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March 2015
Inspiration Volume 10, Issue 1
The Prairie Style in Mission Hills
11th Annual Walking Tour
April 18 • 1-4 pm
By Barry Hager & Janet Worthey
April 18 - Saturday
1-4 pm
Tours leave every 15 minutes
Last tour 3 pm
PURCHASE TICKETS
Online or Day of the Tour
$10 for MHH members
$15 for non-members
Ticket Sales
begin at 12:30 pm
at Espresso Mio
1920 Fort Stockton Drive
End-of-tour refreshments
will be served
Highlights
Just
what is the Prairie
Style, and how did it arrive in
Mission Hills? How does the
Prairie Style differ from other
early 20th-century styles?
And who built these stately
homes?
Join us and learn the
answers to these questions
and more on our 2015
Annual Walking Tour: The
Prairie Style in Mission
Hills. Our tour will take us
through several enclaves of
Prairie Style homes built in
Mission Hills between 1910
and 1920. This style was
first conceived by architects
in the Midwest who became
By Laura Largey
President’s Porch
1
Greetings!
Impact of the 1915
Panama-California
Exposition on
Mission Hills
3
Grant School Rebuild
Update
6
Members-Only
Coffee
6
Annual Financial
Statements
7
Calendar
8
known as the Prairie School, but the style made
its way to Southern California and San Diego
just as Mission Hills was becoming a popular
neighborhood for new homes.
With strong horizontal lines, low-pitched roofs, wide
eaves, and broad bands (Continued on next page)
President’s Porch
Annual Walking Tour 1
Photographer Finds
Home & Community 4
An excellent example of a Prairie Style home in the
Inspiration Heights area of Mission Hills. Photo by Barry
Hager
Kirk Burgamy is a native of New Orleans and
You are reading my
a retired navy commander. Currently general
first President’s Porch column.
manager for Q.E.D. Systems San Diego technical
My husband facetiously calls it
services operation, Kirk and wife Sandy moved
the “President’s Perch!” While not
to Mission Hills in 2008 and are active members
a bird, I do live on one of Mission
of Mission Hills Heritage. They have two married
Hills’ famous bird streets (Lark).
children and four
Our historically designated
grandchildren, all of
1911 home was built for We warmly welcome
whom live in the area.
Kate Sessions’ brother members who share
Frank and designed by our desire to protect
Lynne Fletcher, our
master architect Emmor
Brook Weaver. I am also and preserve Mission chief financial officer,
is a fourth-generation
one of many residents who Hills to consider
grew up and still live in the serving on our board. resident of Mission
Hills. She and husband
same Mission Hills house.
Mal raised two children, Trey and Katie, in their
(If you did too, we would love
historic home on Fort Stockton Drive. Lynne
to hear your story!)
was a vice president of Security Pacific National
Bank. She owns her own company, Fletcher Tax
Here are profiles of some of
Services. (Continued on next page)
our newer board members and
officers:
Page 2 of 8
(Walking Tour continued) of windows, the homes in this
style seem well anchored to the earth. Even two-story
Prairie Style homes seem horizontal in nature. There are
numerous variants of the style, and builders in Mission Hills
often embellished their Prairie Style homes with their own
favored features. As we walk among the neighborhood’s
homes, we will be pointing out the local architects and
builders who designed and built in this style.
Many of these homes in Mission Hills were built in high
style with massive square piers supporting porch roofs
and extensive hand-crafted interior woodwork. Although
several one-story Prairie Style homes were built in the
neighborhood, the vast majority are large two-story
homes. Not inexpensive to build, these homes were
mostly custom built for the movers and shakers of early
20th-century San Diego. As we stroll past these homes,
our docents will share details of the early occupants and
their contributions to our then still-small but growing city.
This year’s tour takes place on Saturday, April 18, from
1 to 4 pm. Tours will last up to 90 minutes, and tour
groups will leave approximately every 10 to 15 minutes,
depending on turnout. The starting point will be Espresso
Mio at 1920 Fort Stockton Drive in Mission Hills. We are
not walking fast, but comfortable shoes are advised. The
last tour will leave around 3 pm. Please mark this date on
your calendar!
Tickets can be purchased in advance through our website
at: www.MissionHillsHeritage.com, or on the day of the
event beginning at 12:30 pm. See you on tour day!
(President’s Porch continued)
Sanford “Sandy” Lakoff is Dickson Professor Emeritus
of Political Science at UCSD and was appointed founding
chair of his department in 1974. Sandy previously
taught at Harvard and at the University of Toronto. His
wife Deborah is a talent manager for actors in film and
television. Their historically designated home is on Dove
Court in south Mission Hills.
