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| State of California - The Resource Agency |
| DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION |
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| D1. |
| Historic Name: |
Park Boulevard Residential Historic District
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| *D3. |
| Detailed Description: |
Located on Blocks 241-248, and a portion of Block 252, of the expanded University Heights land tract, the Park Boulevard Residential Historic District boundary includes all parcels fronting the east and west sides of Park Boulevard, generally between Upas Street (at the southern end) and Robinson Avenue (at the northern end), and generally extends west to the alley west of Park Boulevard and east to include the west side of Indiana Street. Some deviations from this general boundary description do occur in order to recognize and include multi-family properties that represent the evolution of the district from its single-family beginnings to a residential community targeted for higher density cottage courts, two-to-four family flats, garden courts, and apartment buildings. Multiple-family properties define the district at its southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwest corners. The district is comprised of 87 land parcels containing 85 contributing resources and 33 non-contributing resources, as well as right-of-way improvements such as historic sidewalks (including concrete color, texture, scoring, and stamps).
Of the 86 contributing resources, 72 are multi-family buildings or complexes, 12 are single-family dwellings, and two are religious use properties that are presumed to have historically supported the area residents. These contributing elements were built between 1908 and 1961 and include bungalows, cottage courts, two-to-four family flats, an apartment hotel, garden court complexes, and linear apartment buildings colloquially referred to as dingbats. The contributing resources exhibit an evolution of American domestic architecture and local working- and middle-class housing options over the first half of the 20th Century, including an Italianate apartment house, Craftsman bungalows and houses, Prairie style flats, Spanish Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Italian Renaissance Revival flats, Minimal Traditional duplex and apartment buildings, and Ranch and Contemporary style garden court apartment buildings. The district retains all seven aspects of integrity and has the ability to convey its significance at the local level.
The district is unique for its mix of historic-era housing types within the 1900 amended University Heights tract, and is defined by Park Boulevard, the north-south thoroughfare which historically connected University Heights to Balboa Park. For brief periods Park Boulevard was part of historic US Route 80 when the highway terminated at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Broadway (1929-1930s), and later continued down Park Boulevard to Market Street (1943-1953). Unlike comprehensively developed residential tracts, the Park Boulevard Residential Historic District is dictated and defined by construction of individually constructed buildings, some designed or developed by the same builder or owner, but void of codes, covenants, or conditions that characterize a traditional residential neighborhood and suburban tract. The factors behind the district’s development are its proximity to Balboa Park, the installation of streetcar service, Park Boulevard as a segment of US Route 80, City of San Diego zoning regulations, and its origins in the University Heights tract, a speculative subdivision platted in a time of speculative real estate investment in San Diego when construction of comprehensively developed residential tracts had not yet been initiated in a wide scale manner. Anchored by the multi-family flats and apartment buildings that line both sides of Park Boulevard, the core of the district is contemporarily referred to as “Park Boulevard Apartment Row.” However, consistent with its early zoning designation, the district features a mix of single-family dwellings, duplexes, bungalow and cottage courts, garden court apartments, and six-pack / dingbat buildings.
The 86 Contributing Resources Include:
1631-1635 Brookes Avenue (APN 4523632400); 1926, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1634-1640 Brookes Avenue (APN 4523631200); 1952, Ranch Apartment Building
1723-1731 Cypress Avenue (APN 4523612600); 1954, Ranch Apartment Building
3530-3532 Indiana Street (APN 4523611600); 1937, Spanish Eclectic Duplex
3602-3608 Indiana Street (APN 4523612000); 1928, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3606 Indiana Street, Units A-B (APN 4523612000); 1952, Spanish Eclectic Duplex
3606.5-3608.5 Indiana Street (APN 4523612000); 1928, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3610-3616 Indiana Street (APN 4523612100); 1927, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3612.5-3614.5 Indiana Street (APN 4523612100); 1928 Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3634-3638 Indiana Street (APN 4523612400); 1922, Prairie Apartment Building
3644 Indiana Street, Units 1-4 (APN 4523612500); 1961, Contemporary Apartment Building
3644 Indiana Street, Unit 5 (APN 4523612500); 1941, Minimal Traditional Apartment
3650-3656 Indiana Street (APN 4523612600); 1941 Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building with Streamline Moderne Influences
3710-3716 Indiana Street (APN 4522141100); 1925, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3718 Indiana Street (APN 4522141200); 1922, Craftsman Single Family Home
3720 Indiana Street (APN 4522141200); 1908, Craftsman Single Family Home with Queen Anne Influences
1615-1623 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524811400); 1926, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1624-1630 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4523633100); 1923, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Half-Court
1625 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524811300); 1915, Craftsman Single Family Home
1629-1631 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524811200); 1954, Mid-Century Modern Duplex
1633-1635 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524811200); 1947, Minimal Traditional Duplex
1638 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4523633000); 1912, Craftsman Single Family Home
1641-1643 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524811000); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1717 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524820200); 1925, Spanish Eclectic Single Family Home
1725-1727 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524821400); 1925, Spanish Colonial Revival Duplex
1729-1729.5 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524821400); 1935, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
1744 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4523611301); 1920, Craftsman Single Family Home
1735 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524821301); 1923, Craftsman Single Family Home
1739-1751 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524821200); 1937, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1753-1755 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4524821200); 1928, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1801-1843 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4533410600); 1958, Ranch Apartment Building
3401-3407 Park Boulevard (APN 4524820800); 1927, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3402 Park Boulevard, Units 5-10 (APN 4524810500); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3402 Park Boulevard, Units 16-19 (APN 4524810500); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3409-3415 Park Boulevard (APN 4524820700); 1925, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3418-3420 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810600); 1925; Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3422-3424 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810700); 1925, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3422 Park Boulevard, Units A-B (APN 4524810700); 1957, Ranch Duplex
3430 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810800); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment
3432-3434.5 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810800); 1924, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3436-3440 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810900); 1924, Prairie Apartment Building
3438 Park Boulevard (APN 4524810900); 1924, Prairie Apartment
3445 Park Boulevard (APN 4524820100); 1923, Spanish Eclectic Single Family Home
3446 Park Boulevard (APN 4524811100); 1924, Spanish Colonial Revival Duplex
3501-3507 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611200); 1922, Italian Renaissance Revival Apartment Building
3509-3513 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611100); 1923-1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3510 Park Boulevard (APN 4523632800); 1923, Craftsman Single Family Home; HRB Site #1240
3511 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611100); 1922, Italian Renaissance Revival Apartment Building
3517-3519 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611000); 1927, Spanish Eclectic Duplex
3521 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611000); 1927, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3524-3526 Park Boulevard (APN 4523632600); 1960, Contemporary Apartment Building
3525-3529.5 Park Boulevard (APN 4523610900); 1928-1929, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3531-3531.5 Park Boulevard (APN 4523610900); 1926, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Duplex
3550 Park Boulevard (APN 4523632500); 1950, Contemporary Garden Apartment
3602-3608 Park Boulevard (APN 4523631000); APN 1951 Ranch Apartment Building with Contemporary Influences
3610-3616 Park Boulevard (APN 4523630900); 1926, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3612.5 Park Boulevard (APN 4523630900); 1927, Spanish Eclectic Apartment
3611-3617 Park Boulevard (APN 4523610500); 1921, Prairie Apartment Building
3620 Park Boulevard, Units 1-11 (APNs 4523630801-4523630811); 1939, Streamline Moderne Apartment Building
3630 Park Boulevard (APN 4523630700); 1922, Italian Renaissance Revival Apartment Building
