By Katherine Hon | PastMatters

The true story of Park Villa Drive

The best urban legends provide a kernel of truth wrapped in fantasy and charm. Such are the stories about Park Villa Drive.

This narrow, one-block-long, north-south street extends from Dwight Street to Myrtle Avenue between Arnold Avenue and Arizona Street. The block lies within the historical subdivision of Park Villas, which was originally mapped in 1870 with lots 25 feet wide by 125 feet deep, roadways from 60 to 65 feet wide, and alleys 15 feet wide. But Park Villa Drive is clearly different from neighboring blocks. What is the real story?

For charm, it is hard to beat the childhood fantasies of a nearby resident who grew up in the neighborhood. She wondered: Were the homes along Park Villa Drive a village built for Lilliputians like in Gulliver’s Travels? One might think so from the small size of the backyards, the extensive use of cobble, and narrow “main street” not much wider than an alley. She liked to pretend the houses would only appear for her like the magical village of Brigadoon and would vanish into the mist to become an ordinary alley for everyone else.

A resident of Park Villa Drive guessed his block was built to be military housing. A resident along the west side of Arnold Avenue said she heard that the workers building the homes along her street set up tents as squatters and demanded the backyard of her house and others for their own homes facing the alley.

The truth is, this particular block was re-subdivided as the “Block 80 Park Villas” subdivision in 1912. Map No. 1495 approved by the Common Council in November 1912 presents a one-block subdivision consisting of the west side of Arnold Avenue, the east side of Arizona Street, the south side of Dwight Street, and the north side of Myrtle Avenue. What was originally an alley was widened to about 25 feet for the inner street, Park Villa Drive. The developer, Southern California Home Builders, split the 125-foot-deep lots in half and merged two 25-foot frontages to form nearly square lots that were about 62 feet deep with 50-foot frontage.

City “Lot Books” (available on the city of San Diego website under the department “City Clerk” at bit.ly/1RVY6NH) show that the first five homes were built in 1913 along Arnold Avenue on lots one through five (3594 to 3560 Arnold Avenue). The next year, four more homes were completed along Arnold Avenue (3552, 3544, 3536, and 3512 Arnold Avenue), and eight homes were completed on the east side of Park Villa Drive (3589 to 3535 Park Villa Drive). One other structure at the southeast corner of Arizona and Dwight streets was also built in 1914.

By 1921, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows that three additional homes along the east side of Arizona Street had been completed, but the rest of the lots in the subdivision remained vacant until later in the 1920s, including the entire west side of Park Villa Drive.

Although many of the first homes have been altered with newer windows and facade materials, much of their original Craftsman charm remains. Expansive porches, cobble piers and chimneys, exposed eaves, decorative rafters and braces, and traditional board and shingle facades can still be seen. Later homes are no less charming in mostly Craftsman and Revival styles.

What about our urban legends? Although Park Villa Drive is narrow and short, the bungalows in the subdivision are not smaller than other modest North Park homes, and the only Lilliputians are likely in the imaginations of children who enjoy playing in this quiet street.

As far as military housing, although George Pitkin, the first owner of 3580 Arnold Avenue, was Chief Yeoman for the U.S. Navy Recruiting Station, no other first homeowners were in the service. Also, this subdivision mapping pre-dates World War II by three decades, when San Diego’s population and the need for military housing exploded. The subdivision map proves the developer planned the small lots from the beginning, not out of pressure from their workers.

The first homeowners along Park Villa Drive included James Weldon, an agent with the North Pacific Steamship Co.; Lloyd Waggoner, a dentist; and William MacKellar, an inspector in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry — no construction workers. But here is the kernel of truth: in the city directories for 1913 and 1914, Harry A. Malcolm, superintendent for Southern California Home Builders, is listed as a resident of 3593 Park Villa Drive. Apparently he was sharing space on the northernmost lot with William MacKellar at 3589 Park Villa Drive, perhaps in temporary quarters that would have been convenient for supervising construction in the little subdivision during those two years.

For a detailed history of the many subdivisions in North Park, go to Paras Newsstand at 3911 30th Street for Donald Covington’s book, “North Park: A San Diego Urban Village, 1896-1946,” published by the North Park Historical Society.

—Katherine Hon is the secretary of the North Park Historical Society. Reach her at [email protected] or 619-294-8990.