Hillcrest is San Diego's most colorful, vibrant and diverse neighborhood. It is home to San Diego's LGBTQ community.

The park was first called City Park when it opened in 1868, but was renamed to Balboa Park after Vasco Núñez de Balboa for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.  In 1892 Kate Sessions offered to plant 100 trees a year in exchange of 32 acres of land to be used for her nursery.  Many of the trees and plants that she originally planted are still in the park today.  

The 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition commemorated the opening of the Panama Canal and provided a major impetus for the creation of the Park as it appears today —the first of two Expositions that created many 1915 Exposition Poster of the cultural institutions as well as the stunning architecture in the Park. Most of the arts organizations along Balboa Park's famous El Prado pedestrian walkway are housed in Spanish-Renaissance style buildings constructed for the 1915 Exposition. It was one of the first times that this highly ornamented, flamboyant architectural style had ever been used in the United States.

The California Tower and dome, which houses the San Diego Museum of Man, the Cabrillo Bridge (historic 1,500-foot-long bridge) and the Spreckels Organ Pavilion (one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs) were built for the 1915 Exposition-some of the few permanent structures designed for the fair. The San Diego Museum Association was established in 1915 as a museum of anthropology-its name changed in 1942 to the Museum of Man (with "San Diego" added in 1978).