3632 Park Boulevard (APN 4523630700); 1961, Ranch Apartment Building
3634-3648 Park Boulevard (APN 4523630600); 1951, Ranch Garden Apartment
3635 Park Boulevard (APN 4523612800); 1918, Craftsman Single Family Home
3645 Park Boulevard (APN 4523612800); 1929, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Hotel
3655 Park Boulevard (APN 4522145200); 1951, Greek Orthodox Church
3658-3662 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133600); 1949 Apartment Building
3665 Park Boulevard (APN 4522145200); 1951, Greek Orthodox Church Accessory Building
3677 Park Boulevard (APN 4522140400); 1948, Ranch Garden Apartment with Colonial Revival Influences
3680 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133400); 1958, Ranch Apartment Building
3682-3688 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133300); 1922, Prairie Apartment Building
3689 Park Boulevard (APN 4522140300); 1913, Craftsman Single Family Home
3690-3696 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133200): 1922, Prairie Apartment Building with Italian Renaissance Revival Influences
3702-3704 Park Boulevard (APN 4522131600); 1957, Contemporary Apartment Building
3712 Park Boulevard (APN 4522131500); 1907, Craftsman Single Family Home
3718-3732 Park Boulevard (APN 4522131400 and 4522131000); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Court
3727 Park Boulevard (APN 4522141200); date unknown, Italianate Apartment Building
1643-1655 Pennsylvania Avenue (APN 4522133100); 1935, Minimal Traditional Apartment Building
1616-1622 & 1626 Upas Street (APN 4524811600); 1926, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Court
1624 Upas Street, Units A-C (APN 4524811600); 1940, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Court
1626 Upas Street, Units A-C (APN 4524811600); 1951, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Court
1628.5 Upas Street (APN 4524811600); 1952, Spanish Eclectic Bungalow Court
1632 Upas Street (APN 4524810400); 1925, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
1634 Upas Street (APN 4524810400); 1925, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
1714-1720 Upas Street (APN 4524820900); 1926, Spanish Colonial Revival Apartment Building
1726-1738 Upas Street (APN 4524821000); 1927, Tudor Bungalow Court
1740 Upas Street (APN 4524821601-4524821624); 1960, Contemporary Apartment Building
The 33 Non-Contributing Resources Include:
1646 Brookes Avenue (APN 4523631100); 1961, Ranch Apartment Building
1728-1744 Cypress Avenue (APN 4522140600); 1922, Craftsman Apartment Bungalows
3510 Indiana Street (APN 4523611400); 1957, Ranch Apartment Building
3514 Indiana Street (APN 4523611400); 1918, Craftsman Single Family Home
3522-3524 Indiana Street (APN 4523611500); 1991, Neo-Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3528 and 3538 Indiana Street (APN 4523611700); 2010, Contemporary (21st Century) Townhomes
3544 Indiana Street (APN 4523611800 and 4523611900); 1987, Neo-Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3620 & 3622 Indiana Street (APN 4523612901-4523612910); 2004, Neo-Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3622 Indiana Street (APN 4522145200); 1972, Contemporary Church Accessory Building
Indiana Street (APN 4522145300); Parking Lot
3680 Indiana Street (APN 4522140700); Parking Lot
3688-3690 Indiana Street (APN 4522140800); Parking Lot
3694 Indiana Street (APN 4522140900); Parking Lot
3704 Indiana Street (APN 4522141000); 1920, Craftsman Single Family Home
3702-3708 Indiana Street (APN 4522141000); 1948, Apartment Building
1650 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4523633900); 1960, Apartment Building
1732-1734 Myrtle Avenue (APN 4523611302); 1947, Apartment Building
1737 Myrtle Avenue, Units A-C (APN 4524821302); 1979, Apartment Building
3402 Park Boulevard, Units 1-4 (APN 4524810500); 1924, Spanish Eclectic Apartment Building
3402 Park Boulevard, Units 11-15 (APN 4524810500); 1923, Craftsman Single Family Home
3421 & 3431 Park Boulevard (APN 4524821501-4524821542); 1969, Contemporary Apartment Building
3504 Park Boulevard (APN 4523632900); 1920, Craftsman Single Family Home
3520 Park Boulevard (APN 4523634000); 1955, Ranch Single Family Home
3521.5-3523.5 Park Boulevard (APN 4523611000); 1951, Apartment Building
3535 Park Boulevard (APN 4523610800); 1922, Modified Prairie Single Family Home
3541 Park Boulevard (APN 4523612700); 1979 Contemporary Apartment Tower
3621 Park Boulevard (APN 4523610400); 1936-1938, Colonial Revival Apartment Building
3652 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133700); 1971, Contemporary (21st Century) Apartment Building
3670 Park Boulevard (APN 4522133500); 1976, Ranch Apartment Building
3695 Park Boulevard (APN 4522140200); 1913, Craftsman Single Family Home
3699 Park Boulevard (APN 4522140100); 1913, Craftsman Single Family Home
3714 Park Boulevard (APN 4522131500); 1988, Apartment Building
1628 Upas Street, Units A-C (APN 4524811600); 1970, Neo-Spanish Eclectic Apartment
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| *D4. |
| Boundary Description: |
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The district boundary includes all parcels fronting the east and west sides of Park Boulevard, generally between Upas Street (at the southern end) and Robinson Avenue (at the northern end), and generally extends west to the alley west of Park Boulevard and east to include the west side of Indiana Street. Some deviations from this general boundary description do occur in order to recognize and include multi-family properties that represent the evolution of the area from its single-family beginnings to a residential community targeted for higher density cottage courts, two-to-four family flats, garden court apartment buildings, and six-pack / dingbat buildings. Multiple-family properties define the district at its southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwest corners. (Please refer to the map in the District Figures for a detailed illustration of the boundary.)
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| *D5. |
| Boundary Justification: |
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The proposed boundary, as outlined, includes Park Boulevard—a major historic arterial—with the highest concentration of historic-era multi-family housing immediately north of Balboa Park. The boundary reflects the initial residential development of University Heights and captures the subsequent property types and architectural styles as the area changed from single-family to a denser pattern of multiple-family development.
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| D6. |
| Significance: Theme: |
Streetcar Suburb; Transitional Neighborhood; Architecture
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Uptown and North Park
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| Period of Significance: |
1900-1967
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| HISTORIC CONTEXT
University Heights
University Heights is one of the oldest developed land tracts in San Diego. The College Hill Land Association (CHLA) subdivided the tract in 1888 (Figure 1) as part of a speculative development effort that included building a new university surrounded by manmade lakes and residential lots, near the present-day intersection of Park Boulevard and El Cajon Boulevard. Within the community, streets were laid out in a rectilinear grid, and the names of U.S. presidents were chosen for all east-west streets, while north-south streets were named after states. To take advantage of a natural canyon in the tract, an artificial lake, “Mystic Lake,” was planned between Maryland and Johnston streets and Lincoln Avenue. University Heights was on the periphery of the city, north of Balboa Park, and was still undeveloped at the time the tract was platted (Figure 2). To draw buyers to the location, the CHLA promoted University Heights as a community that would be anchored by the San Diego College of Arts, a proposed branch of the University of Southern California that would be built at the present-day intersection of El Cajon Boulevard (originally named University Avenue) and Park Boulevard (Figure 3). Initially, parcels within the tract were offered on installment plans, with the stipulation that the owner would construct a home worth at least $1,000 within 90 days of purchase. Lot sales were intended to finance the construction of the new university building and campus (Figure 4). Sale of the University Heights land subdivision commenced in early 1888, and soon thereafter construction efforts were initiated which included pouring of the university building’s foundation and installation of its cornerstone. Construction efforts, however, were brief with lagging lot sales resultant from an economic downturn, and by the early 1890s, construction efforts permanently ceased, leaving the CHLA property vacant until the turn-?of-?the-?century.
To rebrand University Heights and bolster lot sales, in 1890 the San Diego Cable Railway (SDCR) initiated local streetcar service via a trunk line installed on Fifth Street between L Street and University Avenue, on what would become the No. 7 route. At University Avenue the line spanned east, ultimately continuing into the City of East San Diego (at present-day Boundary Street). At the intersection of Park Boulevard, the line continued north to end at Adams Avenue, at The Bluffs, a cliffside park overlooking Mission Valley developed by the SDCR at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue. Initially opened as a five-acre site, The Bluffs, was anchored by a pavilion built in an early Arts and Crafts aesthetic under the design of Master Architect William Hebbard. Tree-lined walkways, a lily pond, and other attractions surrounded the building. The Bluffs, however, was short-lived as a streetcar destination. By 1892 the SDCR was bankrupt and streetcar service to the park was discontinued. In 1896 the Citizens Traction Company (CTC) renamed The Bluffs as Mission Cliff Park, expanded the park to include additional attractions, and re-established the streetcar service after converting the old cable cars and lines to overhead trolleys. By 1898 the CTC holdings were acquired by The San Diego Electric Railway Company (SDERC), which renamed and expanded the Mission Cliff Park as Mission Cliff Gardens, and continued the streetcar operations through the city, including in University Heights.
