Still standing today and the centerpiece of Balboa Park in San Diego California is The California Building at center and California Tower at right. They were constructed in 1914 for the Panama–California Exposition of 1915–1916.

“Unlike many other famous urban parks, it is renowned for its combination of nature and architecture. The 1,400 acre “City Park” was founded in 1868, and in 1909 the idea of a grandiose park was formulated in order for San Diego to host the Panama–California Exposition of 1915–1916. After the San Diego City Council made the decision to build a cultural park for the Exposition, the City renamed City Park to Balboa Park in 1910 in honor of the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who led the first expedition to the Pacific Ocean by crossing the Isthmus of Panama. ” -San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park

Although San Diego is 500 miles south of San Francisco, it’s possible the photographer, known to have photographed at San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, may also have travelled to San Diego the same year to photograph this scene at the Panama-California Exposition. This exhibition print however dates to around 1932 or later as it bears the inclusion of his F.R.P.S (Fellow, Royal Photographic Society) honorarium on the mount.

Seen in raking light, a fine screen pattern can be seen etched into this print as well as the black border- a hallmark of the Benday process print the photographer wrote about in his article: Bendaying the Photographic Print, published in the January, 1929 issue of Camera Craft magazine.