UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS
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Once a tourist magnet because of its botanical garden, ostrich farm and silk mill, University Heights has seen its fortunes rise and fall – and rise again – since it was officially recorded as a subdivision in county records in 1888.
One of San Diego's oldest neighborhoods, University Heights celebrates its 120th birthday tomorrow with a party – complete with cake, ice cream, music and historical displays – at Trolley Barn Park on Adams Avenue.
These days, a stroll along Park Boulevard south of Adams Avenue, the community's commercial heart, reveals upscale restaurants, cafés, a playhouse and a neon sign stretching over the traffic lanes, decorated with a signature red streetcar.
It wasn't always this way.
When Nan McGraw, one of the founders of the University Heights Community Association, moved to the neighborhood in the 1980s, “Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue was a dead zone. There were five sleazy bars and no pedestrian activity.”
Through the efforts of residents and city officials, the area has undergone a renaissance, McGraw said. “It's kind of a Cinderella story for us.”
The fight that galvanized the community occurred over a vacant lot on Adams Avenue, near Florida Street. A local couple, Eric and Janice Duvall, circulated a newsletter to let people know about plans to build high-density housing on the parcel.
“The city wanted housing and the community wanted a park, and the community won,” said Ernestine Bonn, a neighborhood activist who is treasurer of the nonprofit University Heights Community Development Corp. “That was the trigger, the tipping point, you might say,” to launch a grass-roots community association that is still active 24 years later.
Along with the park, which is named for the building where electric streetcars were stored until the late 1940s, and the neon community sign, residents have fought for rebuilding the Vermont Street pedestrian bridge over Washington Street, and securing historic designations for several buildings. One of the most prominent is the 1910 teachers training building, which sits on the campus of the San Diego Unified School District administration center on Normal Street.
Bonn said residents hope the building can be used as a community library one day, replacing the cramped branch across the street.
University Heights, which is roughly bordered by state Route 163 on the west, the rim of Mission Valley on the north, Texas Street to the east and Lincoln Avenue to the south, has a population of about 23,000, and a mix of young families and older residents, newcomers and old-timers, students and professionals.
The community's history stretches back to the 1880s, when a group of developers proposed building a new neighborhood around a branch of what would later become the University of Southern California, which was to be called the San Diego College of Arts.
The fledgling neighborhood took its name from both the campus and its commanding view over Mission Valley to the north. But the school was never built.
A decade later, a state teachers college was built on the site of what is now the city schools headquarters. The teachers college later moved to Montezuma Mesa, where it grew into San Diego State University.
In the early 1900s, University Heights was considered a “streetcar suburb,” thanks to a streetcar line that ran up Park Boulevard. Along with taking residents to their jobs downtown, the trolley also carried tourists to Mission Cliff Gardens, a botanical reserve perched on the canyon rim. A covered pavilion offered sweeping views of the valley.
Next door was the Bentley Ostrich Farm, where visitors could look at – and even ride – the birds. The farm was also a source of ostrich feathers, which were popular at the time on women's hats. Across the street was a silk mill, which sold scarves and neckties.
Kristin Harms, chairwoman of the University Heights Historical Society, updated and expanded a guide for a historic walking tour covering 27 landmarks, homes and commercial buildings.
Dearest to her heart, Harms said, was helping to save an 80-year-old “log cabin house” on North Avenue near her home. Although the house had fallen into disrepair under a previous owner, it has recently been purchased by a man who plans to restore it, she said.
Many in the community want to preserve such homes because of their importance to the history of San Diego, Harms said.
Greg Sorini, the community association's president, moved to University Heights from Rancho Peñasquitos about seven years ago, and now lives with his family in a house built in 1922. Sorini said he loves seeing people riding bikes, walking their dogs, or pushing strollers.
“Here it's very much a walking neighborhood,” he said. “It's much more of an interactive community.”
Joe Tash is a freelance writer.
