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George and Anna Marston are shown with their five children in this family photo on display in the Marston House on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
George Marston<\/a> and his father came to San Diego from Wisconsin in 1870. The younger Marston was involved in protecting and preserving the original 1,400 acre City Park for years before building his family home in 1905 in the park\u2019s northwest corner. City Park would become Balboa Park<\/a> five years later.<\/p>\n Marston and his wife Anna<\/a> spent the rest of their lives in the home. Their daughter Mary<\/a> lived there until she died in 1987 at the age of 107.<\/p>\n She left the house to the city of San Diego. SOHO, the Save Our Heritage Organisation<\/a>, took over management of the property in 2009.<\/p>\n Robin Lakin<\/a> is the site manager, curator and historian of the Marston House.<\/p>\n Lakin is a walking encyclopedia on the house, and the Marston family \u2014 especially its patriarch, George.<\/p>\n Marston House Site Manager, Historian and Curator Robin Lakin is shown in the home’s library with KPBS reporter John Carroll on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n As soon as we walked through the front door, she began telling us all about the Marston legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the father of Balboa Park, the father of Presidio Park<\/a>. He provided San Diego with about a million acres of parkland \u2026 Anza Borrego<\/a> to Torrey Pines State Reserve<\/a>. He\u2019s the reason why we don\u2019t have private beaches in San Diego,\u201d Lakin said.<\/p>\n The 8,500 square foot home<\/a> is situated on a 5.5 acre plot, surrounded by lawns and gardens. It\u2019s chock full of Marston family history, which is reflective of San Diego\u2019s modern history. The home was built in the Arts and Crafts<\/a> style by famed architects Sterling Hebbard and Irving Gill<\/a>.<\/p>\n The garden of the Marston House is shown on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n Lakin told us right up front that the house no longer holds much of the Marston\u2019s original furniture. She said she and her team have done their best to mimic what they know was here originally.<\/p>\n Pointing at the walls in the library, Lakin said, \u201cThe room has its original burlap linen wall covering which was a very popular treatment in Arts and Crafts homes.\u201d<\/p>\n Longtime San Diegans will remember Marston\u2019s Department Stores<\/a>. But it\u2019s here in the library where we start to learn about Marston\u2019s philanthropic gifts to this city.<\/p>\n A gift box is shown next to some hat boxes from Marston’s Department Store at the Marston House on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Marston was the founder of the San Diego Public Library<\/a>, so it\u2019s apropos he has a nice library of his own,\u201d Lakin said.<\/p>\n In a room across the hall, we spot a piano. Lakin explained that, \u201cThis is the music room. It was designed to house a baby grand piano and as I mentioned the Marstons were all accomplished pianists.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s here where Lakin also told us about the 1915 Panama – California Exposition<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the promotional posters. This is an original from the time,\u201d Lakin said pointing to a frame hanging on the wall. She said much of the planning for the event was done in the Marston home.<\/p>\n Then it was on to the living room, and more fascinating history. Lakin directed our attention to a round table in the center of the room.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople seated at this table were Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor, Teddy and his wife, Mrs. Grover T. Cleveland along with our notable locals, Spreckels, Scripps, Sessions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n We move on to an adjacent room at the end of the first floor hallway.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the dining room,\u201d Lakin said as we entered the spacious room. It\u2019s bright and airy with a Stickley dining room set<\/a>. Next to that, the butler\u2019s pantry where staff plated up food and washed dishes.<\/p>\n The Marston House living room is shown with its round table in the center, along with Robin Lakin and KPBS reporter John Carroll in the background on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n The kitchen of the Marston House is shown on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n Adjacent to the butler\u2019s pantry is the kitchen. Lakin said that Mary Marston upgraded it in the 1930s, but it didn\u2019t change much after that.<\/p>\n \u201cThereafter, they only upgraded refrigerators,\u201d Lakin said with a laugh.<\/p>\n We return to the hallway, to the foot of the grand staircase. Before climbing to the second floor, Lakin told us that Marston founded Pomona College<\/a> in 1887, one of the first institutions of higher learning in Southern California. And she had more to say about what was important to George Marston.<\/p>\n A portrait of George Marston is shown at the top of the grand staircase in the Marston House on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cGreen spaces for everyone for emotional and physical health and educational resources. Everyone deserves educational resources,\u201d she said, reminding us that that was one of the reasons Marston founded the San Diego Public Library.\u201d<\/p>\n George Marston\u2019s official portrait hangs at the top of the stairs. It is a copy of the original that hangs in the dean\u2019s office at Pomona College.<\/p>\n At the southeast corner of the second floor, we find George and Anna\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd George as a very early bird every day, could sit out here and watch the sun rise. He missed an opportunity for nothing. He used every minute of every day of his life,\u201d Lakin said.<\/p>\n Both George and Anna died in their bedroom, he in 1940, she in 1946. The suite consists of a bathroom, double walk-in closets and a sitting room.<\/p>\n George and Anna Marston’s bedroom is shown on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n As we chatted in the bedroom, we heard the sounds of children playing on the lawn below. It was a moment where time seemed to collapse in on itself as Lakin said that the Marstons would enjoy hearing their children, and later grandchildren playing downstairs.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a charge to tour the house<\/a>, but the lawn and gardens are open to the public.<\/p>\n The Marston house features 10 bedrooms and seven bathrooms.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the bathrooms with the exception of Arthur\u2019s (the Marston\u2019s only son) who had a walk-in shower, looked like this,\u201d Lakin said as she pointed out the green colored walls that appear to be tile. Instead, Lakin said they\u2019re a kind of concrete that is scored to look like tile. She called the shade \u201cGill green\u201d \u2014 explaining that the color was a favorite of the architect, Irving Gill.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the smallest of the 10 bedrooms,\u201d Lakin said as we walked into the bedroom with a commanding view of the garden below.<\/p>\n A portion of Mary Marston’s bedroom is shown at the Marston House on July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n Elsewhere upstairs, more bedrooms, one with examples of period furniture. And there is Mary\u2019s bedroom. Mary, the eldest child, took care of her parents until their deaths. The walls of the room are now filled with pictures and text telling of Marston\u2019s legacy, all reflected in what is now the motto of San Diego County, \u2018the noblest motive is the public good.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe founded the San Diego Public Library, the Humane Society<\/a>, the YMCA<\/a>, the SPCA<\/a>, the San Diego Historical Society<\/a> \u2026 George Marston was among the first to provide equal pay for equal work between men and women in San Diego.\u00a0He gave profit-sharing <\/a>to his employees,\u201d Lakin said.<\/p>\n We end our tour in what Lakin said was the Marston\u2019s favorite space, especially the children; the sleeping porch. It\u2019s a screened-in balcony on the home\u2019s north side.<\/p>\n \u201cThere would\u2019ve been four of these little cots out here lined up for the girls to sleep on and spend the night and they reminisced about the coyotes, you\u2019d hear the birds and the coyotes. And then in 1915 when the Expo comes and they bring in the animals that wind up becoming our San Diego Zoo<\/a>,\u201d said Lakin.<\/p>\n The sleeping porch of the Marston House is shown on July 26, 2027.<\/p>\n![\"Marston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786690938_44_.jpeg\")
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