The story of George Marston

George Marston was one of the great public figures in San Diego. He was born on October 22, 1850 in Wisconsin. In 1866 he entered the preparatory department of Beloitsky College, where he played as part of a baseball team. Then he worked at a mill and a clerk at a bank, and in 1869 he entered the University of Michigan as a medical student.

Marston’s first job in San Diego was a clerk at the new Horton House. Beginning in 1872, George worked for five years as a clerk for storekeeper Joseph Nash before he and his partner Charles Hamilton bought the business.

In 1878, Hamilton and Marston divided the business. Hamilton focused on grocery stores, and Marston on dry foods. The latter's department store eventually became the leading one in San Diego.

George later became a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Although he supported ideas for reform, including equal rights for women, the creation of unions, and freedom of speech, his reformist impulses were most pronounced in the park development and urban planning program.

In 1902, Marston invested $10,000 to prepare the first plan of Balboa Park. The Parks Commission hired Samuel Parsons, a landscape architect from New York. Later, John Nolen, one of the country's outstanding urban planners, joined the case.

When George died in 1946 at the age of 96, he was recognized as “the first San Diego citizen” for his outstanding services to society.

What is interesting about the house and gardens

The Marston House was built in 1905 and later added to the National Register of Historic Places. From here, numerous walking excursions to the surrounding areas begin. Group tours are especially popular.

The museum’s gift shop located in the house is known as one of the best in the city, offering visitors a unique combination of books and souvenirs on architecture, as well as objects of decorative and applied art.

The George White and Anna Gunn Marston House is one of California's finest art and craft architecture and San Diego's most important historic building.

The adjoining garden covers an area of 5 acres with lush exotic trees, shrubs, vineyards and flowers. Pay attention to the growing geranium is a flower that is considered a symbol of the family. During Marston’s two campaigns for mayor of San Diego, the difference between him and his adversary was described under the slogan “chimneys against geraniums.”

House Tours

Spend time in the shade of towering pines, eucalyptus and oak trees, exploring the surroundings of the garden. Find out about one of San Diego’s most prominent families, as well as architects and landscape designers who worked to create the city’s most important estate.

Garden tours are available in the summer, on Saturdays and Sundays. They last 45 minutes and run from 11:00 am to 03:00 pm. The tour includes a walk through a 5-acre estate. You will learn about the grandiose plans for the restoration of one of the few preserved decorative and applied landscapes in California. In the offseason, tours are available by appointment only.