Balboa Park’s Botanical Building: A Tour of San Diego’s Historic Lath House

Join San Diego Floral Association board member John Blocker on a stroll through the history of Balboa Park’s iconic Botanical Building in San Diego’s Balboa Park. When Alfred Robinson, a founder of the Floral Association, dreamed in 1909 of an enormous lath house that would soar above the Panama-California Exposition grounds, he could not have foreseen that more than a century later thousands of visitors would still be drawn by the building’s charisma. Beginning in 2014, the Floral Association offered monthly tours of the building and its environs, but during the Covid 19 pandemic closure and upcoming building restoration, tours have been cancelled. This virtual tour, created by John Blocker and California Garden’s Creative Director Rachel Cobb for the San Diego Floral Association, captures the beauty of the landscape surrounding the Botanical Building and the fascinating flora of its interior. Contemporary and vintage images illustrate the building’s history.

For further information about the San Diego Floral Association visit http://SDFloral.org