Kensington-Talmadge: 1910-1985.
By Thomas H. Baumann. San
Diego: Privately Printed, 1984. Illustrations. Maps. 196 Pages. $22.00
Reviewed by Rhoda E. Kruse, Senior Librarian, California Room, San Diego
Public Library.
Author Thomas Baumann, who came to the area in 1941, was the
first permanent dentist in the Kensington neighborhood of San Diego. His new
book, Kensington-Talmadge 1910-1985, is a labor of love produced for the
seventy-fifth anniversary of his community. The book is a compilation of source
materials and anecdotes of one of San Diego's most clearly defined and
distinctive communities.
In twenty chapters Baumann touches on various facets of the
neighborhood's history. He treats with a fair amount of detail transportation,
community organizations, schools, the library, subdivisions and developers,
major buildings, floods, businesses and some of the people. While well known
incidents in the community's history are included, so are a number of more
obscure topics. For example, he recounts Kensington's several murders, its role
as an early movie set, and the wedding reception held in a cave. He devotes an
entire chapter to Judge Joseph Rutherford, who served as a president of the
Jehovah's Witnesses' Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. In 1930 Judge
Rutherford moved into a house in Kensington which he refused to accept as a gift, but which he agreed to hold in trust for David, Gideon,
Barak and a number of "other faithful men who were named with approval in the
Bible at Hebrews the 11th chapter" [sic]. The house, known as Beth Sarim,
was later occupied by prominent citizen G. Aubrey Davidson, whom Baumann considers
the principal founder of Kensington.
Baumann has included many detailed references to descendants
of early residents and businessmen, which should prove useful to other
historians - not to mention genealogists. The book is plentifully illustrated
with reproductions of tract maps, photographs (both public and private), and
newspaper articles, and the entire 1920-1921 directory of the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, Baumann did not include an index. He did
prepare one later, however, and the index is included in the copies of
Kensington-Talmadge located in the San Diego Historical Society's Research
Archives, and in the San Diego Public Library's California Room.
