Mission Cliff Gardens: Jewel of University Heights
Looking south from Mission Cliff Gardens up North Avenue to the old Normal School
After University Heights was subdivided in 1888 and lots were put up for sale, the real estate boom suddenly burst in San Diego in 1889, and the city’s population dropped from 40,000 to 16,000. In an effort to attract riders to the largely barren community, successive cable car companies developed the park land at the end of the rail line at Park and Adams in University Heights.
In 1890, the San Diego Cable Car Company developed a five-acre park known as The Bluffs as well as an attractive pavilion designed by William S. Hebbard. When the San Diego Cable Car Company went out of business only 13 months later, the Citizens Traction Company bought it the and renamed The Bluffs as Mission Cliff Park.
The Pavilion at Mission Cliff Gardens
The Bluffs became the place to go on Sunday afternoons with a merry-go-round, children's playground, and a shooting gallery. Dancing parties were held in the pavilion as well vaudeville acts and theatrical productions, including the first San Diego outdoor production of William Shakespeare's As You Like It in 1897. However, in 1898, the Citizen Traction’s Company also went into receivership at the height of a nationwide depression.
In the late 1880s, John D. Spreckels, son of wealthy "Sugar King" Claus Spreckels, began investing in San Diego’s infrastructure. In 1891, he formed the San Diego Electric Railway, bought and consolidated several of San Diego’s failed or failing transportation lines, including the Citizen’s Traction Company, and began a process of massive expansion.
After purchasing the Citizens Traction Company in 1898, the San Diego Electric Railway Company renamed Mission Cliff Park to Mission Cliff Gardens. John Spreckels wished to showcase the area as a botanical garden, which encompassed some 38 acres at its height in 1914.
In 1904, Spreckels selected Scottish-born landscape gardener John Davidson as the park's superintendent and asked him to redesign the park into a botanical wonder. Under Davidson, the once nearly barren park blossomed into a beautiful botanical garden. It was not long before annual flower shows drew thousands of tourists from all over the state.
Davidson built a miniature Japanese Garden, a walk-in bird aviary, and view pergolas or shelters along the rim to provide views to pastoral Mission Valley below. Dances and entertainment were held in the Pavilion. Sunday picnics at Mission Cliff Gardens became a great favorite with hundreds of San Diegans as well as annual gatherings and picnics held by clubs and societies.
Japanese Garden at Mission Cliff Gardens
King Gillette, famous for his razor business, donated many rare birds to the aviary so that by 1915, the Aviary contained one of the largest and most varied collections of birds in the country.
In 1915 the Spreckels brothers donated a beautiful outdoor organ pavilion to the people of San Diego for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The organ was originally intended for Mission Cliff Gardens but was sent instead to Balboa Park instead.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the University Heights Historical Society, the remaining vestiges of the park have been historically designated, including:
The former entrance to Mission Cliff Gardens on Adams Avenue at the end of North Avenue, including the redwood gate, and some of the palm trees.
The cobblestone wall that lines Adams Avenue from Park Boulevard to its dead end. This impressive cobblestone wall is over 700 feet long with 35, six-foot high masonry piers and is arguably the longest, freestanding cobblestone masonry wall in San Diego.
The cobblestone wall surrounding the former lily pond on Mission Cliff Drive at North Court, built by John Davidson and his workers. The former pavilion designed by William Hebbard stood just north of the pond.
The former entrance to the Ostrich Farm at Park and Adams, including the redwood gate and the cobblestone piers.
The cobblestone remains of a drinking fountain, which was once part of an ornate waiting station for the Number 11 trolley.
Please consider a donation to the University Heights Historical Society to help us continue our work preserving the significant history of University Heights.