by Ron James
SDUN Editor-in-Chief
There are many things Uptown residents have in common, but two that stand out are their love of community and their interest in its history. Uptown’s historic homes and neighborhoods inspire a connective bond to the visionary pioneers of our city and its neighborhoods.
The Sixth Annual Mission Hills Heritage Historic Home Tour on Sat., April 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. is an opportunity to visit homes we have only admired from a distance, sometimes not realizing their owners over the years may have been significant figures in our history.
The home tour also gives us a chance to get up close and personal with the work of some famous architects of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This year’s tour features two important but little-known Mission Hills subdivisions: Avalon Heights and the Arnold & Choates Addition.
Subdivided in the early 20th century, Avalon Heights in north Mission Hills is a secluded enclave overlooking Mission Valley. Here, many of the community’s most exclusive custom homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s with spectacular views of the bucolic farmland and meandering San Diego River below.
The Arnold & Choates Addition was recorded in November 1872 by attorney and developer Cyrus Arnold and businessman Daniel Choate. This tract stretches from Brant Street on the east to Randolph Street on the west, and from just south of University Avenue to the ridge overlooking Mission Valley. Kate Sessions saw the opportunity in the new tract and purchased blocks of land there in 1903.
The highlight on this year’s tour is the grand 1907 Prairie-style home of an important early resident of Mission Hills, Judge William A. Sloanee. Sloanee was a lawyer and journalist in his early career. He and his wife, Annie, moved to San Diego in 1886 and he opened a law practice here. In 1889 he was elected justice of the city court and eventually worked his way up to the California Supreme Court. Both Sloane and his wife were active in local women’s suffrage and temperance movements.
For the first time in the tour’s history, a public building, the Mission Hills United Church of Christ on Jackdaw Street, will be included. The first chapel on this site was built in 1910 at the urging of Sloane and early San Diego visionary George Marston. The first church soon was inadequate for the growing congregation. The present Mission-style church was built in 1920, and designed by Louis Gill, nephew to noted architect Irving Gill.
Besides the Sloane home, the privately-owned homes on the tour include a second elegant, Prairie-style home with neo-classical detailing built by Master Builder David Owen Dryden, a historically designated Craftsman bungalow built by Master Builder Morris B. Irvin and a Craftsman bungalow built by Master Builder Martin V. Melhorn.
Tickets purchased on tour day will be $25 for Mission Hills Heritage members and $30 for non-members. Will-call and the ticket office will be at Mission Hills United Church of Christ, 4070 Jackdaw St. and will open at 10 a.m. on the day of the event. For more information about the tour or Mission Hills Heritage, go to missionhillsheritage.org or call 497-1193.
