City Heights, an area of San Diego east of North Park in the central area of the city, is a very old and culturally diverse neighborhood. It was also known as the City of East San Diego before being incorporated into the City of San Diego and renamed City Heights in the mid 1910’s.
In this map, the eastern portion of the University Heights Motor Road, a railway that was built solely to show potential buyers the lands in City Heights, as it passes through the area. The railroad was torn up just a couple years later.
1889 Map of a portion of City Heights, San Diego, CA
San Diego has changed quite a bit since it was first laid out in the late 1700’s. As the city grew, new neighborhoods were planned farther out from the city center. One of these, University Heights, is still around today by the same name albeit covering a smaller area. The original plan, from 1888, was mostly built and is still quite recognizable today. One major item, a lake known as Mystic Lake, was never constructed. Today, the canyon remains undeveloped and is considered public open space. In addition to the lake,
The map also shows a small section of right-of-way for a railroad just east of Park Blvd. This railroad, the University Heights Motor Road, was built as a way to bring prospective buyers from downtown to East San Diego (later City Heights). It was dismantled not long after construction but traces still remain on maps and in Switzer Canyon.
The name, University Heights, stems from a planned university that was to be sited there. A small teacher’s college, which later became San Diego State University, was indeed located there. In the 1950’s, the structures were mostly torn down except one which remains today. The site is the headquarters for the San Diego Unified School District.
Representatives from the Ridge Route Preservation Organization, including myself, recently met with a few people from the Angeles National Forest regarding the Ridge Route. A summary of the meeting can be found on the ridgeroute.org site – http://www.ridgeroute.org/june-2019-update/ .
This is a section of abandoned roadway, paved in 1919, within Grapevine Canyon, near PM 8.0 on the east side of the canyon. This section was bypassed in 1933 by a newer alignment of US 99.
A while back, my husband and I went on a cleanup of my section of I-5 in Grapevine Canyon. While cleaning at the upper watering hole on the southbound side, I noticed a bit of newspaper. When I grabbed it, the first thing I noticed is that it looked rather old. Normally, when I find a newspaper out in the field, assuming it is not too dirty, I try to find a date on it. I’m always curious how long it may have been out there. This time, however, I saw an advertisement on it that told me it was older than normal. The ad was for Six Flags Magic Mountain and was for a ride that had been gone since 1986. Looking a little more at the paper, I found a date, Sunday, July 1, 1984. As the cleanup was in late July 2018, I was rather amazed at the find.
The ride in question was known as the Sarajevo Bobsled, a ride named after the location of the winter olympics in 1984 and was an Intamin bobsled type ride. The ride was closed in 1986 and moved to Six Flags Over Texas, where it continues to operate today.
The portion of the paper I saw first.
Closeup of the Six Flags Ad.
Another time I found a Los Angeles Herald newspaper from the late 1950’s hanging onto a railroad switch near Holtville, CA in the Imperial Valley. You just never know what you might find out there.
