Main Street Murals
Parsonage Museum
Lemon Grove
March 12, 2022
While Meredith was visiting her Dad in March, Bob went exploring. He was in search of some new history murals being painted in Lemon Grove, about a half-hour’s drive from home. Bob had read about those new murals in the San Diego Union-Tribune in February, and the story caught his eye. One feature that interested him was the inclusion of images telling the story of the Lemon Grove school desegregation case from the 1930s. As a history teacher, Bob knew of this incident, and he had shared with his classes many times over the years the story as told in a television program produced by the local PBS station, KPBS. The Lemon Grove Incident relates the events of the 1930s surrounding an attempt to segregate Mexican and Mexican-American children into a separate elementary school. It is told using re-creations and interviews with surviving children who experienced the event and participated in the lawsuit that ended the segregation. In the end, Bob did not find that mural this time—another search for another trip. But he did see other murals.
Bob searched online to see if there was any new information about the location of the murals and found “murals” mentioned on one website. He set out. He found murals that depicted the history of the town and city of Lemon Grove on the side of a commercial building on Pacific Avenue at the corner of Main Street, just south of the city’s famous landmark. “Those paintings — 65-feet wide by 18 feet tall, filled with art depicting the Kumeyaay people, the 15th and 16th century Spanish Conquest, 1800s Mexican heritage, 19th century buildings and a current look at Lemon Grove — were created over an eight-year span, starting in 2005.” [SD Union-Tribune, 18 April 2018]
Still not seeing the murals he was looking for, Bob wandered south towards Treganza Heritage Park (formerly Civic Center Park), which he had noticed when parking his car. On the east side of the park is the headquarters of the Lemon Grove Historical Society. At that location the Historical Society maintains the Parsonage Museum. (It is the firm belief of our youngest child, commented on many times, that her parents can find a little, out-of-the-way museum anywhere!) The building started life as the Atherton Chapel, the community’s first church, and was repurposed to house the clergyman’s family when a later church was built. The parsonage was moved to its current location.
Bob happened to be visiting on a Saturday and the museum was open. (It is open on Saturdays from 11 am to 2 pm.) A friendly docent told him a little bit about the history of the building and then left him free to wander. There are several rooms downstairs that are typical of such museums, housing collections of period clothing, artifacts, furniture, etc. Of interest were the items on display that told the history of the eponymous industry of the town including lemon size sorters, graders, shipping boxes, and photographs. There is a larger room that is used for exhibits that change periodically. The house had the standard display of a period kitchen with rooms upstairs that showed bedroom, children’s room, office, and bathroom. Poking around in the house was a very interesting and pleasant way to spend the better part of an hour. Admission is free; donations requested. (Please be generous!)
Epilogue: Bob heard from a teacher colleague that she had seen the completed murals he had originally set out to find. Now he has a good reason to revisit Lemon Grove.
