This website (
visit link) informs us:
"1907 Collier Park Spring House
La Mesa city plans call for the senseless demolition of the 1907 Spring House, which is part of Collier Park and Landmark Number 3 on La Mesa's historic register. It's also one of the few buildings in this city deemed eligible for the California and National Registers. The springs that bubble up here would have been known to the Kumeyaay, and in 1869, attracted rancher Robert Allison, who is considered La Mesa's founder. Later, D. C. Collier, a San Diego civic leader and pioneering developer of communities such as La Mesa, bought the land with the springs and built the Spring House as a bottling plant. That venture didn't materialize and Collier gave the building and some of the land to the people of La Mesa. It soon became known as Collier Park, the city's first public park. Two decades ago, the city closed and boarded up the Spring House. Now city planners are preparing to revamp Collier Park and they want to replace the Spring House with a new building for interpretive exhibits. But wait! A restored or renovated Spring House would make a fine exhibit space with the priceless advantage that La Mesa's history is part of the package."
This website (
visit link) has photos of the interior and a story about intentions to refurbish the Spring House-
"It’s dark and dank inside La Mesa’s historic Spring House. A network of spider webs hangs from the walls and ceiling, and pieces of the walls have fallen.
The pale-green, century-old building has been closed to the public since the 1980s, though the Spring House and surrounding Collier Park are considered significant spots in La Mesa. The park was the city’s first, and the house was once a bottling facility for the area’s natural springs. Both are on the city’s list of historic landmarks.
“The history of this city begins in that area,” said Donna Niemeier, president of the La Mesa Historical Society and a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
City officials want to improve the area, but they haven’t decided how. Funding will be an important factor, and right now little is available. One idea is to possibly link a community campaign to refurbish the park to the city’s upcoming centennial anniversary in 2012.
At a meeting last week, the La Mesa City Council directed the city’s staff to come up with an estimate of the cost to fully restore the Spring House, said Yvonne Garrett, the city’s community services director.
Councilman Ernest Ewin said he would like to see the park upgraded and a historic use found for the Spring House.
“My concern is it’s an attractive nuisance and it’s uninhabitable,” Ewin said of the house.
The La Mesa Police Department reported about 300 calls for service at the park in the past two years, including calls about drinking in the park, transients and narcotics violations, Lt. Dave Bond said. The department has at times asked officers to conduct extra patrols at the park during that period, Bond said.
Two years ago, the council asked the Historic Preservation Commission to consider options for the Spring House and Collier Park. The commission said that if a complete restoration wasn’t financially possible, the city should preserve the building’s stone walls around the base, and the cistern, and develop an interpretive center for the public with a “display chronicling the significance of the springs in the early settlement and development of La Mesa,” according to a city staff report.
The city hired an architectural firm in late 2007 at a cost of $41,500 to draw up a master plan for what a future Collier Park could look like. The firm is using input from the community gathered at several public meetings."