Happy 133rd Birthday, University Heights!
Proposed San Diego College of Arts and Letters in University Heights, circa 1888
There are many reasons to love University Heights including its convenient location, strong sense of community, and significant history. At 133 years old, University Heights is one of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods and home to the former Mission Cliff Gardens, Bentley’s Ostrich Farm, San Diego Silk Mill, Adams Avenue Carbarn, the first reservoir for the city’s municipal water system, and the San Diego Normal School, forerunner to San Diego State University.
The history of University Heights began in 1885, after completion of the Santa Fe transcontinental railroad which spurred San Diego’s first period of large–scale urbanization. In 1887, a large tract of land overlooking Mission Valley was subdivided by the College Hill Land Association, a syndicate of businessmen owning land in the proposed subdivision. The syndicate promised prospective buyers that a branch college of the University of Southern California would be located in University Heights.
On August 6, 1888, Subdivision Map #558 was filed with the San Diego County Recorder, delineating the University Heights subdivision. However, the proposed San Diego College of the Arts was never built as the real estate boom suddenly burst in 1889.
Almost ten years later in 1898, the site of the aborted college was donated to the State of California to build a “Normal School,” a state-sponsored teacher-training college. The Normal School operated on Normal Street in University Heights for over thirty years. In 1925, the Normal School was granted college status and, in 1931, was relocated to its present site on Montezuma Mesa.
Also in 1898, John D. Spreckels, son of famous “Sugar King” Claus Spreckels, purchased Mission Cliff Gardens in University Heights from the San Diego Cable Railway and developed it into a botanical garden, which encompassed some 38 acres at its height in 1914. In 1904, Spreckels invited Harvey Bentley to relocate his ostrich farm from Coronado to Mission Cliff Gardens, across the street from Sam Hilton’s San Diego Silk Mill.
University Heights did not really start to develop until 1907, when the San Diego Electric Railway was extended east on Adams Avenue past Park Blvd. In 1913, a massive trolley car barn was built on the property adjoining the ostrich farm and was used to store and perform minor service on several hundred trolleys.
In 1910, the City of San Diego announced the proposed Panama-California Exposition to be held in Balboa Park in 1915. This caused a large-scale increase in home, hotel, and apartment construction in University Heights, as well as construction of a streetcar line along Park Blvd. to Balboa Park.
Due to the popularity of Balboa Park after the 1915 Panama-California International Exposition, and the development of Mission Beach by Spreckels in the 1920s, the popularity of Mission Cliff Gardens declined. Mission Cliff Gardens was closed in 1930 after the death of Spreckels in 1926. In 1942, the property was developed by the Spreckels interests to provide critically needed wartime housing.
Several vestiges of Mission Cliff Gardens survive and have been historically designated through the efforts of the University Heights Historical Society. These include the former entrance to Mission Cliff Gardens on Adams Avenue at the end of North Avenue, the cobblestone wall that along Adams Avenue from Park Boulevard west to its dead end, the cobblestone wall surrounding the former lily pond on Mission Cliff Drive at North Court, built by John Davidson and his workers, and the former entrance to the Ostrich Farm at Park and Adams.
If you would like to support preservation and education about our significant history in University Heights, please join the University Heights Historical Society and receive a free copy of one of our self-guided walking tours: Historic Churches in University Heights, Historic Normal School Site, or Valle Vista Terrace Historic District.
For more information about our community’s early history, continue reading here.