Heritage County Park in Old Town San Diego, California: Victorian Houses Forever

Before this eras of functional houses that all look almost the same, there was a period between 1840 to 1900 or so where the homely abodes were encouraged to not sacrifice look and personality for functions and ease of cleaning. Old and new towns San Diego had many perky structures from this period... that was until the 1960's when a growth spurt in real estate development started to sacrifice many of these homes in favor of modern commercial and residential buildings. That prompted a group of far-sighted folks who realized the value of preserving the distinct architecture of those days for future generations to found the Save our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) in 1969. Their effort to save and relocate 7 beautiful Victorian era houses by relocating them to the plot of land they had bought off Juan Street at Harney Street - just northeast of the boundary of the Old Town State Park is now a joint venture with the County of San Diego.

Getting here is quite easy, though you are best arriving on the MTS trolley (blue or green line) or bus. Old Town Transit Station does have a good size parking lot, but it fills out quite quickly when there is a fair or other festivals going on at the Old Town State Park. Click here for the MTS web page where you can easily figure out your bus route and connection. Heritage Park has a little parking lot off Harney St (and you can also park along Harney and Juan).

This 7.8 acre where the 7 Victorian houses now reside is now owned by the County of San Diego. In the effort to make this park pay for its own upkeep, the houses are leased out - either serving as private residents or as commercial inns or shops (they all have to agree to the park's conservation rules, of course).

Click here for a slide show of the Heritage County Park in Old Town San Diego. Clockwise from the first building you'll see, the structures preserved here are:

1. Temple Beth Israel (1889): Open to the public, this Classic Revival Jewish temple is notable for its distinct form and iconic 6-pointed star and tablets of law (2 upright rectangles topped with a half circle) stain glass windows. The temple was constructed by the Congregation Beth Israel as San Diego's first (and, until 1926, the only) synagogue. Originally located at the intersection of Beech and 2nd Avenue, where it was occupied by the Fraternal Spiritualist Church from 1932-1978, when it was sold to the County and moved here. Since the Congregation Beth Israel was a reformist sect, men and women were allowed to seat together for services rather than separately. The temple now serves as a community center and a favorite civil wedding, public meeting, and bar mitzvah site (for more info on that, call (619) 291-9784 or visit www.sdparks.org).

2. Senlis Cottage (1896): Open to the public, this cute little Nineteenth Century Vernacular house - devoid of electricity, gas, running water, or sewer - is a typical sort of house you'd have lived in if you were a working class hussler living in the 1880's. Likely built from mail order plans and put on the ground without a foundation, the pink wooden cottage was originally owned by Eugene Senlis who worked for the famous horticulturist Kate Sessions, who probably should have paid her employee a bit more, judging from the use of cast iron window closures instead of brass, the lack of stained glass, and other decidedly unglamorous details.

The house had a rather unsettling beginning. Senlis was forced to commit his wife, Lena, to the State Asylum for the Insane shortly after the completion of the cottage (apparently from 'religious mania' where she kept all the neighbors within the 2 blocks radius up at night shouting and screaming at the top of her lungs). The cottage was rented out (to pay for the medical bill) and finally sold when Senlis himself became blind. Senlis Cottage was moved to the Heritage Park in 1978 and is now serving as a museum and the park's public restroom.

3. Sherman-Gilbert House (1887): Only the lower level of this Stick Eastlake house is open to the public as the park's visitor center and rangers' office. The strikingly green and angular house was built for General William Tecumseh Sherman's cousin, John Sherman, who later sold it to Mrs. Augusta Gilbert, in whose family it remained until 1965. The house is famous for having hosted many prominent musicians and artists (Yehudi Menuhin, Enrico Caruso, Marian Anderson, Anna Pavlova, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Artur Rubinstein, to name a few) who came to visit Gertrude Gilbert, who was a prominent pianist of her days. Today, aside from the front room that serves as the visitor center, her piano room (with the original piano) is the only other room you can visit in the house (the stairway is blocked) since the rest of the place is housing a law office and a custom publishing company.

