North Park: Life in a wonderful metropolitan community

North Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods in San Diego, and has gone through much change through the years. This uniquely San Diego enclave sits at the north end of Balboa Park and borders Hillcrest to the west, University and Normal Heights to the north, City Heights to the east and South Park to the south. We now know North Park as a unique and vibrant metropolitan community, but most of us do not know the history of it.

In the summer of 1893, San Diego merchant Joseph Nash sold 40 acres of land northeast of Balboa Park to James Monroe Hartley, who wanted to develop it as a lemon grove. The Hartley family began the process of clearing the land to prepare the earth for the grove. But providing the trees with water was always a problem. Barrels of water had to be hauled from downtown San Diego up a wagon trail, which is now known as Pershing Drive. This was a very difficult task, even by the standards of that time.

As the growth of San Diego eventually caught up with the Hartley lemon grove, it became roughly bordered by Ray Street to the west, 32nd Street to the east, University Avenue to the north and Dwight Street to the south. Hartley deemed his area Hartley’s North Park, and years later the name evidently stuck as the City of San Diego referred to the new suburb as North Park.

In 1911, Hartley’s eldest son, Jack, and a brother-in-law, William Jay Stevens, developed the plot into one of San Diego’s first residential and commercial districts. After establishing Stevens & Hartley, North Park’s first real estate firm in 1905, Jack and William built North Park’s first high rise commercial building in 1912 This was the Stevens building, on the northwest corner of 30th Street and University Avenue, which today is the Western Dental building. 30th and University became North Park’s symbolic place name, and within 10 years this became the heart of the community.

Later in the 1910s, North Park became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars. The San Diego Class 1 streetcars were a fleet of twenty-four unique streetcars that were originally built to provide transportation for the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. The cars were designed by the San Diego Electric Railway Company under the leadership of John D. Spreckels and were built by the St. Louis Car Company. These cars took the best elements from preceding models and integrated them into a new, modern streetcar design. These streetcars went on to serve the many neighborhoods of San Diego until they were retired in 1939.

While most of them were destroyed over the years, three remaining Class 1 streetcars were saved in 1996 by a San Diego antique dealer and collector. They have since been designated San Diego Historic Landmarks and have been adequately preserved.

Although North Park is a neighborhood of mixed architectural styles from many eras, one area of note is the Morley Field part of North Park. Named for its proximity to Balboa Park’s Morley Field sports complex, this area is lined with many Spanish and turn-of-the-century Craftsman and California bungalows. Because many of the homes were designed by renowned designer and builder David Owen Dryden, the area is the site of the Dryden Historic District. This historical district includes the homes along 28th and Pershing Streets, both bordered on the south by Upas Street and to the north by Landis Street.

Like much of San Diego, starting in the late 1990s and into the late 2000s North Park has been significantly revitalized. This effort has continued to the present with several new renovations and new establishments currently underway. North Park today is a vibrant and desirable metropolitan neighborhood that has its own art district, dozens of restaurants, coffee shops, cafes and the great walk-ability that everyone wants when looking for a place to live.

If you are looking for a wonderful metropolitan community to live in, North Park is a place to consider. In fact, housing prices are still significantly down from four years ago and interest rates are historically low. If you are currently renting, you owe it to yourself to look into buying a place of your own, particularly since it continues to be a buyer’s market.

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