Philanthropy
In 1907, Marston bought Presidio Hill with an interest to preserve the old Presidio of San Diego, the first European settlement in present-day California, which had fallen into ruins. He couldn't get anyone interested in the project, so he built Presidio Park in 1925 with his own funds, hiring Nolen to plan the park. He commissioned the building of the Serra Museum, designed by architect William Templeton Johnson, in Presidio Park. He donated the park to the city in 1929. Presidio Park is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Marston served on the first board of trustees for the San Diego Public Library in 1882 and founded the San Diego YMCA, serving as its president for 22 years. He was on the city council from 1887–1889. In 1928 he founded the San Diego Historical Society (now the San Diego History Center) and served as its first president. Marston also raised funds and donated his own money to buy land for present-day Torrey Pines State Reserve and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
George Marston's Residence at 3525 Seventh Avenue was designed by Irving Gill and William S. Hebbard architects in 1904/1905. The residence initially was planned to be built in English Tudor style, but was completed in the Arts and Crafts style, which was becoming in vogue. The property, dubbed the George W. Marston House and Gardens, was donated to the City of San Diego by Marston's daughter Mary in 1987 and is now a museum at the northwest corner of Balboa Park. Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) took over operation of the property in July 2009 and is in the process of restoring the gardens and furnishing the home in appropriate period style.
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Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)