Many people in San Diego, along with much of California, still view the history of the state and especially San Diego, through the romantic lens created by Helen Hunt Jackson’s book Ramona. Even as California State Parks and the Colonial Dames tried to move away from the building being Ramona’s Marriage Place, at the reopening dedication in June of 1969 it was described as “the casa grande of the grand don of all the Silver Dons of San Diego.”
Before we began the process of evaluation and removal of furnishings and objects, the rooms were all photographed by Sandra Williams, a professional architectural photographer. We felt it was important to have a visual record of how the building appeared, and how many people have remembered it, for the past 40 years.