In 1897 the State of California requested design proposals for a $100,000 school building that would serve as the San Diego Normal School, a training facility for elementary school teachers, to be sited at the vacant CHLA university site. Drawings prepared by San Diego architects William Hebbard and Irving Gill were selected, with full drawings approved in March of 1898. Construction commenced immediately at the former CHLA University Heights campus site with the new cornerstone installed on December 10, 1898 and the completed building dedicated on December 10, 1899. Hebbard & Gill were again commissioned by the San Diego State Normal School to prepare plans for the east and west wings of the Normal School; both wings were completed in 1904. The college remained at the University Heights location through the late 1920s when it opened at its present-?day location at the newly constructed Spanish Revival style campus. An Italian Renaissance Revival-style Teachers Training Annex was added several years later, in 1910. Between 1953 and 1955 San Diego City Schools decided to demolish the building due to safety concerns and its compliance with building and fire codes. The opening of the State Normal School anchored residential development in the community of University Heights. In addition, in the mid 1890s a grammar school, the University Heights School, opened at the intersection of University Avenue and Vermont Street.
In 1900, the University Heights tract was amended to include 44 additional blocks for sale south of present-day University Avenue (Figure 5). Bounded by Alabama Street to the east, Upas Street to the south, 10th Avenue to the west, and University Avenue to the north, the blocks comprising the district are sited within the 1900 expansion area. In the 1888-1900 period, beyond the ‘destination properties’ described above, the primary property type constructed in University Heights was single-family homes in the form of cottages and bungalows in Queen Anne and early Craftsman styles.
In 1904, John D. Spreckels, owner of Mission Cliff Gardens, commissioned landscape gardener John Davidson to redesign the park grounds. Davidson planted trees, designed a Japanese garden, installed paths, benches and pergolas, and constructed retaining walls from stones extracted from the property’s native soil. That same year, Harvey Bentley relocated his ostrich farm from Coronado to property adjacent to the park. In 1912, a 70’ aviary was constructed at the park. Despite a dip in popularity as a result of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, Mission Cliff Gardens remained a destination for area locals and tourists into the 1920s. By that time, however, the destination had fulfilled its purpose as an attraction at the end of the streetcar line intended to attract buyers of undeveloped lots to University Heights. In 1907, streetcar service was extended east along Adams Avenue to accommodate the sale of lots and development of the Normal Heights and Kensington tracts. These tracts remained unincorporated until circa 1923, although they maintained a strong connection to the city, having served as first-ring streetcar suburbs connected to University Heights and Downtown via Park Boulevard, and the Nos. 1 (Adams Avenue), 2 (University Heights Motor Road / Park Belt), 7 (Fifth Avenue Trunk), and 11 (Park Boulevard). Of particular importance to the district were the No. 7 and 11 streetcar lines installed on the south segment of Park Boulevard (within Balboa Park) and Indiana Street (north of Upas Street) in 1917, at the end of the Panama-California Exposition (Figure 6).
The Exposition was a major impetus for growth in the city and the University Heights tract. Held in Balboa Park between 1915 and 1917, the exposition shaped the character of the park with substantial, and ultimately permanent, improvements to circulation, landscaping, and facilities, and introduced Exposition attendees to the opportunities for residential and commercial development north and east of Balboa Park. On February 15, 1868, nearly 20 years prior to the subdividing of University Height, Ephraim W. Morse, a Trustee of the City of San Diego presented a resolution to set aside two 160-acre pueblo lots for the purpose of securing suitable parkland for San Diegans. On May 26, 1868, the Trustees adopted a resolution to allocate nine pueblo lots (1,400-acres) northeast of Horton’s Addition as permanent parkland for citizens of San Diego. On February 4, 1870, the California legislature declared that the land “be held in trust forever by the municipal authorities of said city for the use and purpose of a public park, and for no other or different purpose.” In 1874, the California Legislature recognized the City as legal owners of the pueblo lands, therein confirming the legality of setting aside City Park and other transactions at pueblo lots. The reservation of 1,400-acres of parkland and legal ownership of the pueblo lots guide the city’s geographic development patterns into the 21st Century, and paralleled early progressive-reform era park planning activities occurring throughout major United States cities. To document progress on the planning of Central Park, in their 1868 report to the City of New York, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux observed”
“There is scarcely a city of magnitude in this country that has not provided, or taken measures to provide a Park for the pleasure of its citizens…Baltimore has laid out and improved its Park under the enlightened action of commissioners. Philadelphia has already secured grounds of great extent; enlightened citizens throughout the country already perceive the desirability of procuring conveniently situated pleasure grounds that will accommodate present and future generations, while the necessary space can be acquired within the limits at a reasonable cost; and the subject is under discussions in Providence, Albany, Troy, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and Louisville.”
Few improvements or changes were made in the park into the early 1880s. The canyons and mesas were blanketed in dense chaparral, a patchwork of wild adenostoma, sage brush, Spanish violets, shooting stars, mimulus and white popcorn. Characteristic to the surrounding land areas and the greater San Diego region with its natural system of canyons and mesas, the park’s low-lying vegetation was home to coyotes, wildcats, rabbits, squirrels, quail and lizards. In 1881, the City provided five acres for the construction of a public high school at the southwestern edge of the park. Opened as the Russ School in 1883, the high school complex remains in place, with a substantially expanded campus, as San Diego High School. In 1884, a syndicate of park advocates petitioned the City for permission to plant eucalyptus trees along a road in the park, presumably Park Boulevard. The project, however, was not completed. In 1892, Kate Sessions established a 36-acre nursery in the park. Located near the intersection of Sixth and Upas Streets, Sessions’ operation remained in the park until 1903 when it was relocated to Mission Hills. A noted gardener and landscape designer, Sessions was responsible for the park’s first plantings, which included a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers. The San Diego Country Club, a private gold club, established a nine-hole course at the northern edge of the park in 1897. South of Upas Street and west of Park Boulevard, the club manually installed the course, opting for dirt rather than turf. In 1913 the course was graded over in preparation for the 1915 Exposition. In 1899, a sum of $3,000 was bequeathed to the City for the improvements of roads and landscaping in the park. In 1902, Samuel Parsons, Jr. was hired to prepare a landscape design for the park. Parsons worked for 15 years as the superintendent of Central Park in New York City, therein forming a close relationship with and adherence to the design principles of Frederick Law Olmsted. Completed in July of 1903, Parson’s plan provided for formal improvements initiated at the southwest section of the park. Further planting and formation of roads and other improvements occurred incrementally until 1909 when the San Diego Chamber of Commerce announced that the city would host an exposition celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal. The Chamber incorporated the Panama-California Exposition Company and announced its agenda to the city’s 40,000 residents. The event would be held at City Park, renamed in 1910 to Balboa Park, after Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The park was an excellent site for the Exposition because of its favorable topography, abundance of undeveloped land and proximity to downtown. In anticipation of the Exposition, improvements were undertaken at the urban edges of the park, including along Sixth Avenue, which was widened and planted with rows of Cocos plumosa palm trees on each side; paving of University Avenue; paving of Washington Street; and filling in a canyon at the southwest corner of the park to connect West Park Boulevard to Sixth Avenue in the vicinity of Date and Juniper streets.
In 1911 the city began to formally develop Balboa Park as the site of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The exposition opened on January 1, 1915 and closed on January 1, 1917. The success of the Exposition was largely attributed to its exotic architecture and beautifully landscaped gardens and park grounds. However, the Exposition also had a practical purpose. Beyond promoting a new architecture and the region’s temperate climate, the Exposition illustrated the great opportunities to be found in this burgeoning western metropolis. In addition, San Diego had invested approximately $2 million in physical improvements in preparation for the Exposition—buildings, landscaping, roadways, and infrastructure. Anticipation of the Exposition and its two-year timeframe fostered one of the greatest building booms in San Diego’s history, with landowners speculatively developing apartment and hotel properties in Downtown and on the west side of the park in advance of the event, and visitors who chose to relocate to San Diego settling in the first ring suburban neighborhoods accessible from the streetcar lines, including in University Heights.
