Progress and Reform

THE GEORGE AND ANNA MARSTON FAMILY followed a long tradition of political and social activism. Anna's father, Lewis Gunn, was an anti-slavery activist, and her mother was a Quaker; George's father was a Unitarian.

George and Anna Marston had five children: Mary, Arthur, Elizabeth, Harriet, and Helen. A teacher and a daughter of a Quaker abolitionist, Anna Marston may have influenced and certainly shared George's support for women's and minorities' rights. The mother of four activist daughters and a son who assumed management of Marston's department store, Anna also ran a high-profile household. Supporting the Women's Home Association, the leading benevolent society of her day, was among Anna's charitable activities.

Youngest child Helen founded the San Diego chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1923 and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1933. She traveled to the Imperial Valley and Selma, Alabama in support of farmworkers' and black voters' rights, respectively. She and sister Mary helped found and actively operate Barrio Logan's Neighborhood House, which still serves San Diego's Latino community.

In addition to tackling social issues, Mary G. Marston was involved in her father's civic activities, Elizabeth Le Breton Marston Badè was an active member of the Sierra Club, and married William Frederic Badè, Sierra Club president and John Muir's biographer. And, Harriet Marston Headley was a member of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters, and active in the San Diego chapter of the United Nations Association.

In addition to addressing social concerns, George actively set out to ensure San Diego's built environment was worthy of its natural setting and his own growing sophistication, fed by trips to New York and San Francisco. He hired the City of New York's landscape designer Samuel Parsons to prepare Balboa Park's first comprehensive plan, and twice brought the renowned Chicago-based planner John Nolen to town to envision a civic center linked to San Diego Bay. Nolen's proposed new city hall, which became the County Administration Building, was George Marston's last realized architectural project—approved when he was 83.

The impact of this socially and politically engaged family resonates to this day with fellow citizens concerned about the future of historic Presidio and Balboa Park and other significant public landmarks, schools and universities, social and economic opportunities, immigration, and preserving what's historically authentic about San Diego.