Shelltown is a neighborhood located within

Southeast San Diego Southeast San Diego refers to the southeastern portion of the City of San Diego (excluding South San Diego) and the neighborhoods south of State Route 94 ( Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway) and east of Downtown San Diego. There are three official ...

, approximately 5 minutes from downtown San Diego by car and 25 minutes by bicycle. It is bordered by National City on the south,

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

and

Barrio Logan Barrio Logan is a neighborhood in south central San Diego, California. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of East Village and Logan Heights to the north, Shelltown and Southcrest to the east, San Diego Bay to the southwest, and National Cit ...

on the west, 43rd Avenue (a continuation of Highland Avenue) on the east, and Gamma Court and the neighborhood of Southcrest on the north. Prior to the 1980s the northern border of Shelltown was National Ave and many residents still consider that the northern border. Due to the predominance of shells in the sandy soil, the neighborhood became known as "Shelltown." Located on a plateau just north and east of the 32nd Street Naval Station, Shelltown was a favorite location of housing for many of the early naval officers. Their ships were visible from their homes and were only moments away in the event they were called to duty The majority of Shelltown consists of residential homes built between 1920 and 1969. The

Naval Base San Diego Naval Base San Diego, also known as 32nd Street Naval Station, is the second largest surface ship base of the United States Navy and is located in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, cons ...

, an industrial park, and some commercial buildings are located just outside the western border of Shelltown along Main Street.

Mexican Americans Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

have a long history in the area and began living in the area as early as the 1910s. With the great influx of Filipino immigrants joining the United States Navy, especially from the Vietnam War era on to the 1990s, many Filipinos inhabited the Southeast San Diego neighborhoods of

Alta Vista AltaVista was a Web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

, Bay Terraces, Paradise Hills, Shelltown, Skyline Hills, and Valencia Park, both for the relatively affordable housing prices and its close proximity to Naval Base San Diego. Shelltown/Southcrest contains a large mural, which is one of three by several artists that were done near three

neighborhood entrances. Local activist and muralist Mario Torero was the lead artist for the Alpha Street piece. San Diego’s Southcrest Trails Park is located just north of the Shelltown neighborhood within the Chollas Creek floodplain, part of the smallest watershed in San Diego and containing the highest population density. The Park itself is located south of Boston Avenue and west of South 38th Street. The park was scheduled to be completed in December 2012 An upgrade to the park was started in March 2017 and was completed on Spring of 2018.

Schools

* Balboa Elementary School Balboa Elementary School was recognized as one of six nationwide winners of the 2007

Intel Schools of Distinction Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

awards, for excellence in math education in an elementary school program.Fabiano, Giovanna
"Bergen Academies wins national math award"
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...

'', June 16, 2007. Accessed June 16, 2007.

Transportation

The area is served by the

San Diego Trolley The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...

Blue Line at the Pacific Fleet station and the Route 929 bus via Main Street. The neighborhood also has quick access to Interstate 5, Interstate 15, and

Interstate 805 Interstate 805 (I-805) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running roughly through the center of the Greater San Diego region from San Ysidro (part of the c ...

References

{{Neighborhoods of San Diego Neighborhoods in San Diego Urban communities in San Diego