WPA workers at Presidio Park, 1937. Photo courtesy San Diego History Center

After the abandonment of the Presidio during the 1830s little to nothing was done on the "Hill." It was all but forgotten—all but forgotten until George Marston seized the opportunity to preserve one of San Diego's greatest historical treasures. By the early 1930s George Marston had purchased most of the privately held plots that now make up Presidio Park and had financed the development of the park, including building the Serra Museum, grazing the roads, installing irrigation, and the planting of plants.

In the late 1920s George Marston hired Percy Broell as park superintendent, who held that position for ten years and was instrumental in the development of Presidio Park. And in 1937, he produced eight maps with botanical legends documenting what he had planted and what was present in the park at that time. And thus began Presidio Park's horticultural experiment. That document remains unpublished. The maps he produced are unknown, until now.

George Marston's efforts are the reason Presidio Park exists today. Because of his philanthropy there is a Serra Museum, there exist roads, there are irrigation lines, there were personnel hired to do the work, there were governmental relationships built (much of the cobble stone work along roadside gullies, and other smaller structures were financed through WPA funding in the late 1930s thanks to Marston's influence) and there are plants that flourish there today.

George Marston sought advice from many, including famed Landscape Architect John Nolen as well as from the beloved "Mother of Balboa Park," Kate O. Sessions. These ideas trickled down to the "Man on the Ground," Percy Broell.

Mr. Broell was hired by George Marston and was Presidio Park's first park superintendent. He resided in the park in a house that no longer exists in what is today called the grotto, lying just upslope from the corner of Taylor Street and Presidio Drive. He is directly responsible for the original horticultural development and design.

T oday there are a few old trees and other old botanical specimens that have survived the decades that were documented in 1937 and continue to thrive. However, most of the original plants documented by Percy Broell in 1937 have long since vanished, even though many of the species planted at that time are still there today.

In 1969 the Journal of San Diego History republished "A Plant Tour of Presidio Park" by Chauncy Jerabek, originally published in 1962, with edits and updates by then Park Superintendent Williams Evans. A comparison can be made between the eight maps created by Percy Broell in 1937 and the single map of Jerabek's plant walkthrough of 1969.