4. Bushyhead House (1887): Not open to public, this Italianate house built by Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead, Sheriff and Chief of Police in New Town San Diego and an owner of the San Diego Union newspaper... I can't imagine how hard it must have been for him to have to live through high school with such an irresistible surname (it was apparently descriptively given to his father by the Cherokee folks he hung out with, as 'Oo-no-dota' or 'bushyhead'. Edward Bushyhead and his father marched the Trail of Tears with the Cherokees as they led them to the then territory of Oklahoma in 1838-39. He moved to California during the 1849 gold rush and settled in San Diego. The understated yellow structure with tall bay windows served as a boarding house during Bushyhead's days and was moved here in 1976 from its previous perch at 232 Cedar Street. It, and the Christian House next door are now run as a bed & breakfast called Heritage Park Inn by Nancy and Charles Helsper (current rate is $125-$300/night).

5. Christian House (1889): This lovely white Queen Anne residence that glows with a fairy tale aura (thanks to its round turret with conical roof, multi-gabled top, projecting balconies, encircling verandas, etc) was constructed by Harfield Timberlake Christian, who didn't mind one bit when his residence was featured in the San Diego home magazine, the Golden Era in 1889. Christian owned an abstracting business verifying land holdings and ownership claims via plotting and documentary verification, but somehow left neither a will nor a record of his land holdings when he passed away (probably to help his heirs evade inheritance taxes). The house was originally located at 1940 Third Avenue and passed through at least 26 owners before being moved here in 1976. It is now the more expensive of the 2 houses that constitute the Heritage Park Inn bed and breakfast enterprise.

6. McConaughy House (1887): Now housing the Old Town Gift Emporium (specialized in Victorian porcelain dolls), the serenely understated yellow and white with pink trimming Italianate style house (with its low-pitched roof reminiscent of rustic Italian villas) was built by John McConaughy, who founded the first passenger and freight service between San Diego and Julian (a mountain town to the east). The house was quickly sold to George and Fannie Keating, who tried unsuccessfully to turn it into a hospital. Instead, it served as a halfway house and rehabilitation center as the 'Good Samaritan Home' until the Keatings donated it to St. Paul's Episcopal Parish in 1904. It was moved to Heritage Park from its original location at the intersection of Cedar and Union Streets in 1981.

7. Burton House (1893): Now the park's tea shop, the pastel green Colonial Revival style wooden house with gorgeous dentil cornices was built by retired Army physician Henry Guild Burton who moved here from Vermont (San Diego was his last military post). Originally presiding over the intersection of Grape St and Third Ave, the house was moved here in 1976 and is the perfect place to drop in for an afternoon tea while enjoying the park's perpetual time warp. The interior is really well preserved and the roofed east patio is a great place to sit and enjoy the cool afternoon shade while watching rabbits and squirrels at play on the green lawn between it and McConaughy House.

At the crest of the cobbled stone walkway that splits the row is a leafy Brisbane coral tree with long metal benches under its canopy. Spending a lazy afternoon there after a pot of exquisitely brewed tea and a plate of cookies from Mrs. Burton's Tea Room, you really get a good glimpse of how it was like to live here a little more than a century ago, when El Cortez Hotel was the master of the San Diego skyline and when you had to drive up old Torrey Pines Road in reverse because the old Ford model T didn't have a fuel pump and relied on gravity to keep the gas flowing into the carburetor (the tank was under the rear seat). Getting to watch paints dry on these bewitching Victorian houses would actually constitute an event worth spectating on!

The Park is open daily (Visitor's Center hours are from 9AM-5PM). You can walk around on your own or drop in at the park's office at the Sherman-Gilbert House to pick the rangers' brain. Be sure to spend a few bucks at the gift shop or the tea house when you visit. If these folks aren't here preserving these gorgeous houses for us to be reminded of what we're missing, living in our nondescript concrete slabs, this town would lose quite a bit of its colorful and unique touches that make it truly America's Finest City!

Heritage County Park: 2454 Heritage Park Row, Old Town San Diego, CA 92110. Tel: (619) 291-9784. Opens daily from 9AM-5PM.