For its annual Historic Home Tour, SOHO visits the old and improved North Park<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\n
Over the last century, San Diegans have found a variety of ways to discover North Park. For the better part of the 20th century, this streetcar suburb on the northwest corner of Balboa Park was where San Diego shopped. As Downtown turned seedy and the population center grew to the north and east, North Park became the go-to place for just about everything. If you had to go to the department store, the bank, the lumberyard, the movies, the hardware store, the grocery store or the pharmacy, you went to North Park. If you needed a bicycle shop, a roller rink, a magazine stand, an alcoholic beverage, an AA meeting or Sunday sermon, North Park was the place to go. Even after Mission Valley was converted from farmland to shopping mall, North Park continued to offer retail opportunities you couldn\u2019t find elsewhere: looking for a trophy? Army surplus? A used safe? A musical instrument? A place to pump iron? North Park had it all. Today, there are breweries and beer pubs, bacon truffles and farm-to-table dining.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\")
<\/a>A most unusual bungalow: the one-of-a-kind McCracken house (Photo by Sand\u00e9 Lollis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAnd over the years, many of these shoppers and visitors, at some time or another, in the back of their mind harbored the thought: Hey, maybe I could live here.<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u2019s how the area started \u2014 as a place to live. Before it was a shopping mecca, North Park was a real estate development \u2014 a patchwork of small housing tracts arrayed along the expanding streetcar lines. The man who owned those tracks, John D. Spreckels, also owned the lumber company that supplied the building materials and sat on the board of the banks that loaned the money to build. He left the actual development of land and building of houses to the speculators, and there were many of them, all with grand dreams and breezy promises. But like the north\/south streets that don\u2019t quite line up, the developer\u2019s dreams and fiscal reality didn\u2019t always harmonize. As a result, North Park isn\u2019t quite as homogenous as Kensington and Talmadge, or as exclusive or expensive as Mission Hills. But that\u2019s part of the area\u2019s appeal; today there are a sprinkling of million-dollar mansions with harbor views on double lots cheek-to-jowl with 500-square-foot bungalows.<\/p>\n
For the last 40 or so years, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) has been offering yet another way to get to know San Diego\u2019s streetcar suburbs like North Park: the Annual Historic Home Tour. This year\u2019s co-chair, Allen Hazard, had discovered North Park himself back in 2000 on a SOHO Tour. For this year\u2019s event, which is again in North Park, Hazard walked the neighborhood, looking for prospects. And like many before him, Hazard found it an eye-opening experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was astonished by the changes I saw in North Park, by how many houses had been designated historic, by how many plaques I saw,\u201d Hazard said.<\/p>\n
He added that it wasn\u2019t just the plethora of plaques or the boom in beer brewing that brought SOHO back to North Park. It was also the desire to work with the North Park Historical Society, which is taking the lead on the walking tour of North Park\u2019s storied business district, which is in full-on revival mode, with new restaurants, brew pubs and businesses. One recent arrival, Carnitas\u2019 Snack Shack, is on the tour \u2014 after all, bacon needs preservation, too.<\/p>\n
There are seven houses included, ranging from humble Craftsman bungalow to sprawling 1920s Spanish. The most unusual? The David E. and Jennie McCracken house, built in 1925 by Frank D. Garside.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really, really, really unique,\u201d Hazard said.<\/p>\n
The house has been featured in American Bungalow magazine and in the coffee table book \u201cThe Bungalow, America\u2019s Arts and Crafts Home\u201d by Paul Duchscherer. Hazard describes it as a \u201cbrick bungalow with Mission Revival influences.\u201d But it really defies description.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theory is that she was a native of Michigan, and convinced her husband to build a brick house, because it was reminiscent of what she knew from home,\u201d Hazard explained. The mix of materials really fired Garside\u2019s imagination. He threw in some swoopy curves, arched windows and a cobblestone wall and foundation.<\/p>\n