Both during and after the 1915 Exposition, University Heights experienced intensive development and assumed the shape and character of a streetcar suburb. While the Exposition brought about international renown to San Diego and provided the impetus for urban growth, the construction and expansion of streetcar lines patterned development at this time. During the 1920s and 1930s, the increasing sale, development, and maintenance of lots in the communities of University Heights, Normal Heights, and Kensington left land speculators and community builders to look elsewhere for their next ventures. Mission Cliff Gardens and the adjacent Bentley Ostrich Farm closed in 1929. As University Heights continued to develop as a residential enclave accessible from multiple streetcar routes, commercial buildings with neighborhood service uses were established along streetcar routes, including along University Avenue and on Park Boulevard between University Avenue and Adams Avenue. Many businesses reflected the proliferation of the automobile after World War I. Among the most common businesses constructed in the early 1920s were automobile garages and gasoline and service stations at prominent and accessible corners, including a service station at the southwest corner of the University Avenue and Park Boulevard intersection (Figure 7). Increased automobile ownership also resulted in the construction of personal auto garages at the rear of single-family dwellings, multi-garage structures detached from multi-family flats and apartment buildings, and in some instances, garages at the ground floor of rear apartment buildings with one or two dwelling units above the garage. Thus for a period of time, University Heights accommodated multiple modes of transit, with its streetcar roots and the advancing presence of the automobile.
In 1926, a new transcontinental highway, US Route 80, was completed from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego. The final link of the highway spanned through University Heights along El Cajon Boulevard then south on Park Boulevard. It terminated at Broadway, and later Market Street, giving University Heights the distinction of being part of the first transcontinental highway and offering direct access to Balboa Park.
The rapid growth that characterized the area’s development in the 1910s and 1920s collapsed at the start of the Great Depression. By 1933, nearly 25% of the American workforce was unemployed. In San Diego County, statistics were equally grim: at least 16,000 were unemployed and 4,000 families were on direct relief. The Great Depression had an immediate impact on residential development in University Heights and elsewhere. In the North Park CPA, for example, only 14 building permits were issued in the first quarter of 1930, compared with 36 in the first quarter of 1929. Real estate sales continued to decrease and new development largely ceased through the mid-1930s. In the third quarter of 1934, only four residences and one small commercial building were constructed in the community. The dramatic decline in construction activity created a surplus in materials and skilled labor, resulting in a reduction in building costs. A new home could be built for just two-thirds the cost before the Depression, and existing homes were also offered at a greatly reduced price. Construction remained slow in University Heights through the 1930s and into the early 1940s. However, government economic stimulus programs resulted in a number of infrastructure projects, civic improvements, and homebuilding initiatives during this period, including in University Heights. Four pedestrian tunnels were built at points on Park Boulevard and El Cajon Boulevard, a new building was constructed at the San Diego State Normal College campus, and a rehabilitation, conservation, and improvement campaign was undertaken at Balboa Park funded by the Works Progress Administration. In June of 1934, Congress passed the National Housing Act (NHA) to relieve unemployment and stimulate the release of private credit for home repairs and construction. The NHA was intended to encourage home ownership by making residential mortgages more affordable. The legislation also created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to administer the program, which offered long-term loans with regular monthly payments in order to reduce the size of loan. Within the North Park CPA, residents and merchants of North Park joined together to form a committee in support of establishing the National Housing Act in their community, thereby connecting this major government initiative directly to the stimulation of housing construction in the North Park CPA.
In 1935 and 1936 San Diego hosted the California Pacific International Exposition at Balboa Park. The 1935-1936 Exposition made use of the remaining 1915 buildings, with new construction occurring on the southern edge of the developed mesa in the Pueblo Revival, Mayan, and Moderne styles of architecture. In addition to using the preexisting Spanish Baroque structures from the 1915 Exposition, the California Pacific International Exposition featured several vernacular buildings designed by Master Architect Richard Requa. The 1935-1936 Exposition was meant to showcase a brighter future in the midst of the Depression, and displayed among its many exhibits, options for minimalist, low-cost single-family housing that would become the standard for development in San Diego from the Depression through World War II. Unlike its predecessor, though, the 1935 Exposition did not significantly influence the architectural character of the University Heights or the surrounding communities as much of the tracts were built out by the mid-1930s.
During and after WWII, University Heights experienced limited new growth. In 1942 the former Mission Cliff Gardens and Bentley Ostrich Farm site was redeveloped into a single-family neighborhood with some of the park’s features incorporated into the development, including its cobblestone wall, redwood gates, lily pond, streetcar waiting kiosk, and mature palm trees. The City targeted other areas for the development of exclusive use residential districts promoted in its 1943 publication Planning San Diego: A Program for the Development of a Post-War Plan for San Diego, while most of University Heights remained zoned for “C” commercial and “R-4” mixed use. The R-4 zoning code provided for the construction of single family dwellings, apartment buildings, bungalow courts, hotels, boarding and lodging houses, clinics, institutions of educational or philanthropic nature, fraternity and sorority houses, libraries and museums, private clubs, lodges, and community centers.
In 1949, the city’s streetcar lines were removed from service, leaving residents and businesses in University Heights completely reliant on personal automobiles and the municipal bus system. Beyond the main transportation corridors—University Avenue, El Cajon Boulevard, and Park Boulevard—physical improvements of the area were not especially geared for automobiles, which had steadily increased in size from the 1920s. Existing garages at residential properties were small structures setback at the corner of narrow residential lots, detached from the house or apartment building and accessible via a narrow driveway or from a rear alley. The availability of off-street and on-street parking likely became a concern in this period.
By 1958, when the City undertook a survey of blighted conditions citywide, University Heights was identified primarily as an “Area needing some conservation to maintain neighborhood quality.” A 1960 study titled, This is Your City, surmised this designation:
“Aside from areas of new growth and stability the majority of the City falls within the category of conservation. Modernization of public facilities can provide an impetus for private improvements. Painting, clean up, landscaping and trees can transform declining areas from monotonous drab neighborhoods in need of conservation to areas of permanence and stability.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, the effects of auto oriented post-WWII suburbanization took a toll on many of the city’s older neighborhoods through the construction of new highways and shopping centers, the loss of population and businesses, and degradation of the sense of place that historically characterized the first-ring streetcar suburbs. Constructed between 1960 and 1962, Interstate 8 bypassed US Route 80 in University Heights. West of University Heights, in the Uptown CPA, construction of Interstate 5 during the same period resulted in the demolition of entire city blocks to accommodate the freeway and its accompanying overpasses, underpasses, and ramps. In February of 1961, the Mission Valley Shopping Center opened, drawing customers away from the city’s historic commercial zones, and thereby adversely impacting the economic vitality of University Heights and the surrounding communities for decades to come.
Beginning in 1967, the City’s development of growth management plans further compromised University Heights’ historic character. The City rezoned much of the area to accommodate greater densities. Original single-family dwellings were replaced with or converted to multi-family buildings, with the preferred configuration for new multi-family buildings being a two-story structure built out to the front, rear, and side yard setbacks, with on-site parking moved to the front of the building to replace the yard or garden space. In the contemporary-period, developers merged lots to accommodate larger residential projects, including condominium and townhouse buildings, residential towers, three-and-four-story apartment buildings, and mid-rise residential towers. This pattern and character of infill continued into the 1980s and 1990s and persists today albeit with greater awareness of the area’s history and extant historical resources.
