A quick history of San Diego’s architecture

San Diego is considered to be one of the oldest cities in California. It was officially founded around the mid 1700s and has a rich history.

As a result, we have many neighborhoods that have beautiful old homes, in addition to the “newer” homes that were built in the last sixty years. Although you may pass by these homes on a regular basis, you may not know much about the styles of them.

Before the 1800s the indigenous people in San Diego did not create much lasting architecture. It was not until the 1800s that more substantial structures and homes were built. But from that point on, there were different styles of homes built over the decades, which you will find all over San Diego. Listed below are some of the types of architecture found in San Diego today.

Victorian

The Victorian era of architecture became popular around the 1840s. These homes were often built as relatively simple structures initially, then after they were complete, the ornate features were added to them to create the Victorian style of home. You can see Victorian homes throughout the older communities of San Diego, like in Old Town, downtown and all over the county. By the end of the 1800s, the Victorian style of home went out of fashion and was no longer being built. A newer style of home known as the “craftsman” started to become popular.

Craftsman

The craftsman home, or the arts and craft style home, began at the end of the 19th century. It became very popular after the turn of the century as a more common style of home to build. This is the style of home that typically has the thick panels of woodwork around the doors and windows, and has the large beautiful front porch with artistic pillars.

These homes can be seen in all the old neighborhoods like Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Kensington, Bankers Hill, University Heights, North Park, Normal Heights and throughout San Diego.

The craftsman style home became so popular that Sears Roebuck and Company used to sell a prefabricated craftsman style home in their catalogues back in the 1920s and the 1930s. They had different styles of craftsman homes ranging from about $3,000 to $5,000. You could just order your craftsman home and have it delivered to your lot where you wanted to have it erected.

You would never know it, but there are thousands of these home in different cities scattered all over the United States. But the craftsman home was not the only popular type of home during this era.

Spanish

The Spanish style home seems to always be one of the favorite styles of home for most people. This style and the name originate from Spain. These homes are very distinct with their terracotta tile roofs, smooth exterior stucco wall finish and picture windows. They are also scattered all over San Diego County.

In fact, the Spanish style home is so popular that many new developments over the last decades have replicated it. You can find this style in all of the newer developments and neighborhoods.

They often have some variations to them, but they are derived from the original beautiful Spanish style architecture.

Mid-Century

Starting in the 1940s and into the 1950s, styles of homes started to dramatically change. The craftsman and Spanish style homes were no longer being built. Instead, there was the need to build a lot of homes to meet the demand of the growing population. The mid-century style and what people like to call the ’50s style home started to be built all over the country.

This type of building is very square and is sometimes referred to as a “box” style home, which is not as glamorous sounding as “mid-century”. In any event, this was a much more basic cube-like design, which became very popular for the next few decades.

You can see this style of home in Linda Vista, Clairemont, Allied Gardens, the College area and all over San Diego County.

This was particularly desirable to builders because it was a much more cost-effective type of home to build. The older craftsman and Spanish style homes had much more detail, which required more labor and materials. So throughout the 1950s and the 1960s with the construction boom, builders could build more homes at a faster pace and in a more cost effective manner.

There are of course many other styles of homes, such as Cape Cod, Greek Revival, Colonial, Mediterranean and Tudor, just to name a few. The last few decades has brought a variety of construction styles, which often integrates these different classic styles of architecture. The next time you are driving in a neighborhood take the time to notice and appreciate the different types of homes and their architecture.

Trent St. Louis is a licensed Real Estate Agent and a member of the National, California and San Diego Association of Realtors. He can be reached at trent@tns.net or at his office in Hillcrest, The Metropolitan Group. DRE#01273643.