Although the house is atypical, Garside represents a type of builder that was common in North Park but seldom gets much notice today. While the prolific \u201cmaster builders\u201d get all the attention, there were many carpenters that had the skill and taste to build interesting and pleasing little bungalows in small numbers during surprisingly short careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGarside apparently didn\u2019t build a lot of other houses,\u201d Hazard said, referring to his notes. \u201cHe was from Illinois, moved to San Diego in 1910 as a clerk. Then he was an accountant with John D. Spreckels. (At least he had the right connections.) In the \u201820s, he was listed in the city directory as a carpenter.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by the 1940 census, Garside was living in El Cajon, working as a gardener. He died in 1946 at the age of 62. If this seems like a short building career, keep in mind that even McFadden & Buxton, who masterminded North Park\u2019s West End (which is included on the tour) and Burlingame (which is not), didn\u2019t last long either. Their \u201cSystems Firm\u201d fell apart after two years, and the two partners moved on to other things.<\/p>\n
Today, Ron Oster, a real estate agent with Ascent in North Park, calls the one-of-a-kind brick bungalow home. In 1996, Oster\u2019s partner at the time (who has since passed away) was looking for a place to buy in North Park when he saw a \u201cfor rent\u201d sign being driven into a lawn in front of an unusual brick house. The couple rented the bungalow for a year. When the owners decided to sell, they snatched it up.<\/p>\n
What appealed to Oster about the house?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat it\u2019s unique. And the brick,\u201d Oster said. \u201cMy partner was from New Jersey and I\u2019m from the Midwest. We were just extra fortunate that it came on the market when it did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just very proud of it. It\u2019s very charming and homey. It\u2019s a conversation piece. When people walk by, they stop and talk about it. And it\u2019s very well planned and laid out.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so pleased to live in this neighborhood,\u201d Oster said of North Park. \u201cI know all my neighbors. We have our First Friday potluck. We know each other. We watch out for each other. I had neighbors for dinner just last night. It is a very welcoming neighborhood. It\u2019s not just the house that I find appealing. It\u2019s the feeling of neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can get a feel for North Park (and a taste for Carnitas\u2019) on June 6-8, when SOHO holds its Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend. The walking tours are on Saturday. The home tour is on Sunday. On Friday, SOHO hosts its annual People in Preservation Awards. For more information, go to sohosandiego.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Good | HouseCalls For its annual Historic Home Tour, SOHO visits the old and improved North Park<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1306,"featured_media":247317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Discovering North Park \u2014 again","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/OsterSLL.jpg\")
<\/a>And over the years, many of these shoppers and visitors, at some time or another, in the back of their mind harbored the thought: Hey, maybe I could live here.<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u2019s how the area started \u2014 as a place to live. Before it was a shopping mecca, North Park was a real estate development \u2014 a patchwork of small housing tracts arrayed along the expanding streetcar lines. The man who owned those tracks, John D. Spreckels, also owned the lumber company that supplied the building materials and sat on the board of the banks that loaned the money to build. He left the actual development of land and building of houses to the speculators, and there were many of them, all with grand dreams and breezy promises. But like the north\/south streets that don\u2019t quite line up, the developer\u2019s dreams and fiscal reality didn\u2019t always harmonize. As a result, North Park isn\u2019t quite as homogenous as Kensington and Talmadge, or as exclusive or expensive as Mission Hills. But that\u2019s part of the area\u2019s appeal; today there are a sprinkling of million-dollar mansions with harbor views on double lots cheek-to-jowl with 500-square-foot bungalows.<\/p>\n
For the last 40 or so years, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) has been offering yet another way to get to know San Diego\u2019s streetcar suburbs like North Park: the Annual Historic Home Tour. This year\u2019s co-chair, Allen Hazard, had discovered North Park himself back in 2000 on a SOHO Tour. For this year\u2019s event, which is again in North Park, Hazard walked the neighborhood, looking for prospects. And like many before him, Hazard found it an eye-opening experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was astonished by the changes I saw in North Park, by how many houses had been designated historic, by how many plaques I saw,\u201d Hazard said.<\/p>\n
