SAN DIEGO—For more than a month, workers have been laboring at county-owned Heritage Park in Old Town to restore the original Temple Beth Israel and six other historic buildings to the glory of their 19th century conditions, while preparing the overall development for a new life as a reception hall and bed-and-breakfast park.
Partners Bill McWethy and Fred Grand, whose Pacific Hospitality Group owns the 200-room Hacienda Hotel just across Juan Street, are investing about $13 million in a partnership with the County of San Diego not only to restore the buildings already in the park, but also to add three new ones, which will be built in architectural styles conforming with San Diego’s 19th century experience. In addition, the partners are in the process of adding a wishing well, clock tower, wedding pavilion adjacent to the temple’s front steps, a historic rose garden, landscaping and lighting to the development.
In return for its investment, Pacific Hospitality Group has been granted a 58 ½ year ground lease on Heritage Park, with the right to two 10-year extensions to that lease. McWethy said when the old homes are fixed and the new buildings erected, between 78 and 80 premium hotel rooms will be created, some with views stretching all the way to the ocean.
Beth Israel will be retained under the name of Heritage Hall for weddings, bar mitzvah receptions as well as for other uses by civic groups and any religious denomination. Yet, the building will retain its Jewish flavor, with the “Ten Commandments” jutting prominently above its roofline, its stained-glass windows in Star of David patterns. Its interior will continue to feature a Torah cabinet known as an Aron Kodesh (but without Torah inside) and an eternal light, known as a Ner Tamid, hanging from the ceiling. An organ will be restored to the area that had been the balcony of the 1889 building, which was inaugurated as a Reform congregation.
McWethy was supervising workers at Temple Beth Israel earlier this month when interviewed by San Diego Jewish World. Noting that the historic buildings were moved to the park from other parts of the city in the 1970s, McWethy said they are now in need of considerable repair.
“When you take houses from the turn of the century, bring them here, and they are all wood , boy, the termites love old houses! And the houses were put in here without regard to drainage, so when you get the rains they cause damages, and there are beetles, termites, and dry rot to contend with,” McWethy said. “It is very expensive to maintain historic houses and to keep them in a pristine condition to preserve them for years.”
Around the grounds, Pacific Hospitality Group has planted 82 trees, part of what McWethy describes as “hundreds of thousands of dollars of new landscaping.”
Gesturing towards Beth Israel, which then was surrounded by scaffolds, McWethy said, “if you were here a month ago, the temple was completely stripped down. Everything was done with the approval of HazMat (the county’s Hazardous Materials inspectors who make certain there will be no harmful chemical materials in the completed building ) – the wood, the brocade, timbers and the caulking, priming and the paint.” Furthermore, he said, “we met with SOHO (Save Our Heritage Organization) to verify the paint colors—those were the exact paint colors of the time.”
According to an article by the late historian Henry Schwartz, in a 1981 edition of The Journal of San Diego Jewish History, the temple at its original location at the northwest corner of Second and Beech Streets, had a sky blue ceiling and “the side walls were painted French gray, with three round-arch windows painted yellow, blue and rose.”
Birch trees have been planted on either side of the front and side entrances to the old temple, and lighting has been embedded into the grounds to illuminate the old synagogue’s exterior at night. McWethy said the trees will shimmy with almost any breeze, so their movement will contrast with the rectangular block appearance of the temple building. The spotlights will help to make festive evening receptions—which will spill from the temple into the adjacent wedding pavilion area.
Although neither he nor Grand are Jewish, McWethy said he feels a special obligation to work with the Jewish community so it will continue to be proud of the old temple.
When plans for Beth Israel’s construction were being made, it was in an era when San Diego anticipated booming business and increasing population based on linkage of a railroad line and San Diego Bay. The boom times did not eventuate; in fact, tough economic times descended on San Diego even before the temple could be built.
The situation was bad enough to discourage the Jewish community from building a grand $20,000 temple. The congregants settled instead for a simple building costing between $3,500 and $4,500. The building was used from 1889 through 1926, when Congregation Beth Israel moved to its second home at 3rd and Laurel Streets—a location that today houses Ohr Shalom Synagogue. Congregation Beth Israel today occupies its third home—a multiple-building campus near University Towne Center.
In addition to Temple Beth Israel, other buildings in Heritage Park under renovation are the Sherman-Gilbert House, The McConaughy House, The Burton House, the Christian House, the Bushyhead House and the Senlis Cottage. The latter, across a pathway from Temple Beth Israel, will be utilized as a small museum, whereas the other buildings will be used for lodging, McWethy said.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World