![\"BP](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BP-expo-1915.jpg\")
<\/a>Several years ago, historian Richard Pourade wrote that the city now lacked the necessary cohesiveness.<\/p>\n\u201cThen, it was a city of friends who turned two fairs into cooperative day-by-day activities,\u201d Pourade said. \u201cIn the last four decades, its a city of laid-back strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had his finger on the city\u2019s pulse because he was managing editor of the old San Diego Union.<\/p>\n
There were many challenges to erect the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition within a\u00a0city of around 40,000 residents.\u00a0Again in 1935 \u00ad\u2013 36 the California Pacific International Expo was produced in the Depression years. Those past historical accomplishments will be fully recognized with next year\u2019s Centennial celebration.<\/p>\n
Those expo organizers were a hardy bunch, according to Amero. He wrote that they faced some opposition; New Orleans felt it should be held there, while San Francisco drew Congressional favor to produce its Panama Pacific Expo at the same time.<\/p>\n
But San Diego\u2019s Chamber of Commerce board of directors pulled it off in 1915 with everlasting perfection and a legacy.\u00a0San Francisco\u2019s buildings were torn down following the single year fair run.<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s visionaries turned 1,400 acres into the city\u2019s crown jewel of beautiful landscape and the preservation of history.<\/p>\n
The Committee of 100, founded in 1967, was intent upon maintaining the Park\u2019s Spanish Colonial architecture. Four remaining \u201ctemporary\u201d plaster and wood buildings were reconstructed with permanent materials.<\/p>\n
According to Amero, it was July 9, 1909\u00a0when Chamber president, G. Aubrey Davidson, founder of the Southern Trust and Commerce Bank, suggested the expo to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and for San Diego as the first major port.<\/p>\n
Davidson believed the expo would help bolster an economy still shaky from the Wall Street panic of 1907. In a big move, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. was elected president of the Chamber and John D. Spreckels first vice president. Grant, son of the former U.S. president, was part owner of The US Grant Hotel.<\/p>\n
Spreckels was owner of real estate, hotels, newspapers, banks, utility, water, transit and railroad companies. A.G. Spaulding was then elected second vice president, L.S. McLure third vice president, and\u00a0Davidson fourth vice president.<\/p>\n
Amero suggests that the most important appointment was that of real estate developer Col. David \u201cCharlie\u201d Collier as director-general.\u00a0He chose City Park and human progress as the theme.<\/p>\n
At his own expense, Collier lobbied for the exposition before the California Legislature and\u00a0Congress, and traveled to South America for the same purpose.<\/p>\n
Spreckels\u2019 subscription of $100,000 spurred donations that would soon bring $1 million.<\/p>\n
Collier attempted to persuade the House of Representatives to approve a resolution, asking President William Taft to invite Latin American countries.<\/p>\n
Amero said influential San Franciscans exerted pressure on Congress and\u00a0President Taft to forestall San Diego\u2019s bid and to back their exposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey promised to give their support to Taft in his struggle with the Progressive factions of the Republican Party led by Theodore Roosevelt,\u201d Amero surmised.<\/p>\n
Department store mogul George W. Marston selected the landscape and appointed architects John C. Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. of Brookline, Massachusetts, to lay out the grounds. New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and San Diego architect Irving Gill designed the buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoodhue\u2019s celebrity status and familiarity with opulent Spanish Baroque relegated the simpler vernacular styles of the American Southwest,\u201d Amero wrote.<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s Panama\u2013Pacific International Exposition was\u00a0eventually held\u00a0between Feb. 20 and Dec. 4 in 1915, constructed on a 635-acre site in\u00a0the Marina District steps from the San Francisco Bay. The 1915-16 Expo netted $38,000 and the subsequent 1935-36 Fair cleared $44,000.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the Park: <\/b>A New Year\u2019s Eve<\/b> concert is planned, with art and dance shows serving as a prelude at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion<\/b> from 7 to 9:30 p.m. A processional along El Prado will be led by bagpipers, followed by a variety of\u00a0musical groups.<\/p>\n