North Park

North Park is a thriving community near San Diego. For planning purposes, the medium-sized area has been defined as a larger “community” and neighborhood by the city of San Diego. It’s bordered to the west by Florida Canyon, University Heights and Hillcrest, to the northwest by Park Boulevard and University Heights, and to the southwest by Balboa Park. North Park’s eastern boundary is Interstate 805, and its southern front ends at City Heights and the South Park neighborhood and Switzer Canyon.

The history of North Park dates back to the summer of 1893, when Joseph Nash, a San Diego merchant, sold 40 acres of land northeast of Balboa Park to James Monroe Hartley, a settler who wanted to plant a lemon grove. Although the Hartley family commenced the clearing of the land in preparation for the grove, it proved challenging to provide irrigation for the trees. With time, the growth and development of San Diego gradually spread around the original Hartley lemon grove.

Today, the site of the grove is bordered by 32nd Street to the east, Ray Street to the west, Dwight Street to the south and University Avenue to the north. Hartley nicknamed his land “Hartley’s North Park,” and this phrase stuck—lending the present-day community its name.