Natural History Museum Building, reflection in Bea Evenson fountain in Balboa Park. The museum was founded as the San Diego Society of Natural History in 1874, originally organized at the Hotel Cecil on 6th Avenue. The society moved the museum to the park in 1917 into a building from the 1915-16 Exposition. They occupied 3 buildings before moving into this one in 1933, designed by William Templeton Johnson. A major reconstruction in 2001 more than doubled the facility's size. It is oldest scientific institution in Southern California.