Hugh Largey, a “native” San Diegan since circa 1973
via western Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Ohio, and upstate
New York, had multiple careers in wholesale, retail,
sales, training, marketing, and management at GTE,
RCA, Coldwell Banker, Mayflower, an EAP, National
School Pictures, and he had his own radio show on
AM 1000. Since retiring from CarMax, he is president
of San Diego K of C Chapter Charities. In his last year
on our board, he continues volunteering at Mission Hills
Heritage with his wife of 23 years, yours truly.
Ron Lehman hails from Eaton, Ohio, and is a retired
pediatrician. He and wife Susan raised their two children
in their current residence in Mission Hills, a Mission
Revival style built in 1910. They now divide their time
between seeing grandchildren and traveling the world.
You can also see Ron bicycling around Mission Hills.
Sharon Lieder, our new secretary, has lived in Mission
Hills since 1973. Her two children attended Grant School.
Son Christopher and his family now also live in Mission
Hills. Sharon holds an MBA and is currently an adjunct
professor at USD’s School of Business Administration.
She is also an active member of the United Methodist
Church, Mission Hills.
Jane Ligon has served us as a board member and
loyal volunteer for over a decade. She taught school
for 37 years before retiring in 2007. During her 40-year
residency in Mission Hills, Jane has restored an Art
Deco cottage circa 1957, a 1914 Storybook, and a 1910
Craftsman, which is her current residence. Jane sees
Mission Hills as a treasure and is passionate about
preserving its character.
Jim Reily has lived in Mission Hills since 1980 and is a
retired navy captain. He and wife Patricia, also a retired
naval officer, restored an 1832 rowhouse in Philadelphia,
originally owned, appropriately, by a ship’s captain. They
now live in the historically designated 1911 Frank & Mary
Ricker House on Trias Street. Jim volunteers as a docent
on the Midway Museum with his World War II veteran
father Jim, senior, who also lives with Jim and Patricia.
Robert Self was a corporate in-house attorney for
Motorola, Inc., and has worked for Cox Communications.
Bob also had an independent law practice in San
Diego, and he taught law and economics at local
colleges, including USD. Among other professional and
community activities, Bob is active with the YMCA and
the Old Mission Rotary Club. Bob and his wife Carole
have two grown children.
We are very fortunate to have such qualified board
members. We also warmly welcome members who
share our desire to protect and preserve Mission Hills to
consider serving on our board.
Page 3 of 8
The Impact of the
1915 PanamaCalifornia
Exposition
on Mission Hills
By Ronald V. May
News in 1909 of the upcoming Panama-
California Exposition electrified the city
of San Diego and beyond! Investors
from across the nation rushed to town in
search of places to invest in real estate
development to capture the anticipated
fortunes to be spent by tourists wishing
to stay for three to six months. Although
architect Irving Gill pitched Point Loma
and North Island as the site of the
exposition, the city council selected City
Park, and everyone with any money at
all rushed to buy land and build houses,
apartments, restaurants, and stores to
catch the tourist dollars.
At the time of the 1909 announcement,
Mission Hills was largely vacant land,
old-tree horticultural farms, and plots
of dry farming on the relatively level
land overlooking Mission Valley to the
north. Over in Florence Heights (east
of Stephens Street), Frank Sessions
and his sister Kate O. Sessions were
growing fields of poinsettia flowers and
experimenting with shrub and tree stock
harvested from Mexico as well as Central
and South America. Flats of pickleweed,
pots of sea lavender, and buckets of
Washington palms lined their nursery
lands along Palmetto Way, Randolph
Street, and various leased lots along
West Lewis, Hunter, and side streets.
Our Mission
Meta and Barney Meeden, great grandparents of board treasurer Lynne
Fletcher, c. 1915, in front of Meta’s house at 1525 West Lewis, looking east.
Red sandstone retaining walls and garden liners were installed by Kate
O. Sessions in her landscaping work to beautify the community and
market her yard beautification designs.
George White Marston and his family accelerated development of
street, sidewalk, and utilities improvements in the new Mission Hills
subdivision. Harry L. Cox Miller frantically pushed papers through
the City of San Diego to get his Inspiration Heights housing project
available by 1912, when the first tourists began to arrive. The first
houses in Mission Hills appeared in 1910 along Sierra Vista and
Arden Way. A year later, Miller cut deals with Martin V. Melhorn
for two Craftsman style houses along Sunset Boulevard (east of
Alameda), installed Spanish style piers at intersections, and planted
palm trees along both sides of the street. Martin V. Melhorn’s Bay
City Construction Company built out Block 59 (between Washington
and Getti), and builders experimented with Prairie Style houses along
Palmetto Way, Fort Stockton Drive, Alameda Drive, and St. James.
More houses along Sunset Boulevard, Getti (later changed to Fort
Stockton), West Lewis, and Palmetto Way appeared. By 1912, east
of Pioneer Cemetery, Craftsman style houses sprang up like weeds.
