor all Civil War dead, by 1916 La Mesa's recognition included a march of veterans out to the then local Evergreen Cemetery (NE of today's Bancroft Drive & Lemon Ave). The ceremony included music, song, scripture and poem readings, decoration of soldier's graves, closing hymns and prayers. This year's Memorial Day features more personal and private remembrances. La Mesans' spirit of previous efforts to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice are not forgotten.

Happy National Nurses Day! Today we celebrate all health care workers, but especially nurses. Especially during such challenging historic times as today, nurses dedicate their time, effort, and hearts to serve the public. La Mesa’s Grossmont Hospital (now Sharp Grossmont Hospital) has served the community for some 65 years. This image showcases hospital and nursing administrators from 1964. Let's all celebrate these heroes of the world. Thank you to all health care workers th...at are dedicated to fighting and protecting the public from Covid-19 and all threats to our community health! #nursesday #health #covid #apprciation #healthcareworkers #togther #lamesa #lamesahistoricalsociety #togtherbutpart #sandiego #grossmonthospital #essentialworkers #community #sd #covid19

Happy Cinco De Mayo! This date is observed in the U.S. and parts of Mexico to commemorate the Mexican Army's victory over the invading French Army at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of legendary General Ignacio Zaragoza. In the 1960s Chicano activists in the U.S. began to draw attention to this important day in Mexican History. By 1982, La Mesans celebrated with a festival and art show to honor Hispanic culture and Cinco De Mayo. Children participated in the art show and were given awards for their creativity. #cincodemayo #hispanicculture #1960s #art #lamesa #lamesahistoricalsoceity #sandiego #sd #1980s #activist #culture #chidren #artshow #mexicanhistory

Happy Star Wars Day! Today we celebrate the beloved Star Wars film series which premiered in 1977 and captivated audiences with a new Si-Fi genre. By 1978, the Force was so strong that it drew La Mesans to join others at the Sports Arena to listen to the San Diego Symphony preform an amplified version of the Star Wars sound track during their Music from Outer Space concert. May the Forth Be With You!... #starwars #lukeskywalker #darthvader #georgelucas #mayfourth #lamesa #lamesahistoricalsociety #disney #sd #sandiego #sifi #sportsarena #maythefourthbewithyou #maythe4th #maythefourth #1970s #space #starwarsfilms #clones