Mission Hills is a neighborhood in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California, United States. It is located on hills just south of the

San Diego River The San Diego River is a 52 mi (84 km) river in San Diego County, California. It originates in the Cuyamaca Mountains northwest of the town of Julian, then flows to the southwest until it reaches El Capitan Reservoir, the second-largest reservo ...

valley and north of

downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the central business district of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. It houses the major local headquarters of the city, county, state, and federal governments. The area comprises seven d ...

and

San Diego International Airport San Diego International Airport is the primary international airport serving San Diego and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. The airport is located northwest of downtown San Diego. It is the busiest single- ...

, overlooking downtown,

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

, and

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port in San Diego County, California, near the Mexico–United States border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of ...

. The area is primarily residential, with boutique shops and restaurants along Washington Street, in the West Lewis Shopping District, and in other clusters. The oldest parts of the neighborhood were subdivided according to George Marston's 1908 plan, and still consist mainly of houses from the 1908–1930 period, in

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

Craftsman Craftsman may refer to: A profession *Artisan, a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative *Master craftsman, an artisan who has achieved such a standard that he may establish his own workshop and take o ...

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped i ...

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

and other styles.

Location

The City of San Diego defines two areas, North Mission Hills and South Mission Hills with Washington Street as the dividing line. ity of San Diego, "Uptown Historic Context and Oral History Report" https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/planning/programs/historical/pdf/section34.pdf/ref> North Mission Hills is the area north of Washington Street and: * East of Old Town * West of Dove Street and Hillcrest *South of

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the City of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Mi ...

South Mission Hills is the area comprising historic subdivisions such as Middletown, Middletown Addition, South Florence Heights, Marine View, C.E Seaman, Osborn Hill and others, south of Washington Street and: * East of India Street and Middletown * North of Palm Street * West of Reynard Way and Dove Street Mission Hills shares the 92103 zip code with Hillcrest and is part of San Diego's Uptown community planning area.

History

The area was developed in the early 20th century and most of the houses are still from that era, often carefully preserved and restored. Homes there were also often designed by San Diego's noted architects including William Hebbard, William Templeton Johnson, Emmor Brooke Weaver, Nathan Rigdon,

Richard Requa Richard Smith Requa (March 27, 1881 – June 10, 1941) was an American architect, largely known for his work in San Diego, California. Requa was the Master Architect for the California Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park in 1935� ...

, and Joel E. Brown. Master Builders such as the Pacific Building Company, Morris B. Irvin, and Martin V. Melhorn contributed by building in the

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range a ...

. From 1910 till 1939, Mission Hills was connected by the Class 1 streetcars to the city by the

San Diego Electric Railway The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in San Diego County, California, United States. The system utilized 600 volt direct current streetcars and (in later years) buses. The SDERy was established by sugar heir and la ...

's line 3, the Fort Stockton line, and the neighborhood bears its influence with classic

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

development including small clusters of commercial buildings where the streetcar stops once were. The original historic neighborhood commercial district is around Washington and Goldfinch streets, two buildings (the 1913

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

style Ace Drugstore and the 1929

Spanish Colonial Revival style The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of Revivalism (architecture), revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish archi ...

Funcheon Building) in which have been renovated as the "Paseo de Mission Hills" complex incorporating a historic "Mission Hills" sign. Modern homes were built along canyon rims as infill during the 1950s and 1960s by modern masters such as Lloyd Ruocco, Homer Delawie,

John Lloyd Wright John Lloyd Wright (December 12, 1892 – December 20, 1972) was an American architect and toy inventor. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Wright was the second-oldest son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. John Lloyd Wright became estranged from his fath ...

and Sim Bruce Richards, among others. Ironically, San Diego's most famous architect,

Irving Gill Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect, known professionally as Irving J. Gill. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the ...

, never built in Mission Hills, as by the time this area was being developed he was mainly working in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. The famous

horticulturalist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

Kate Sessions Katherine Olivia Sessions (November 8, 1857 – March 24, 1940) was an American botanist, horticulturalist, and landscape architect closely associated with San Diego, California. She is known as the "Mother of Balboa Park (San Diego), Balboa Park ...

helped to influence development in Mission Hills. She founded the Mission Hills Nursery, which is still an active business (since 1910).

Streets

The main business streets are University Ave. and Washington St. Other major streets are Ft. Stockton Dr. and Sunset Blvd. Many cross streets ranging north to south are named for birds in alphabetical order from Albatross to Lark. Streetcar rail tracks were built along the main thoroughfares of the neighborhood, such as Fort Stockton Drive.

Architecture and Historic Districts

Mission Hills contains two historic districts recognized by the City of San Diego:
Fort Stockton Line Historic District

Parks and culture

Pioneer Park and Mission Hills Park serve as two recreational parks within the neighborhood. In January 2019, the

San Diego Public Library The San Diego Public Library is a public library system serving San Diego, California. History The San Diego Public Library was established on May 19, 1882, by an elected board of library trustees, one of whom was civic leader and philant ...

opened the new 14,000-square-foot, Craftsman-style Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Harley & Bessie Knox Library at Washington and Front streets in Hillcrest. This replaced the former Mission Hills/Hillcrest Branch at Washington and Hawk streets. Two of the neighborhood's many canyons are open to the public for hiking: Robyn's Egg Trail and the Allen Road Canyon Trail.

Education

Public schools in Mission Hills are part of

San Diego Unified School District San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is a public school district based in San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 ...

. The public elementary school is Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School, which has grades K-8. Since there is no public high school in the neighborhood, students are given the choice of attending

Point Loma High School Point Loma High School is a public high school in San Diego, California, United States. It is part of San Diego Unified School District. The school is located in the Loma Portal neighborhood of Point Loma. The school serves the neighborhood ...

San Diego High School San Diego High School (SDHS) is an urban public high school located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, San Diego, California, Balboa Park in San Diego, California, United States. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School Dist ...

. Several private and religious schools are located in Mission Hills. The best known is the lower school campus of the private Francis Parker School, founded in 1912. This school was run on progressive ideals by William Templeton Johnson and his wife, Clara. Mr. Johnson designed the original school building and his wife ran the school.

References

External links

OurMissionHills.com

MyMissionHillsNews

Uptown Community Profile, city of San Diego

MissionHillsLife.com
{{Historic Districts in San Diego County Neighborhoods in San Diego Historic districts in San Diego Urban communities in San Diego Streetcar suburbs