Park Boulevard, Streetcar Service, and Infrastructure Improvements
I
n place as early as the 1880s, Park Boulevard served as the main north-south thoroughfare in the park and connecting to University Heights. North of the park, it was delineated on the 1888 University Heights subdivision map. By 1897, a secondary route, West Park Boulevard, was also in use. Spanning roughly parallel to and east of Sixth Avenue, between Palm Street and Date Street, West Park Boulevard was later renamed to Balboa Drive. Park Boulevard remained as a dirt road through at least 1910 (Figure 8). Maps of the 1915 Exposition grounds reveal that the existing alignment of Park Boulevard served two uses. At the southern and central segments, it served as the streetcar route connecting from Downtown and leading to La Puerta Del Sur, the south gate of the Exposition. At the northern segment, south of Upas Street, it served as part of The Isthmus and led to La Puerta Del Norte, the north gate of the Exposition sited approximately 200’ south of Upas Street. The Park Boulevard alignment continued north into University Heights, through the 1900 expansion area of the tract.
Four early streetcar lines spanning through and radiating around Balboa Park are attributed to the growth and expansion of University Heights and the surrounding communities, the Nos. 2, 7, 1, and 11 lines, these lines were installed in 1886, 1890, 1907, and 1917 respectively, and formed the backbone for commercial and residential development in the city’s first ring suburban communities (Figures 6 and 13). As each of these lines were installed and expanded, accessibility to University Heights and Balboa Park increased.
>> No. 2 Line - University Heights Motor Road / Park Belt Line: In 1886, Elisha Babcock and H.L. Story built a steam power streetcar line, the University Heights Motor Road (or Park Belt Line), through the southeast section of the City. The line connected downtown, City Heights, University Heights and Hillcrest via a ten-mile loop. Originally initiating at Cedar Street, the line ran along 30th Street, through Switzer Canyon at the east edge of City Park, and onto the adjacent mesa. In 1908 the 30th Street Trolley Bridge, a wood and steel structure, was constructed to connect the South Park neighborhood to North Park and the University Heights tract. By 1909 the line terminated at Juniper Street, and in 1912 the line extended to University Avenue. By 1926, when the Rodney Stokes Company mapped the streetcar lines (Figure 9), the No. 2 Line was delineated as starting at the intersection of 12th and Broadway, then heading east on Broadway, north on 25th Street, east on B Street, north on 28th Street, east on Beech Street, and north on 30th Street where it terminated at the intersection of University and 30th Street. This line was integral to connecting University Heights to Downtown San Diego, as it was the north-south transportation option on the east side of Balboa Park, and was sited nine blocks east of the University Heights expansion area.
>> No. 7 Line – Fifth Avenue Trunk Line: In 1890, the San Diego Cable Railway (SDCR) initiated local streetcar service via a trunk line installed on Fifth Street between L Street and University Avenue. Heading east to Park Boulevard the line spanned north along Park Boulevard to terminate at The Bluffs, a cliffside park the SDCR developed overlooking Mission Valley, to serve as the northern destination of the line. Initially opened as a five-acre site, The Bluffs, was anchored by a pavilion built in an early Arts and Crafts aesthetic under the design of Master Architect William Hebbard. Tree-lined walkways, a lily pond, and other attractions surrounded the building. The Bluffs, however, as a streetcar destination, was short-lived. By 1892, the SDCR had gone bankrupt, terminating streetcar service, and the cliffside park remained in a state of minimal repair. In 1896, the Citizens Traction Company (CTC) renamed The Bluffs as Mission Cliff Park, expanded the park to include additional attractions, and re-established the streetcar service after converting the old cable cars and lines to overhead trolleys. By 1898, the CTC holdings were acquired by The San Diego Electric Railway Company (SDERC), which renamed and expanded the Mission Cliff Park as Mission Cliff Gardens, and continued streetcar operations through the city, including in University Heights. In 1907, the Georgia Street Bridge opened, enabling an eastward extension along University Avenue to 30th Street, the northern terminus of the University Heights Motor Road / Park Belt Line (No. 2 Line). The No. 7 Line ran under the Georgia Street Bridge, a wooden bridge that allowed street and pedestrian traffic to cross over University Avenue, and continued out to the City of East San Diego, thereby opening-up a whole new area to development. In 1911, the line was double-tracked to accommodate increased ridership resultant from population growth and continued suburban development in University Heights and the adjacent communities north and east of Balboa Park. By 1926, when the Rodney Stokes Company mapped the streetcar lines (Figure 9), the No. 7 Line was delineated as starting at the intersection of Fifth Street and Market Street, then heading north on Fifth Street, and east on University Avenue where it terminated at Euclid Avenue. This line was integral to connecting University Heights to Downtown San Diego, as it was the north-south transportation option on the west side of Balboa Park, and offered direct connection through the park into the University Heights expansion area.
>> No. 1 Line – Adams Avenue Line: Completed in 1907, the Adams Avenue Line offered a connection to the City of East San Diego and the communities of Normal Heights and Kensington. An electrical substation and a trolley barn were constructed to accommodate the line. Located at the north side of Adams Avenue at Florida Street, the trolley barn was completed in 1913 and housed trolley cars and control instruments for the line. By 1926, when the Rodney Stokes Company mapped the streetcar lines (Figure 9), the No. 1 line initiated at the intersection of Adams Avenue and Park Boulevard, and then ran east on Adams where it terminated at Marlborough Avenue. The initiation point of this line was approximately eight blocks north of the University Heights expansion area, and could be reached via the Nos. 7 and 11 lines that provided service through Balboa Park and north along Indiana Street and Park Boulevard.
>> No. 11 – Park Boulevard Line: Identified as the No. 11 line on the 1926 Rodney Stokes Company Map of City of San Diego (Figure 9), the Park Boulevard Line shared an alignment with the No. 7 Line through Balboa Park, and with No. 1 along Adams Avenue. The route provided a stop at the south gate for the 1915 (and later the 1935-1936) Exposition in Balboa Park. In 1917 the Park Boulevard Line was extended north from the park’s south gate, up Indiana Street to the intersection of Park Boulevard and Robinson Avenue where it continued north on Park Boulevard and terminated at University Avenue. This line was integral to connecting University Heights to Downtown and Balboa Park, and offered a direct connection to the University Heights extension area, thereby increasing the visibility of the Victorian-period tract for new commercial and residential development opportunities into the 1920s.
In addition to the construction of the Georgia Street Bridge in 1907 and the 30th Street Trolley Bridge in 1908, as the community grew, and in order to foster growth, other infrastructure improvements occurred in and around University Heights. In 1914, in response to increased automobile and trolley traffic on the route, the City widened University Avenue and replaced the Georgia Street Bridge with a new concrete structure. By 1922, increased ridership from the rise of residential and commercial construction around 30th Street and University Avenue strained the existing streetcar system. In response, SDERC President John D. Spreckels, announced a major project to rehabilitate all the streetcar lines in the city. System improvements began in late 1922 and were completed in 1924.
In 1926, a transcontinental highway, US Route 80, was completed from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego. Motorists travelling the final link of Highway 80, along El Cajon Boulevard, could choose between continuing west along Washington Street down the grade to Pacific Highway or proceed south on Park Boulevard into Downtown San Diego. Thus, Park Boulevard became a major junction in the southern route of the first all-weather transcontinental highway to San Diego, offering access through the heart of Balboa Park. Into the 1930s US 80 terminated at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Broadway, and later between ca. 1943 and 1953, the route continued further south on Park Boulevard to terminate at Market Street (Figures 10 and 11).
The constant presence of streetcars and automobiles necessitated safeguards for pedestrians navigating Park Boulevard and El Cajon Boulevard. In December of 1931, as part of a local public works campaign and in an effort to improve pedestrian safety in the main thoroughfares of University Heights, the City Council passed a bond measure that provided for the construction of four pedestrian tunnels in the area: two under present-day El Cajon Boulevard in the vicinity of 38th Street and Chamoune Avenue, one at Park Boulevard in the vicinity of Normal Street, and one at Park Boulevard in the vicinity of Upas Street. Valued at $4,300, the tunnel at the Park and Upas intersection was the first of the four tunnels to be constructed. As specified in the March 18, 1932 edition of The Evening Tribune, the tunnel was constructed of reinforced concrete, 6’ wide, 7’ high, and approximately 71’ long, with wide stairways at each sidewalk entrance. The tunnel’s capacity was touted as “2000 persons passing three abreast at a space of four inches apart in five minutes.” Work started on the tunnel without fanfare. As reported in the San Diego Union, Mayor Austin conducted an impromptu visit to observe the project progress and happened to arrive when the first truckload of concrete also arrived at the site. In Mayoral fashion he threw in the first six shovel loads of concrete, therein holding his own ceremony before continuing on with his day. There does not appear to have been a formal opening of the tunnel as local newspapers did not publicize such an event.
