Located in historic Old Town San Diego, the Whaley House stands today as a classic example of mid-nineteenth century Greek Revival architecture. Formally dedicated as a California Historic Landmark on May 25, 1960, the Whaley House was built in 1856 by Thomas Whaley, and was the first two story brick structure in San Diego. In its day, the Whaley House played a vital role in Old Town serving as the general store, the courthouse, and later, the first commercial theater. Last renovated by the County in 1959, the front porch had served visitors well for 50 years. Despite regular maintenance and repair, the porch was showing signs of age and was succumbing to dry rot, termite damage and had begun to lean away from the rest of the building. In 2007, the County of San Diego, Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), began the arduous process of planning the restoration of the porch to its historic 1860’s period architecture. Through an extensive study of historic photographs coupled with expertise in historic architecture, the project team reconstructed the details, dimensions and materials used to build the original porch and conveyed the information to the project architect who drew up plans. In May of 2008, the County’s Historic Site Board approved plans for the renovation and construction began in July. During construction, every detail of the porch was meticulously crafted by journeymen carpenters, some coming from as far away as New York. The more obvious effect of their tedious work can be seen in the historically accurate balusters of the second floor railing. The baluster design and dimensions were extrapolated from period photographs and each baluster was then hand turned and milled to the proper dimensions. Another more obvious detail is that the front grade and brick retaining wall were lowered to allow room for the bottom step that surrounds the main porch floor, a detail left out of the previous renovation. Less obvious, yet historically correct, the porch floor has been constructed from random width, tongue and groove Douglas fir decking and all other exposed wood, including the large square columns, is redwood. Additional smaller historic details include custom copper downspouts and historically accurate door and window trim. Even the paint colors are historically accurate. The sky blue porch ceilings first became popular in the 1770s when Prussion blue pigment became widely available. Demolition and construction schedules were no easy feat either. With the tremendous popularity of the Whaley House, closing the building during construction was not an option. In order to remain open, construction crews started work as early as 5:00 a.m and scheduled major tasks like demolition to occur on Wednesdays, the one day per week that the building is closed, minimizing the inconvenience to visitors and surrounding merchants. The Whaley House has been open to the public as a museum since 1960, and is one of southern California's most popular visitor destinations. Approximately 120,000 people visit the Whaley House annually, with guests traveling from around the globe to experience this world-renowned museum which is also reputed to be the most haunted place in America. Owned by the County of San Diego the property has been managed by SOHO since September of 2000. Thanks to the project team’s tremendous dedication to historic preservation and attention to the details, the Whaley House Porch Restoration Project is truly a success. As a result of the project, the front of the building looks more today like it did when it was built, than any time since.

Project Information

Project Address: 

2476 San Diego Avenue

Project Owner/ Developer: 

County of San Diego

Owner Contact Name/ Email: 

Sean O'Neill

Project Architect/ Designer: 

Bruce Coons - Save Our Heritage Organisation , Darren Machulsky - Designworks

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