Proposed for demolition by Chase to accommodate a drive-through restaurant and new bank building, this original Home Savings and Loan branch is the only one left in San Diego. With its exquisite murals and Modernist design, the building displays scenic San Diego mosaics, a bronze seal sculpture, and an interior folk mural. SOHO staff is preparing a historical...Read more

Since early 2018, when a "Conserve-a-Tree" application was submitted to the City of San Diego for 37 street trees, the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group and SOHO have been advocating to retain 36 (at press time) c. 1910 pepper trees, which provide abundant shade and character to the historic neighborhood. Years before that, residents were such as Maggie McCann...Read more

A rare and finite collection of historic buildings, these seaside cottages were constructed c. 1928 by A.J. Clark and are the best surviving examples of auto-court beach cottages. Demolition is a real possibility due to the ever-rising cost of buildable land and the lack of historic designation, which would help. ...Read more

Due to a Congressional mandate to integrate the sexes in the military, the Marines are considering their options for MCRD, where female recruits are expected to arrive in February 2021. The base was designed more than a century ago in the Spanish Colonial style by Bertram Goodhue, the renowned New York-based architect who also created Balboa Park's 1915 exposition...Read more

Deteriorating due to neglect, the wood-framed Merriam House has been unoccupied for more than a decade. Built in 1889 in the folk Victorian style by Gustavus French Merriam, an early settler of Twin Oaks Valley, it was crudely expanded three times. Now, the two-story house is...Read more

The park still waits for the City of San Diego to honor the national significance of this historic, cultural, and archaeological site with proper and consistent maintenance as well as a master plan that sets priorities for the entire presidio, park, and museum site. The Junípero Serra Museum got a new coat of paint in 2019, but there remains a lack of stewardship and attention to this entire National Historic Landmark. Further, a proposed parking lot would negatively...Read more

The commercial core of Hillcrest grew up along a streetcar line during San Diego's early 20th-century building boom, when the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in nearby Balboa Park fueled rapid suburban expansion. Hillcrest's historic character remains relatively unchanged since its early years, with one- to three-story structures filled with street-level shops, banks, and... Read more

SOHO's longest-running preservation battle is laser-focused on the Red Roost and Red Rest Bungalows, which have endured more than a quarter century of shameful, deliberate neglect. Located in the otherwise polished Village of La Jolla, this ghost-like pair of deteriorating 1894 redwood beach cottages are a curious sight to tourists, not to mention residents, who are unaware of their history and the on-going struggle to preserve them. Dating to the early... Read more

The Barrett Ranch House was placed on the Most Endangered List in 2014 after multiple concerned citizens reached out to SOHO regarding its troubling condition. Rural farmhouses are particularly rare in San Diego County. Built in 1891, this large two-story farmhouse in Jamul has been left vacant and vulnerable for years. The wood façades and special architectural elements, such as double front porches and a bay window, are still painted barn-red with... Read more

Loosely draped in a weathered old tarp, the Granger Music Hall, glimpsed from the I-5 freeway, is enough to evoke serious concern over this acoustical masterpiece designed by San Diego Master Architect Irving J. Gill. Completed in 1898 at the Paradise Valley estate of Colorado silver magnate Ralph Granger, the small but elegant building was used for private concerts and to house Granger's notable violin collection. Gill's knowledge of acoustics, gained from his... Read more

Long after the San Diego-Poway-Escondido stagecoach line stopped running, Dr. Homer Hansen and Daniel Stuck purchased land along Old Pomerado Road in the 1920s, envisioning a resort complex set within a grove of old oak trees. First came the gas station in 1925, then the Big Stone Lodge with its dance hall and bandstand. A restaurant and bar were added... Read more

The Pottery Canyon kiln is a round, six-foot-tall wood burning adobe structure on a private lot next to Pottery Canyon Natural Park in La Jolla. In 1928, Cornelio Rodriguez arrived from Guadalajara, Mexico and founded the La Jolla Canyon Clay Products Company in this canyon. When the City of San Diego designated the site historic in 1976, it was the oldest surviving pottery works in San Diego and possibly in Southern California. It remained active... Read more

The San Diego Council approved purchase of the land on June 30, 2020 including the stadium, and San Diego State University's Environmental Impact Report for the land use changes as well as demolition were approved in early 2020. Demolition and salvage has begun.

Watch a video of the exterior demolition from December 8, 2020.

See last year's Most Endangered listing for San Diego Stadium.

The Port of San Diego supports the community and wants to ensure the remaining five piers all provide some public access and are no longer proposing to demolish them. However, the master plan does still require approval by the California Coastal Commission.

See last year's Most Endangered listing for La Playa Piers.