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SOHO President's Monthly Message
October 2016
By Jaye MacAskill
 Presentation Drawing for a Small Church for Rancho Barona by Irving J. Gill, August 1932. This presentation drawing was made by Irving J. Gill for the People of Capitan Grande who purchased the Barona Ranch in 1932. The first structure the People requested be built was the Church. The drawing is signed on the bottom by two of Barona's leaders, Chief Ramon Ames and Baptisto "Bob" Quitac (who both served as Chairman of Barona in the early years). It shows the original layout of the Church.
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In my mind, San Diego's rural backcountry rivals any place in the world for natural beauty and interesting history. In addition to its scenic splendor—a visual buffet of everything from rolling hills with live oak groves to boulder-studded mountains, lush agricultural valleys, deserts, and even alpine forests—our backcountry is full of history!
As a city dweller, I often fantasize about what it would be like to move out to Julian or Pine Valley, a place where I could wake up every morning to the soothing sounds and smells of nature. Also in my backcountry fantasy, I would most definitely live in one of those cute, historic stone cottages that pop up in small communities like Descanso, Mt. Laguna and in small concentrations elsewhere throughout the region. Alas, I don't think my husband and I will be moving out to the backcountry anytime soon, but, fortunately, we can still visit it any time, and no matter how many times we go, there seems to be no shortage of places that we have yet to experience or want to experience again.
SOHO's presence in the backcountry is something I am really proud of as a member and especially as president of its board of directors. As the owner-operator of the historic Santa Ysabel Store and Hoover Barn and the steward of the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House, the nonprofit SOHO is firmly planted in the backcountry and actively fulfilling its mission as a San Diego County-wide historic preservation education and advocacy organization.
Thanks to my involvement with SOHO over the years, I've been introduced to so much backcountry history, certainly more than I could ever have discovered on my own-places like the incredible Amy Strong's Castle in Ramona and the delightful mid-century modern architecture of far-flung Borrego Springs. In addition to the Santa Ysabel Store, which is a mandatory stop every time I head north, some of my personal favorite day-tripping destinations in San Diego County are Palomar Mountain and Observatory, Desert Tower in Jacumba, quaint antique stores of Wynola, and the drive along portions of historic Old Highway 80.
And yet, there are still so many backcountry sites and places left to visit on my to-do list! I won't reveal what they are; as somewhat of a local historian, that would be a little embarrassing. I will say, however, where I am definitely going on my next backcountry adventure: the Barona Cultural Center & Museum. On Wednesday, October 6 from 6-8pm, one of my fellow SOHO Board Members, architect Paul Johnson and his wife, historian Sarai Johnson, will present a free lecture there titled Irving Gill's Workman's Cottages: Architecture for Everyman.
The lecture is in conjunction with the Barona Museum's new exhibition Stones in the Meadow: Irving Gill's Church and Cottages on the Barona Indian Reservation, part of the six-month long San Diego and Southern California-wide celebration Irving Gill: New Architecture for a Great Country. Although Gill is better known for his upscale commissions in urban locations, his final work was the creation of homes on the newly established Rancho Barona Indian Reservation. There he saw the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong pursuit of building economically and environmentally sustainable housing, in this case and with tribal families.
I'm looking forward to learning more about this period in Gill's career from Paul and Sarai, and I can't wait to finally go to the Barona Museum, something that I admit is long overdue! I hope you will get a chance to enjoy SOHO's own Irving Gill exhibition and tours over the coming months. And if you can make it to the upcoming lecture at Barona as well, then I'll be seeing you in the backcountry!
Click HERE to learn about SOHO's Irving Gill: Progress & Poetry in Architecture programming and for the history and locations of SOHO's backcountry sites, click the following: Santa Ysabel Store and Warner-Carrillo Ranch House. Visit irvingjgill.org for a complete list of exhibitions and events that make up Irving Gill: New Architecture for a Great Country.
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