Fun Things for Kids | EscondidoHistory

Fun Stuff for Kids

History is all about things that have happened before. It can be about things that happened many, many years ago or even just yesterday!

Learning about history can help us figure out why we are the way we are today. Knowing about history can even help us prevent making mistakes that we already made once before! Exploring history can be like becoming a detective and figuring out who people who lived here before us were and what a place looked like before it was changed

The Escondido History Center keeps all kinds of papers and things from our city's history so that people can visit and see them. The items they collect and save are stored and displayed at the History Center Complex at Grape Day Park. Paper items are mostly located in the History Center Office and things, from a tractor to a railroad car can be seen at other buildings that make up our museum. You can see a real barn, a blacksmith shop with working blacksmiths, an old house from 1900, and our old train station.

And when your brain is full of new information about Escondido's past, you can run off extra energy in the fun playground right in front of the History Center!

You're Making History!

History isn't just about old people who did big things a long time ago, it's about what all kinds of people have done as individuals contributing in all kinds of ways to make their communities what they are.

In other words, you are making history because you are part of what is happening today! By recording what you see around you by writing it down or making a sound or video recording, you are helping people in the future know what you are experiencing.

All you need to do is to start now! Keep a journal, in writing or on a computer. If you would like to, we would love to see your stories when you're ready to share them - just send them to ehc@escondidohistory.org. We thank you and so will generations to come!

Jigsaw Puzzles!

Click on a photo and put together a jigsaw puzzle version of it!

The Escondido History Center Office & Research Center is housed in the city's first library building, constructed in 1894 and moved to this location in 1971.

Rube Nelson owned this "fabulous country corner" market on Broadway at Washington from 1944 until 1983.

The Bandy Blacksmith shop is housed in our reproduction barn, built in 1993, and is home to blacksmithing and classes. The wheelwright shop was added in 2007.

Pine Tree Lumber Company owner B. A. Sweet used massive old growth redwood to build the Pine Tree Motor Lodge in a western ranch style in phases between 1953 and 1958. Located at Centre City Parkway at Mission, it was demolished in 2017.

Make Your own History Center!

The History Center Office was originally the city's first library. Click on the button for a PDF that you can download and print. Then, you can color it, cut it out, fold and glue the tabs to make your very own library building!

Click here for a PDF