The La Mesa History Center regularly posts on Instagram and Facebook, sharing highlights of La Mesa history, local events, and fun weekly trivia games like Where Is It Wednesday? Follow along for vintage photos, behind-the-scenes peeks at the McKinney House Museum, and updates on our preservation work. Don’t miss our YouTube channel, where you’ll discover engaging videos that explore La Mesa’s rich and colorful history. Follow along, Join the conversation, and get more involved with La Mesa History.

⚜️We are actively preserving La Mesa’s unique heritage for all generations to appreciate & enjoy | 🔱 Community Driven |
Where is this and what do you know about it? Also, give us your best guess on the date of the image. #WhereIsItWednesday #historyiscool
Any guesses what, where and when this is? (Thanks again to our volunteers who are scanning in all these great images from our archival collection.) #WhereIsItWednesday #lamesahistory
This is a fun shot from our archives. Where is it and what do you know about it? Extra points if you can guess the date. #WhereIsItWednesday #lamesahistory
Any guess what this is? #WhatIsItWednesday
Another interesting object in our collection. Any guess what these are and what they were used for? #WhatIsItWednesday #lamesaliving
Grossmont Center and its history have certainly been in the news recently! Did you know that LMHC’s historian, Jim Newland, gave a talk for this institution’s 60th anniversary back in 2021? The recording of this event is available on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nhIixY-1A.
Additionally, the LMHC is fortunate to hold a collection of publicity scrapbooks and photographs from the original owners. There are 8 scrapbooks and they cover pre-opening in 1961 to 1978. There are 1,000s of photographs in the collection as well. As a small, volunteer-only organization, it is taking time for us to fully process this collection, but work is underway to stabilize the photographs and make them more discoverable. Included in this post are some sample pages from the scrapbooks, including a map of the original layout and some photographs of the Macy’s sign being added to the building in June, 1996.
The LMHC Research Room and the McKinney House Museum is open Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm.