Over 100 years before North Park became the metropolis filled with hipsters, art, craft beer, throwback video games, coffee houses, clubs and restaurants that it is today, it was nothing more than dirt and trees as far as the eye could see.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a dozen or more locals \u2014\u00a0some who have lived in North Park their entire lives \u2014 a pictorial history of North Park, with over 200 rare and vintage photographs tracing all the way back to those days of dirt, has just been released.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego\u2019s North Park,\u201d part of Arcadia Publishing Company\u2019s \u201cImages of America\u201d series, is a 127-page softcover book that tells the story of one of San Diego\u2019s oldest and most beloved neighborhoods, mostly through rare and vintage photographs.<\/p>\n The North Park Historical Society (NPHS), a 501(c)3 made up of over 50 members and led by a dedicated, 12-person all-volunteer board, steered the project under the guidance of the publisher.<\/p>\n This new offering is not to be confused with longtime local historian and San Diego State professor Don Covington\u2019s larger, ring-bound \u201cNorth Park: A San Diego Urban Village.\u201d That book was first published in 2007, four years after its author\u2019s untimely death. While Covington\u2019s book only covered the first 50 years and relied on a great deal of text across its 250 pages to tell the intricate stories of the neighborhood, \u201cSan Diego\u2019s North Park\u201d covers the entirety of North Park\u2019s history in half the pages and does so mostly through photographs.<\/p>\n Although NPHS wasn\u2019t established until 2008, many of its members had assisted Covington and worked to bring the first book to fruition after his death. At that time, they were known as the North Park Community Association\u2019s Historical Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are the people whose shoulders we are standing on,\u201d said Katherine Hon, board secretary of NPHS.<\/p>\n The group almost disbanded after Covington and several other members died in close succession, but they became \u201creinvigorated\u201d Hon said, and saw the project through.<\/p>\n Hon and her husband Stephen, president of the NPHS, joined the NPCA\u2019s committee right around that time as part of the original project. She said Arcadia had first approached the Historical Committee back in 2007, just before they published Covington\u2019s book, but that project was \u201cspecial\u201d to them and they weren\u2019t willing to adapt his book to the limitations of Arcadia\u2019s template and format.<\/p>\n Arcadia acquiesced, but didn\u2019t go away for long. Hon said the popularity of Covington\u2019s book had people ask, \u201cWhen are you going to tell the rest of the story?\u201d So when Arcadia came calling again five years later, they brokered a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe timing was right,\u201d Hon said. \u201cWe wanted to tell the whole story and bring it up to current times. Arcadia really wanted to have the North Park story out there because they can see it is a community of great interest to people.\u201d<\/p>\n Arcadia\u2019s format would allow them to do just that, and the rigid template, a hindrance before, was now an advantage. They no longer had to be concerned about design and structure.<\/p>\n \u201cTo know they were a very experienced publisher that focused on niche community histories, allowed [us] to just pull the material together, the photos and the text, and [Arcadia] did the production,\u201d Hon said.<\/p>\n The changes in responsibility for publishing, reprinting and distribution were also appealing to the group, Hon said, adding that NPHS can now only sell to individuals.<\/p>\n Acadia Publishing Company\u2019s \u201cImages of America\u201d series consists of thousands of other vintage books about local communities all across the United States. A number of other San Diego neighborhoods are included, such as Pacific Beach, La Mesa, Ocean Beach and soon Mission Hills.<\/p>\n The book will be distributed through various local retailers, such as Pigment in North Park, North Park Hardware, The Grove in South Park, the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park, Barnes and Noble, and organizations like Save Our Heritage Organisation\u2019s shop at the Whaley House in Old Town.<\/p>\n North Park\u2019s story began in the 1870s, but it really began to take shape in 1910 when a large segment of it was leveled and divided into parcels for both commercial and residential development by John Hartley, whose late father James had purchased the land in 1893 intending it to be a citrus grove.<\/p>\n In the years since, North Park \u2014 named by the elder Hartley after a development due south then known as \u201cCity Park\u201d \u2014 has seen it all.<\/p>\n The thriving urban existence of the 1920s and 1930s soon saw the area grow into a commercial centerpiece after WWII, with Woolworth, J. C. Penney and dozens of specialty and discount stores lining University Avenue. The Toyland Parade brought 300,000 viewers along that same avenue year after year. Nearby El Cajon Boulevard became the region\u2019s \u201chot rod cruising strip,\u201d due to its wide lanes, its long, straight stretch of roadway and its drive-in restaurants. President John F. Kennedy even motored down \u201cThe Boulevard,\u201d just months before his death in 1963.<\/p>\n Big outdoor malls built nearby in the 1970s put an end to the area\u2019s commercial success and North Park began to lose track of itself for a while. But the Craftsman and the Spanish Revival homes in the area, as well as the Art Deco and Modernist buildings along University Avenue, always stayed strong, no matter who inhabited them. Many of yesterday\u2019s buildings are still recognizable today.<\/p>\n Michael Good, author of San Diego Uptown News\u2019 \u201cHouse Calls\u201d column, contributed greatly to the book. Good, who can trace his family\u2019s North Park roots back to 1911, said he got involved with the book to \u201chelp out his neighbors,\u201d but that wasn\u2019t all.<\/p>\n \u201cI also got involved for the same reason I moved back to North Park \u2014 to feel some connection with my past and honor my ancestors,\u201d Good said. \u201cMy grandmother thought wherever she lived was the greatest place in the world.\u00a0She would not be at all surprised with how popular North Park has become with the young and hip.\u201d<\/p>\n Good now lives in his grandmother\u2019s bungalow on Granada Street.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego\u2019s North Park\u201d is broken into eight chapters, the first four bring the reader through a chronological history of the area and four others are focused on special categories: \u201cChurches and Schools,\u201d \u201cThe Toyland Parade,\u201d \u201cChanges and Revitalization\u201d and \u201cCommunity Life.\u201d Half of the photos were sourced from the San Diego History Center and the rest came from various organizations, media and local families. The constant diversity of what has always been North Park is apparent throughout.<\/p>\n Included are photos of J.C. Penney\u2019s, where Wang\u2019s is today; various Toyland floats; the Palisade Roller Rink at Utah Street and University Avenue; various views of the Switzer Canyon bridge; street cars on a number of different roadways; Ted Williams on his front porch; the PSA crash of 1978, and many many more.<\/p>\n \u201cNorth Park has always been a lively place,\u201d Good said. \u201cIt\u2019s gone through more revitalizations than an aging Hollywood starlet.\u00a0It\u2019s been more egalitarian, less exclusionary \u2014 if not less exclusive \u2014 than many San Diego neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego\u2019s North Park\u201d was launched with a lecture and book signing at the San Diego History Center Sept. 23 and more celebratory events are in the works. On Oct. 4, starting at 9:30 a.m., the San Diego History Center and the NPHS will host a real-time \u201cnow and then\u201d tour of the North Park\u2019s commercial area, using photos from the book for comparison. For more information visit sandiegohistory.org\/NorthParkWT<\/a>. On Oct. 16 at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with the University Heights History Society, there will be another lecture presentation about the book at Grace Lutheran Church. \u201cSan Diego\u2019s North Park\u201d will be available for purchase at both events for $22.75, which includes tax.<\/p>\n For more information about the book, or how to become a member of NPHS, visit NorthParkHistory.org<\/a>. For more information about the publisher, visit arcadiapublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014Morgan M. Hurley can be reached at morgan@sdcnn.com<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Morgan M. Hurley | Editor colaborador<\/p>","protected":false},"author":753,"featured_media":247796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Hip and historic North Park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247795","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\/753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/streetcar_sepia.jpg\")
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(Courtesy San Diego Electric Railway Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>