There is a historic house on Maple Street that quietly connects several important chapters of San Diego history.
At 210 Maple St. in Bankers Hill stands the Wegeforth House, built for Dr. Harry Wegeforth, the physician who helped establish the San Diego Zoological Society and whose efforts led to the creation of the San Diego Zoo. Today, the house is the headquarters of the Junior League of San Diego and is designated San Diego Historic Landmark No. 156.
The story of the house began in 1916, when San Diego pioneer Ralph Granger commissioned architect Louis Gill to design a home for his daughter Rachel and her husband, Harry Wegeforth. Gill, nephew of the better-known architect Irving Gill, had worked in his uncle’s office and later formed the firm Gill & Gill with him.
The house reflected the architectural thinking of its time while incorporating some remarkably modern features.
According to the Junior League’s history of the property, Wegeforth’s sons, Lester and Milton, later remembered the house as being “ahead of its time.” It included functioning solar panels, a full in-house vacuum system, and trap doors that provided access for plumbing repairs — unusual conveniences for a San Diego residence of the period.
Wegeforth arrived in San Diego in 1910 and established a medical practice. He married Rachel Granger in 1913, and in 1916 the couple took up residence at 210 Maple St. That same year, Wegeforth and his brother Paul served as surgeons for the Panama-California International Exposition in Balboa Park.
It was also a pivotal year for the future of the zoo.
Wegeforth attended the first official meeting of the San Diego Zoological Society in 1916 and became its founder and president, a position he held until 1944. The San Diego History Center dates the beginnings of the San Diego Zoo to that same year, when animals left behind from the exposition helped inspire the effort to establish a zoo in Balboa Park.
Louis Gill was later selected as an architect for the San Diego Zoo and served on the executive staff of the Zoological Society for more than two decades.
The house also had a connection to San Diego’s landscape history. Junior League records state that the property was originally landscaped by Kate Sessions, the famed horticulturist associated with the development of Balboa Park.
In 1940, Adele Rose Palmer purchased the house and furnished it with antiques and collectibles. Her collection included American, French, Chinese, and Japanese pieces, as well as a signed Tiffany lamp. The furnishings were auctioned in 1981, with proceeds going to charity.
In 1981, the house entered another chapter.
After a countywide search for a permanent headquarters, the Junior League of San Diego selected the Wegeforth House. With contributions from members and a $100,000 gift from the Sefton Foundation, the organization purchased the property for $325,000. The sale closed Jan. 29, 1981.
The city of San Diego designated the Wegeforth House a historic landmark on Oct. 6, 1981.
More than a century after the house was commissioned, 210 Maple remains a physical link to the people and ideas that helped shape early 20th-century San Diego.
Its story brings together an influential San Diego family, architect Gill, horticulturist Sessions, and Dr. Harry Wegeforth, whose efforts helped give rise to the San Diego Zoo.
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