The streetcar lines remained in place as a major transportation option in University Heights and all of San Diego through 1949 when the last of the lines were removed from service. Physical tracks were removed or covered over with asphalt surfaces or medians. Loss of streetcar access combined with post-WWII building standards resulted in a change of lot development patterns, residential building types, and building amenities throughout the city. New exclusive use residential subdivisions were built in the city’s second-ring neighborhoods based on the community builder model, with auto-oriented curvilinear streets and dwellings with attached one-or-two-car garages.
Growth, Zoning, and Intensification of Land Uses
Historian John Hancock attributes San Diego’s adoption of public planning in the early 1920s to the “pressures and promises of dramatic growth” the city faced leading into the second decade of the twentieth century. Between 1910 and 1920 San Diego’s population doubled from approximately 39,578 to 74,361 residents. By 1930, the city’s population reached 147,995. As a result of World War I, the city transformed almost overnight into a military town. In the late 1910s, the military presence in San Diego dramatically increased with the construction of temporary camps, hospitals, and shipyard facilities that serviced the army, navy, and air force. In 1916, city voters approved a measure that allowed the Marine Corps to establish a base in Pt. Loma, and between 1916 and 1926 the Navy acquired thousands of acres of land throughout the city in order to establish ten major installations. The military presence and culture of consumption in the 1920s created a period of prosperity in San Diego that resulted in population increases, the creation of jobs, and an expansion of the city’s geographic boundaries. In 1923, the City of East San Diego consolidated into the City of San Diego. Primarily comprising the present-day community of City Heights, the annexation of East San Diego, combined with the annexation of Normal Heights and Kensington, resulted in a 33% population increase for the City. Over this 20-year period, much of the growth occurred in the first ring suburban communities north and east of Downtown and on the perimeter of Balboa Park, in Golden Hill, University Heights, South Park, and North Park – all accessible from streetcar lines. The city’s expanded road network, increased count of taxable lots, and swelling population legitimized the need for orderly growth via zoning regulations.
Based on the pressures and promises of dramatic growth leading up to and in the early 1920s, in January of 1923 the City of San Diego adopted its first zoning ordinance and established the Department of City Planning in order to supervise day-to-day land use and development activities. Established under the authority of the 1922 Standard State Zoning Enabling Act, the City Planning Department, in conjunction with the City Planning Commission, implemented the newly created zoning ordinance, Ordinance No. 8924, which provided for the regulation, restriction, and segregation of the location of all industries, businesses, trades, apartments, dwellings, and other unspecified uses within the city. Five distinct zones were created, Zones A-E, “consisting of various districts, and prescribing the classes of buildings, structures in said several zones, and the use thereof.”
In June of 1924, Park Boulevard, between Robinson Avenue and Upas Street, was rezoned for Zone B land uses. As outlined in Ordinance 8924, Zone B limited uses to:
“dwellings, tenements, hotels, lodging or boarding houses, churches, private clubs, public or semi-public institutions of educational, philanthropic or eleemosynary nature, railroad passenger stations, and the usual accessories located on the same lot or parcel of land with any of said buildings, including the office of a physician, dentist or other person authorized by law to practice medicine, and including private garages containing necessary and convenient spaces for automobiles.”
In September 1924, Ordinance No. 9627 established a setback of 16-feet along the west side of Park Boulevard, between Robinson Avenue and Upas Street, in order to “prohibit the erection or construction of buildings or structures nearer to the front of lot line.”
In October 1930, Ordinance No. 8924 was replaced by Ordinance 12988, which applied the new zoning codes of R-1, R-2, R-4 (residential or non-commercial non-industrial uses other than residential) and Zone C (commercial uses) to University Heights and Florence Heights, and portions of Uptown, Middletown, and South Park (Figure 12). The City zoned Park Boulevard and Indiana Street within the district as code R-4, which generally retained the same uses as the preceding Zone B land use designation. The R-4 code would reinforce the mixed character of the district’s single-family and varying multi-family residential buildings for decades. In contrast, the City zoned the area west of the alleys forming the approximate west boundary of the district as R-2, which restricted residential uses there to single-family dwellings and duplexes. R-2 excluded the larger two-story flats already present in the district by 1930, as well as the types of larger apartment buildings that developers would construct within the district over subsequent decades. Along Park Boulevard north of Balboa Park, commercial uses delineated by Zone C were permitted just beyond the boundary of the district, beginning at the 3-way intersection of Park Boulevard, Robinson Avenue, and Indiana Street, the historic junction of the No. 7 and No. 11 streetcar lines.
In 1967, the City Council adopted the Progress Guide and General Plan, which set the stage for implementation of a growth management strategy and plan in the 1970s. The Residential Element of the 1967 plan projected a 20% increase in housing units in Central San Diego between 1964 and 1985, which corresponded to a net increase of 17 dwelling units per residential acre; the highest density projected in the plan. These projections meant that the first-ring suburban communities of the city, including University Heights, would be targeted for infill housing projects, generally resulting in the removal of older building stock. Developers generally replaced older buildings with six-pack and dingbat apartment buildings.
Evolution of Local Housing Types and Styles
From 1888 through the 1920s, University Heights was developed with single-family homes, cottages, and bungalows in a range of architectural styles. Historic photographs (Figure 13) disclose that in the vicinity of Mission Cliff Gardens and the San Diego Normal School campus, homes constructed prior to the 1915 Exposition were generally two-stories in Italianate, Eastlake, Arts and Crafts, Craftsman, Prairie, Mission Revival, and Spanish Eclectic aesthetics, including the Eastlake style Woodruff House built in circa 1887 at 4670 North Avenue, the Arts and Crafts style Creelman House built at 4656 North Avenue, and the Craftsman style Crenshaw House built at 4780 Panorama Drive. Modest but attractive bungalows and cottages were commonly constructed around the tract in the Craftsman style. Early homes within the district boundary generally consisted of these small Craftsman style bungalows, with some Victorian-era and Prairie style design influences.
At the time that University Heights was initially platted, multi-family housing was regarded as an inferior option in semi-urban and suburban neighborhoods, but after WWI urban apartments came into vogue with the middle and upper classes. Within the Uptown CPA, by the 1920s, several multi-story high-end apartment buildings had been constructed in the Park West area near Banker’s Hill, capitalizing on views of the harbor, Balboa Park, and Downtown. In University Heights, multi-family flats were constructed along both sides of Park Boulevard, immediately north of Balboa Park (Figures 14, 15, and 16).
As a building typology, the typical flat comprised an entire floor, and flat buildings were often clustered or built adjacent to one another so as to create an urban streetscape in first ring suburban neighborhoods. Two-family flats often exhibited Colonial Revival or Classical Revival exterior details, gable-and-hip roofs, one-over-one or multi-lite wood sash windows with wood surrounds, columns at the first floor and pilasters at the second floor, and low open balustrades. Four-family flats were typically built in one of four symmetrically composed arrangements:
>> Bay-Front Facade – featuring two-stories in a rectilinear plan with clapboard, shingle, brick, or stucco siding; flat or sloped roof visible or obscured by parapet; ganged or triple window openings with multi-lite wood sash units with decorative sills and lintels; a central entrance with decorative lintel, sidelites, and ornamental brickwork; and a vertical division of the front facade.
>> Classical Portico-Fronted Facade – featuring two-stories in a rectilinear plan with brick siding and, occasionally, quoins; flat roof; two-story projecting portico with an entablature; central second floor balcony; columns of varied orders; single window openings with one-over-one wood sash units with decorative sills and lintels; and a central entrance with an ornamental surround.