He added that it wasn\u2019t just the plethora of plaques or the boom in beer brewing that brought SOHO back to North Park. It was also the desire to work with the North Park Historical Society, which is taking the lead on the walking tour of North Park\u2019s storied business district, which is in full-on revival mode, with new restaurants, brew pubs and businesses. One recent arrival, Carnitas\u2019 Snack Shack, is on the tour \u2014 after all, bacon needs preservation, too.<\/p>\n
There are seven houses included, ranging from humble Craftsman bungalow to sprawling 1920s Spanish. The most unusual? The David E. and Jennie McCracken house, built in 1925 by Frank D. Garside.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really, really, really unique,\u201d Hazard said.<\/p>\n
The house has been featured in American Bungalow magazine and in the coffee table book \u201cThe Bungalow, America\u2019s Arts and Crafts Home\u201d by Paul Duchscherer. Hazard describes it as a \u201cbrick bungalow with Mission Revival influences.\u201d But it really defies description.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theory is that she was a native of Michigan, and convinced her husband to build a brick house, because it was reminiscent of what she knew from home,\u201d Hazard explained. The mix of materials really fired Garside\u2019s imagination. He threw in some swoopy curves, arched windows and a cobblestone wall and foundation.<\/p>\n
Although the house is atypical, Garside represents a type of builder that was common in North Park but seldom gets much notice today. While the prolific \u201cmaster builders\u201d get all the attention, there were many carpenters that had the skill and taste to build interesting and pleasing little bungalows in small numbers during surprisingly short careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGarside apparently didn\u2019t build a lot of other houses,\u201d Hazard said, referring to his notes. \u201cHe was from Illinois, moved to San Diego in 1910 as a clerk. Then he was an accountant with John D. Spreckels. (At least he had the right connections.) In the \u201820s, he was listed in the city directory as a carpenter.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by the 1940 census, Garside was living in El Cajon, working as a gardener. He died in 1946 at the age of 62. If this seems like a short building career, keep in mind that even McFadden & Buxton, who masterminded North Park\u2019s West End (which is included on the tour) and Burlingame (which is not), didn\u2019t last long either. Their \u201cSystems Firm\u201d fell apart after two years, and the two partners moved on to other things.<\/p>\n
Today, Ron Oster, a real estate agent with Ascent in North Park, calls the one-of-a-kind brick bungalow home. In 1996, Oster\u2019s partner at the time (who has since passed away) was looking for a place to buy in North Park when he saw a \u201cfor rent\u201d sign being driven into a lawn in front of an unusual brick house. The couple rented the bungalow for a year. When the owners decided to sell, they snatched it up.<\/p>\n
What appealed to Oster about the house?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat it\u2019s unique. And the brick,\u201d Oster said. \u201cMy partner was from New Jersey and I\u2019m from the Midwest. We were just extra fortunate that it came on the market when it did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just very proud of it. It\u2019s very charming and homey. It\u2019s a conversation piece. When people walk by, they stop and talk about it. And it\u2019s very well planned and laid out.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so pleased to live in this neighborhood,\u201d Oster said of North Park. \u201cI know all my neighbors. We have our First Friday potluck. We know each other. We watch out for each other. I had neighbors for dinner just last night. It is a very welcoming neighborhood. It\u2019s not just the house that I find appealing. It\u2019s the feeling of neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can get a feel for North Park (and a taste for Carnitas\u2019) on June 6-8, when SOHO holds its Annual Historic Home Tour Weekend. The walking tours are on Saturday. The home tour is on Sunday. On Friday, SOHO hosts its annual People in Preservation Awards. For more information, go to sohosandiego.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Good | HouseCalls For its annual Historic Home Tour, SOHO visits the old and improved North Park<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1306,"featured_media":247317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Discovering North Park \u2014 again","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}