Mission Hills | Neighborhood Spotlight

What's up guys! Today we are in Mission Hills, San Diego. One of my favorite neighborhoods, just South of Mission Valley, the San Diego River Valley, and just North of Downtown. Just an awesome little neighborhood. So as many of you know, I'm from San Diego, but I've lived in Los Angeles a large portion of my life, and I worked in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. So when I was coming back to San Diego, I was driving through Mission Hills, I was like, this reminds me so much of Hollywood’s slender streets carved into the hillsides. They even have a bird street section of Mission Hills here, just like they do in the Hollywood Hills (90069 Zip code). They even have Sunset Boulevard, just like Hollywood, with Palm trees even lining the street, it’s pretty cool.

So some quick history on Mission Hills, on February 2nd, 1869, Captain Henry James Johnston bought the land that would eventually make up Mission Hills. He was a Steamship Captain of the SS Orizaba which was actually kind of like the West Coast Mayflower, because of how responsible it was for driving so many people from San Francisco to San Diego. So he would pull into the Bay and look up at this hill and he was like, I'm going to buy that one day. And he eventually did. So real quickly, what do you think he bought the 65 acres for? Let's wait, let's wait, let's wait, let's wait….. $16.25. Literally 25 cents an acre. He immediately realized that was too much for his one home so he sold half of the land to his first mate Ormsby Hite for $7.50. So Ormsby you got a deal too, just pretty cool.

Unfortunately the captain never came to Mission Hills. He bought the land and left it to his wife Ellen, who also never came to Mission Hills. She left it to their daughter, Sarah Johnston Cox-Miller, who built the first home, Villa Orizaba after her father. She used some of the steam ships own pieces in the build, including the banister that's in the home, and is still there today. So Sarah Johnson Cox-Miller's son, Henry Leverett Miller filed to change the subdivision name from Johnston Heights to inspiration Heights in 1909. He changed the main street from Johnston Road to Sunset Boulevard and lined it with Palm trees.

There's over 174 homes that are in the historic district of Mission Hills and they're looking to continue to advance it. Mission Hills actually has a really eclectic architecture as well. Sometimes you'll go into a specific neighborhood and it's very focused on a particular time period. Maybe it's mid-century, but here there's Bungalows, there's Prairie style homes, there's Spanish revival, there's Mission Revival, there's Craftsmen, there's Colonial Revivals and there's Mid-Centuries.

There's a home I'm going to show you here in a few other than Villa Orizaba, that's my favorite house in Mission Hills, and one of my favorite homes in San Diego. It’s designed by famed architect, Lloyd Rouocco, one of my personal favorite architects. Villa Orizaba, originally built in 1887, then moved in 1908, when, again, Henry Leverett Miller, (who wasn't as big of a fan of the home) moved it and remodeled it, and it's since been remodeled again. This is so cool because this is exactly what Captain Johnston was thinking about. So it's the mid 1800's, the Orizaba's right there pulling into the Bay. He's looking up on the Hill at the top of the Promontory and he's like, that's where I'm going to build my house. He didn't do it. His wife didn't do it, but his daughter did. And then his grandson moved it there. So just, I dunno, I'm geeked out about it, but I think it's super cool.

So another pioneer in the Mission Hills area is Kate Sessions. And you may have heard that name before because she's often referred to as the Mother of Balboa Park, which is just down the street as well. In addition to planning the majority of the vegetation at Balboa Park also started the Mission Hills Nursery here. That's still here today. It's said to have started in 1910, but many think it started a few years prior. So now we're going to go check out the Lloyd Ruocco designed home that I mentioned earlier, my favorite house in Mission Hills and one of my favorite homes in San Diego in general. It's on Puterbaugh. You'll see here at the end of the cul-de-sac the Keller residence built in 1947, it's 3,300 feet, lot size, a little over 8,700 square feet, backdrop is Point Loma, the Bay, the Ocean. Mid-century modern masterpiece, again, designed by Lloyd Ruocco, my favorite home in the neighborhood. Quite possibly my favorite home in San Diego. Just beautiful.

Let me know what neighborhood I should feature next! If you ever have any questions or want to know more about real estate in the San Diego area, text me, call me, (858) 232-6383. You can also email me at axe@realestatewithaxe.com