 ALCAZAR GARDEN, nestled between the San Diego Museum of Us and the Mingei Intetnational Museum in Balboa Park, is arranged in a formal plan defined by walkways, low clipped boxwood hedges, flower beds, and a pergola. It is distinguished by its two elaborate fountains and eight tiled benches, all adorned in California tiles, possibly from the Davies & McDonald Tile Company (D&M). The vivid palette of turquoise blue, yellow, and green tile combines into a visually captivating scene. The formal plantings burst with color year-round, showcasing 7,000 annuals, including delphiniums, chrysanthemums, pansies, begonias, calendula, dahlias, and poppies.
Initially named Los Jardines de Montezuma (Montezuma Garden) for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, this brilliantly hued garden was transformed for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition by supervising architect Richard Requa. His designs here, and in homes and other buildings throughout San Diego, were heavily influenced by his travels to the Andalusia region of Spain and his accompanying architectural sketches, photography, and films. Drawing inspiration from the courtyard gardens of Alcázar Palace in Seville, Spain, Requa added the fountains and benches to the garden, prompting its renaming to Alcázar. While the fountains’ shapes emulate the original Spanish-Moorish style, the colorful tiles and patterns came from California tile catalogs. High overhead to the east, a tiled dome atop the 1915 tower of the House of Charm (now the Mingei International Museum) calls to the garden's tilework, just two examples of ribbons of tile running through the park.
Over seventy years later, the garden's historic 1935 tiles began to show signs of abuse and aging, including cracks, chips, and missing pieces. In 2008, a dedicated effort led by the Committee of One Hundred, a nonprofit group committed to preserving the park’s Spanish Colonial architecture, restored the tile and regrouted, as they discovered that since 1935 moisture had seeped through the porous tiles, damaging the grout. These park guardians/patrons commissioned 1,800 replica tiles, ensuring the enduring beauty of Alcázar Garden and its tiled features for decades to come.
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