Historic Homes of University Heights: Jennie Alberta Wales House

1086 Hayes Avenue

Founded in 1888, University is one of San Diego’s oldest communities with a fascinating past full of colorful people, amazing places, and beautiful architecture.

One such architectural gem is the Queen Anne Free Classic style home at 1086 Hayes Avenue in University Heights built in 1908. Historically designated by the City of San Diego Historic Resources Board on May 26, 2022, the house features a hipped roof with lower cross gable roof form, horizontal wood siding, cross gabled pediment with decorative vent, projecting bay windows, asymmetrical façade, partial-width front porch with a classical column, simple decorative wood frieze, and original wood fenestration.

The Queen Anne style of architecture was a late Victorian style popular in America from about 1880 to 1910 and borrowed heavily from late Medieval English precedents. The style sought to minimize smooth-walled appearances, and was typically characterized by steeply pitched irregular roofs, dominant front-facing gables, patterned shingles, bay windows, and asymmetrical façades with full or partial-width porches. Among the four principal subtypes of the style, Queen Anne Free Classic generally represents an early 20th century transition from traditional Queen Anne to Colonial Revival.

Historic designation offers homeowners many benefits including eligibility for significant property tax reductions through the Mills Act. For more information about how to nominate your home for historic designation by the City of San Diego, please visit City of San Diego’s Historical Resources and Regulations. The University Heights Historical Society also offers information on How to Research Your Home and a Guide to Researching and Historically Designating Your Property, featuring a one-hour recorded webinar and slide deck with detailed, step-by-step information presented by Senior Archaeologist/Historian Doug Mengers with PanGIS, Inc.