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Overview

Designed for a farm-implement manufacturer from Kansas City, MO and his wife, the George and Fannie Keating House #2 occupied a San Diego city block bounded by Olive, Palm, 5th and 6th Streets, that lay just west of Balboa Park. The Reid Brothers, designers of the famous Hotel Del Coronado, were commissioned to design the mansion, done in the Shingle Style. After Fannie Keating died in 1909, the building served a variety of functions before it was torn down late in 1955 and early 1956.

Building History

Kansas City industrialist George James Keating (born 01/07/1840 in Halifax, NS-d. 06/25/1888 in San Diego, CA) and his wife Fannie Keating (d. 1909) erected this 3-and-1/2-story mansion to serve as a retirement dwelling. George Keating was an officer in the Smith and Keating Implement Company of Kansas City, a successful maker of farm implements and tools. A remarkably complex and lavish building, the Keating House #2 was completed after 1888, the year George Keating passed away prematurely at age 48. His wife did reside here, however, moving in by at least 1892. (The San Diego, California, City Directory, 1892-1893, listed her as living at this address [p. 124].)Fannie resided in the residence with her two sisters until 1909, entertaining San Diego society with soirées in the third-floor ballroom. The San Diego Evening Tribune wrote an article about the grand dwelling shortly before its demolition; it said of the ballroom: "The entire top floor, with the exception of what may have been a reception room, was devoted to a ball room with two fireplaces and balconies overlooking the harbor on the west and the park on the east." (See "Razing Set for 1890 Mansion," San Diego Evening Tribune, 11/25/1955, p. A14.) This article in the San Diego Evening Tribune contained a glaring error; it stated that George Keating died in 1898, ten years later than his actual demise.

After Mrs. Keating's death, the house saw multiple uses. According to the San Diego Evening Tribune: "Decline of the mansion began after the death of Mrs. Keating in 1909. The property was sold to executors of the estate and the building had varied careers since that time. It served as a fraternity house, boarding house, a studio, a Mexican cafe, and even housed the presses of a small newspaper operated in 1933 by P.F. O'Rourke, attorney and one-time candidate for mayor. Between 1909 and 1933, time and the work of vandals took their toll on the mansion. A real estate man finally began rebuilding it in 1933, replacing much of the splintered panels, patching holes in the 10-foot ceilings and replace much of the tiled firelpalces and bathrooms." (See "Razing Set for 1890 Mansion," San Diego Evening Tribune, 11/25/1955, p. A14.) An entity named the S.D. Investment Company chose to tear down the mansion, and make the site available for use as a medical building.

Demolition

The Keating House was replaced by a medical building, that was, itself, replaced by a large apartment building, The Park Bankers Hill at 2850 6th Avenue, completed in 2017.

PCAD id: 21991