>> Villa Facade – featuring two-stories in a rectilinear plan with brick or stucco on frame, hollow tile, block or concrete walls; single, ganged or triple window openings with single-or-double-hung or casement multi-lite wood or metal sash units; a central entrance with arch, canopy, pediment or elaborate hood.
>> Spanish or Mediterranean Revival Facade – featuring two-stories in a rectilinear plan with stucco siding and terra cotta roofing tile; bell-form parapets; ganged window openings with multi-lite wood sash units; and a central entrance with sidelites and ornamental surround.
Along Park Boulevard, groupings of flat buildings (Figures 14, 15, and 16) were designed almost exclusively in the Spanish Eclectic and Italian Renaissance Revival styles and reflected the Churrigueresque elements of the 1915 exposition. Detached garages were sited at the rear of the lot, with an additional dwelling unit sited above the garage.
By the mid-1920s, a new residential building type began to appear throughout the city: bungalow and cottage courts. As zoning regulations were implemented, and the growing population resulted in a need for affordable housing, bungalow and cottage courts provided an affordable and income producing solution. Located throughout the city’s first-ring suburban communities, including in University Heights, these courts were built primarily in the Spanish Eclectic, Tudor Revival, Egyptian Revival, and Art Deco styles. The bungalow court emerged in Pasadena in the 1910s and was the first multi-family property type to integrate common gardens or courtyard space into the site plan. This medium-high-density property type typically consists of detached single-story bungalows or cottages arranged in a U-shaped plan on a single or double residential lot, with unit entrances facing inward toward a common courtyard rather than facing the street (Figure 17). Some examples have little or no accommodation for the automobile while others may feature a detached garage or garages setback at the rear of the property. Stylistically, bungalow and cottage courts offered the appropriate scale to integrate density into an existing single-family neighborhood without interrupting the established scale and aesthetics of the area. As a transitional housing type, bungalow and cottage courts represented modest middle-class housing options that did not compromise on the interior and exterior features included in traditional single-family homes. “Bungalow courts were the first multi-family prototype to focus more on space than object, providing residents with the advantages of parks and shared spaces for communal interactions within a densely urban setting.” Outside of the Los Angeles region, more bungalow courts were constructed in San Diego than in any other city. Within the North Park CPA, most bungalows courts were built between University and Adams avenues, and located along or very near the streetcar lines north of Balboa Park.
Into the 1930s and through the 1940s, as a result of the Great Depression and an interest in adapting a more affordable and simple aesthetic at working class dwellings, the exterior of single-family homes and apartment buildings was stripped to only the most minimal detailing and form. The federal government’s New Deal programming substantially influenced this design direction, particularly the Federal Housing Administration, established in 1934 and influenced by the earlier policies of the United States Commerce Department under President Herbert Hoover and its 1931 President’s Conference for the Design of Residential Neighborhoods (President’s Conference).
The 1931 President’s Conference convened experts in architecture, planning, residential design, home building, and lending to establish recommendations on reforming the nation’s housing system. Primary goals of the conference included: creating a home financing program, improving the quality of moderate and low-income housing and residential districts, and stimulating the building industry. The conference culminated in the creation of a new national priority to lower the cost of American homes while improving their design and efficiency. Established in 1934 and instituting a national program that would guide home building practices for decades to come, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) implemented financing goals and enforced quality construction practices through its approval of properties for mortgage insurance and publication of housing and subdivision standards. Published in 1938 the FHA’s Architectural Planning and Procedure For Rental Housing detailed characteristics and standards for building construction, neighborhood siting, and floor plan features at multi-family housing projects intended for FHA financing. This publication outlined preferred multiple-family projects as having the following characteristics:
1. A preponderance of units for complete family living appealing to a stable rather than impermanent tenancy.
2. Location in a distinctly residential area, which promises to remain of good character or to develop or reimprove in a reasonable time as a desirable residential district.
3. Income from dwellings adequate to assure success of the project. Assumed income from accessory uses (garages, stores, etc.) only a small fraction of total estimated income.
4. A tenancy whose prospective income and ability to pay rental is not largely or solely dependent on the success and continuity of a single industry in the community.
The guidebook affirmed the professional opinions and experience of planners, architects, builders, and real estate professionals espousing that:
“Real property which embodies high standards of design and construction enhances mortgage security and protection of the invested funds. It embodies those elements of a desirable residential environment which attract tenants, the source of the essential income which is necessary to the success of rental properties. Through careful planning, good construction, and use of durable materials, protection is provided against rapid obsolescence and depreciation.”
In 1941, the FHA passed Title 608 of the Federal Housing Act, which provided for a federal guarantee of mortgages on middle price apartment housing. Created under the title "War Housing Insurance" Title 608 was created to build apartment houses quickly and cheaply during the nation’s housing shortage. From 1941 to 1948, under the 608 program private construction firms had been permitted to borrow federal-backed money on a per-room basis, which by 1948 had reached $1,800 per room. In 1948, the rule was revised to allow builders to borrow up to $8,100 per apartment. The result was a rash of small one-bedroom "efficiency" apartments and documented cases of over borrowing.
The FHA did not assign a set of aesthetic guidelines for multi-family housing projects guaranteed under the Section 608 program (as was prescribed for single-family units). However, the administration did rely on the following principles:
>> Designs which relied for effect on mass, scale, and proportion are more attractive, and the resultant structures are sounder investments than those which strive for picturesque or unusual effects through elaborations of motif and ornament or startling use of materials.
>> The property should be able to retain permanent acceptance and not be so faddish that it is soon outmoded.
>> The design should be appropriate to the section of the country in which the property is located, to climate and topography, and to the mode of living of the probable occupants.
>> The design of any project should have an architectural unity.
>> Harmonious relation of open space to building height, of fenestration, entrances, and planting are factors, which, properly designed, create attractive developments.
In 1954, Title 608 had expired, making it more difficult to obtain funding for privately constructed apartment buildings and multi-family residential properties. As FHA funding for multi-family housing waned, single-family housing options became more affordable, and comprehensively constructed suburban tracts were developed within and beyond the city’s boundaries, therein reducing the attention on and level of investment in first-ring suburban neighborhoods, including University Heights.
Suburbanization progressively cut across lines of social and economic class extending to the working classes. To many Americans, especially after World War II, home ownership became equated with the attainment of middle-class status. The central motivation of suburbanization was the desire of Americans to own a single-family house in a semi-rural environment away from the city—what would become the American dream. The 1949 Housing Act further emboldened this objective and called for “a decent home and suitable living environment for every American family.” Advertisements around the city began to emphasize family values, quality of life, and the upward status mobility with suburban home ownership including for the community of Del Cerro which was advertised as offering a “real family center…
a kind of living that has been planned…for a family like yours.” This social status drive was so strong, it diminished any design efforts on innovative housing or apartment concepts that existed in the pre-WWII era.
Depression-era and post-WWII apartment buildings constructed according to FHA guidelines represented economy over aesthetics and were typically built in the Minimal Traditional style of architecture, set in a “tee,” “zee,” “ell” or U-shape, “strip” (rectilinear), “cross,” “offset cross” plan with limited Colonial Revival or Moderne detailing (Figure 18). These stucco-or-wood clad building types are discernible throughout University Heights, with some featuring terra cotta roofing, red concrete porches, exterior stairs, steel sash casement windows, and fixed wood shutters. Breaking from the lot development pattern of the 1920s, auto garages were incorporated into apartment buildings constructed between the 1930s-1950s, typically accessible from the rear or secondary facade. In the U-shaped properties, or a variation thereof, apartment buildings of the period were designed to include a central courtyard intended for communal recreation and outdoor space. Consistent with FHA guidelines, the courtyard was an integral feature, which helped to create an attractive open space that properly related to its associated apartment building. In University Heights, garden court apartment buildings signal a departure in massing, site plan arrangement, and architectural detailing traditionally employed in this historic single-family neighborhood, and along with flats, cottage and bungalow courts, demonstrate the evolution of housing types and architectural styles developed in the area.
