A secret corner in Balboa Park, situated behind the Veteran’s Museum and a distinctive building that once housed the former Naval Hospital, is Inspiration Point.
Behind the old hospital building, Courtyard Park is a tranquil getaway to collect your thoughts, away from the often-frazzling pace of life. The San Diego Regional Parks Administration now owns the property and its surrounding gardens.
Courtyard Park leads you into another dimension of time and space. In the few times I’ve visited there, either by myself or with a friend, there were never a lot of people.
That is because no large and loud picnics or parties are permitted. Instead, it is a place to meditate and meander. Only special ceremonies are allowed in the park by prior reservations.
Finding serenity in Courtyard Park
Courtyard Park is a place as serene as you could imagine – if you don’t mind the jet planes soaring over the garden.
Breezes coming up from the nearby bay cool the park.
Gazebos with well-kept colorful tiles on their domes, arbors with twisty vines – many of them of Mexican blood flower, also called Asclepius curassavica or scarlet milkweed – and the trees provide more shade while you meander around the gazebos.
A fountain, also with brightly colored tiles, sits in the center of the park.
The crisscrossed pattern of sidewalks leading to the gazebos and the fountain lends a far-away feel. Along the sidewalks of the little park stand Mediterranean cypress trees, as well as Monterey cypress.
Trees and more await as you take in all the sights at Inspiration Point.In back of the Courtyard Park, you’ll find a set of short stairs leading down to a sunken area.
History of helping injured sailors
Below a canopy of Monterey cypress is a small reflecting pool with a statue in its center. Nurses from the Naval Hospital used this as a therapy pool for sailors who became injured during WWII.
Once dubbed the “Pink Palace,” the stately double-towered building was home to the U.S. Naval Hospital, which was built in the 1920s. The hospital also took in injured and ill sailors stationed at bases around the city during peacetime.
For example, as a Seaman’s Apprentice in the 1970s, I was in computer school at the Naval Training Center (now Liberty Station), when the computers were as big as double-wide file cabinets.
One morning, I woke up dizzy and sick; I fell and hit my head on the bathroom wall of my dorm. I was then transported to the Navy Hospital. Even in my daze, I could feel and see that the hospital was unique, from a different era.
At the time, I did not even know there was a garden out back. Yet I don’t know if I would have appreciated it as much then as I do now.
Jessica Brown wrote an article in 2018 about Balboa Park’s role in helping sick and injured vets. In it, she noted that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt made a surprise visit to the hospital in July 1944.
She was so impressed by the professional yet loving care of the wounded and ill sailors, she announced, “If you have to be ill, I can think of no place more conductive to recovery than this beautiful hospital.”
Be sure to also visit the Veterans Museum, which is to the left as you face the Regional Parks Administration Building.
Once a military chapel, the museum now holds photos and memories of veterans. Special events are held Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Veterans’ Day.
All of Inspiration Point is – well, an inspiration.
— Cynthia G. Robertson is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer. She has composed interesting stories about SoCal people and places for more than 30 years. Her stories, essays and poems have also been published in “Acorn Review,” a literary journal, as well as several anthologies, including “Six Feet Apart…in the Time of Corona.” She blogs about her observations of nature and spirituality, and in 2019, she penned her first novel, “Where You See Forever.” She is working on her next book. Find out more at cynthiarobertson.com.
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