The last phase in the evolution of historic-era housing in University Heights and the surrounding communities is represented by six-pack and dingbat apartment buildings, which in the San Diego area are most commonly attributed to builder Ray Huffman. Constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, this ubiquitous property type is characterized by a linear plan over two-stories, and contains approximately six-to-eight rental units with Minimal Traditional, Ranch, Contemporary, Post and Beam, Googie, or Futurist style facades. Designers and builders of these properties eliminated auto garages from the site and created limited auto parking in the front setback via a curb cut that extended between side yard setbacks, which thereby reduced on-street parking opportunities for area residents and visitors, altered sidewalk grades, and created a visual interruption in the otherwise harmonious neighborhood streetscape. The property type emerged in the early 1960s when “the market for apartments in San Diego wasn’t at all promising in 1962, ’63, and ’64. The boom of the Fifties had faded…and the apartment vacancy rate was hovering near ten percent. ” In the 1960s, Huffman’s buildings were designed exclusively by the Encinitas-based architectural firm Phillips, Barnicoat and O’Grady. The architects had a relationship with the builder through their mutual experience working for the J.H. Hedrick Company, an apartment homebuilding company based out of San Gabriel, California.
After working for the J.H. Hedrick Company for five years, Huffman established the Ray L. Huffman Construction Company, and partnered with real estate brokers Harry Robinson and Robert Casale to form C & R Realty, for the purposes of selling Huffman’s buildings. His first project was built at 4525 Texas Street on Block 52 of the University Heights tract. His company’s early and quick success was attributed to San Diego’s population increase and resultant housing shortage, which according to Huffman, was brought on by several factors: cold weather in the eastern United States, defense contracts being awarded to San Diego firms, the company’s aim to provide housing for working class individuals, and repetitious designs on standard size lots in established communities with desirable infrastructure and amenities. According to Huffman:
“When we started out we were aiming for the blue collar, the J.C. Penney, or Montgomery Ward, or Sears shopper, and I say that respectfully. We tried to house the mass, and from 1962 to the late 1960s, we did a pretty good job of it…We did most of our building – I’m guessing maybe 400 buildings – in Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, and North Park, as much as anything else because that was where the lion’s share of the areas zoned for high density apartments were. Those places have certain-size lots that were repetitious: 50 feet by 125 feet, 50 feet by 133, 50 feet by 140. And so we had anywhere from fifteen to twenty different apartment packages, with a front design that would fit on any one of them.”
In 1982, Architect Mort O’Grady described his firm’s design work on Huffman’s buildings, which in turn were emulated by local apartment developers:
“We tried to pick out themes of various architecture – French Provincial, Cape Cod, Spanish, Ranch – and build them with simple design and economy…The buildings had character. A typical package was eight or nine units on an alley. On your typical fifty-foot-wide lot, it was pretty much of a straight building with a small courtyard on the side. Two or three designs we used over and over. That was one thing that allowed Ray to keep his costs down – a lot of repetition.”
Many of these Huffman-built apartments included interior amenities that provided more value to the renter, some trendy like fold-down scales and hosiery bars in bathrooms and trash compactors in kitchens, and others that today are regarded as upgraded features, including stainless steel sinks, dishwashers, microwave ovens, and fireplaces.
“Very few apartment houses were built in the Seventies compared to what was built in Fifties and Sixties.” Inflation and increased building costs throughout Southern California brought an end to the construction of the smaller six-pack and dingbat apartment buildings. Higher costs equated to a need for higher rents, and a change in target audience for builders like Huffman and his peers. Additionally, in San Diego in the early 1970s, parking standards changed to require 1.5 spaces per dwelling unit and disallowing street parking in front of buildings, which contributed to the need to develop larger apartment complexes that could accommodate on-site parking garages and other amenities expected at higher rents.
Park Boulevard Residential Historic District
Between 1900 and 1910 the district was developed with 18 improvements ranging in value from $25 to $685, with the earliest improvements built on Block 246, at the southwest corner of Park Boulevard and Myrtle Avenue (Lots 1-3) in 1900, and on the west side of Indiana Street (Lots 21-23) in 1903, both owned by the San Diego Country Club (SDCC), the organization responsible for laying out the first golf course in Balboa Park. The SDCC built several clubhouses or associated improvements on Block 246, presumably the first on Lots 1-3 and 21-23. Located in close proximity, these lots had improvements valued at $150 and $500 respectively. In this early period, the highest value improvement was recorded in 1908 on Block 241 Lots 15-16, owned by John W. Emerson. San Diego City Directories disclose that Mr. Emerson was a partner in The Craftsman Workshops, a local wood working company with a space at 320 6th Street. Mr. Emerson’s residence remained in place through 1957 when it was replaced by the existing Contemporary style apartment building at 3704 Park Boulevard. Emerson’s neighbor to the north, Charles Sproule on Lots 17-18, also built a home in 1908, a Craftsman style dwelling that is extant with good integrity. Addressed as 3712 Park Boulevard, this property is the earliest extant single-family dwelling in the district (Figure 19). The district was not delineated on the 1906 Sanborn Fire Insurance survey (Figure 20).
Approximately 93 improvements were completed in the district in the 1911-1929 period. A variety of factors contributed to these improvements, including: the installation of streetcar lines, with stops at University Avenue and Park Boulevard, and on Indiana Street in 1917; the anticipation and success of the 1915 Exposition in Balboa Park, population increases and the need for affordable housing; the City’s first zoning regulation that designated the district as a “B” zone in 1923; and designation of Park Boulevard as a portion of US Route 80. The 1911-1929 timeframe represents the most significant period of growth in the district. The earliest improvement in this period, again was completed by the SDCC, a $2,115 building located at the northwest corner of Upas and Indiana Streets (Figure 22). The SDCC’s occupation of the building, however, was short-lived. The 1915 Exposition required closure and grading over of the SDCC golf course in June 1913. The organization formally vacated its locale within the district, sold its clubhouse, and moved to a new course built in Pt. Loma by A.B. Spalding.
By 1921, when the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company initially surveyed the area (Figure 22), lots within the district were improved with 39 single-family dwellings, one multi-family residential building, and one non-residential building. This count was dispersed to include:
>> One multi-family building fronting the east side of Park Boulevard (a four-unit flat on Block 247);
>> 11 single-family dwellings fronting the east side of Park Boulevard (one on Block 246, two on Block 247, and eight on Block 248);
>> Nine single-family dwellings fronting the west side of Park Boulevard (two on Block 244, three on Block 242, and four on Block 241);
>> 19 single-family dwellings fronting the west side of Indiana Street (eight on Block 248 and 11 on Block 247); and
>> One commercial-use building fronting the north side of Upas Street (on Block 246), the San Diego Conservatory of Music. Providing musical education for the city’s youth, the San Diego Conservatory of Music moved into the two-story former SDCC clubhouse at 1740 Upas Street in August 1920.
The four-unit flat on Block 247, at 3611 Park Boulevard, is the earliest extant multi-family residential building constructed within the district in the 1911-1929 period. Designed in a Prairie style with an observable Mission Revival influence, the building was constructed in 1921 by Edward F. Bryans for property owners Nat and Ella Sebastian. The 3611 Park Boulevard property established the precedent for multi-family buildings along Park Boulevard. By October 1921, the Sebastians sold 3611 Park Boulevard and commissioned Bryans to construct two additional four-flat two-story multi-family buildings: one at 354 |
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| References: |
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Gottfried, Herbert and Jan Jennings. American Vernacular Buildings and Interiors 1870-1960 (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, London) 2009.
Groth, Paul. Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States (Berkeley, University of California Press) 1994.
French, Hilary. Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century (New York, W.W. Norton & Company) 2008.
McAlester, Virginia and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses (New York, Alfred A. Knopf) 1997.
Polyzoides, Stefanos, Roger Sherwood, James Tice, and Julius Shulman. Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles: A Typological Analysis (Berkeley, University of California Press) 1982.
Sutro, Dirk. San Diego Architecture – From missions to modern: a guide to the buildings, planning, people and spaces that shape the region (San Diego, San Diego Architectural Foundation) 2002.
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| Evaluator: |
Kelley Stanco
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Date of Evaluation: |
07/12/2018
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| Affiliation and Address: |
City of San Diego Planning Department -
1010 Second Avenue MS 413 San Diego, CA 92101
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