John D. Spreckels rapidly expanded his electric railway west down
Getti, Goldfinch, and West Lewis streets, and the realtors squabbled
in court over the best routes to serve their commercial and real estate
ventures. These convenient routes enabled the new residents to reach
downtown San Diego and the embarcadero along the bay in less than
twenty minutes. All the land speculators (Continued on page 7)
To preserve and protect the character, charm, and historic resources of
Mission Hills, assuring that development projects harmonize with the
established community and provide for community input into these projects.
Page 4 of 8
Photographer Finds Home and Community
By Valerie Lemke
Professional
photographer Pat Harrison was
looking for a home in a charming community
when she moved from Newport Beach in 1977.
She found it in Mission Hills. When the real
estate broker drove up to the 1915 bungalow at
3838 Falcon Street, Pat got out of the car and
said, “That’s it!” The house was all white and
full of charm. She didn’t know anything about
the Craftsman style, but the house was perfect.
Pat always had a camera in her hand as she
was growing up. She studied with well known
photographers Ansel Adams, Brett Weston
and Morley Baer, and she soon launched a
successful and high-profile career.
She also started collecting antiques.
Little did she know that one day she
would have the perfect house in
which to put them.
In 1998, Pat decided to simplify
and move her business from a
Carmel Valley studio to her home
in Mission Hills. In 2008, it was
time to give major attention to
her 1,100-square-foot Craftsman
home. She was now armed with
knowledge about colors, styles,
and choices that were fitting for a
house almost 100 years old.
The project began with a new
carpet and escalated to replacing
the chimney, stripping the roof down
to the rafters and installing a new
roof, gutting the kitchen, refinishing
the hardwood floors, and building
a new garage. Jim Crawford from
Authentic Fireplaces, Inc., gave
great options for a new brick
fireplace, hearth, and mantle.
Pat wanted the kitchen to look like
it would have when the house was
built, so she chose oak floors and cabinets. The soapstone countertops set
the mood for the stunning new kitchen. A remote-controlled skylight was
added as well. A custom front door was designed with the Arts & Crafts style
in mind. A beveled glass window was created to add the finishing touch.
Bruce Mutz, Pat’s significant other and a fellow photographer, provided
the positive support she needed and was a wise consultant throughout the
whole process. The seven-month renovation was documented step-by-step
in an impressive hardcover book published by Pat herself.
Top Front yard in 2009 awaiting new hardscape and eco-friendly plants; bottom New award-winning front yard and restored
exterior with custom door. Facing page clockwise from top New kitchen combines vintage materials with modern appliances;
charming back yard garden is perfect for quiet solitude or entertaining guests; cozy rebuilt fireplace and Craftsman-styled
opaque window. Photos by Pat Harrison
Page 5 of 8
In 2009 the front yard had a complete hardscape and
plant redesign by landscape architect Chris Drayer. It
was time for the lawn to go. Along with the new brick
walkways, he installed pedestals and drought-tolerant
plants. The Mission Hills Garden Club gave it the Thumbs
Up Award. The redesigned backyard features a beautiful
central rose garden. Together the yards are certified as a
wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
Pat is especially fond of the strong differences between
the front and back yards. Recently retired, she enjoys
the backyard as a private sanctuary and calls it her
“secret garden.”
Since 2009, Pat and Bruce have been active
members of Mission Hills Heritage and Mission Hills
Garden Club. They contribute many volunteer hours,
helping to obtain petition signatures, distributing
flyers, and acting as docents for the annual home
tours for Mission Hills Heritage, which is very grateful
for the assistance. They also provide photography for
the MHGC Annual Garden Walk.
Page 6 of 8
Grant School Rebuild Update
By Laura Largey
In our March 2014 issue, we presented details of the proposed
rebuild of Grant Elementary School, with Phase 1 scheduled for
groundbreaking in 2015. In the article, favorable attention was
paid to the overall plan of the school, but dismay was expressed
at the non-descript, modern-looking façade which does not
appear to be sensitive to the Mission Hills neighborhood nor
does it seem to reflect the historic character of its surroundings.
Mission Hills Heritage made attempts to communicate with the
San Diego Unified School District regarding this issue, but very
little interest was shown in accommodating our concerns. The
school district’s position is that since Mission Hills has a diverse
architecture which includes some modern designs, the district
considers the proposed design of the school to be compatible
with its surroundings.
In light of the school district’s position, Mission Hills Heritage
decided to take an electronic poll of its members to explore
the possibility of a consensus for a grassroots opposition to
the proposed design. Members were asked if they liked,
disliked, or were neutral about the design. An opportunity to
write additional comments was also given. We found the poll
results to be inconclusive: 25 were in favor; 30 opposed; and 15
were neutral. These numbers do not constitute a mandate, and
therefore the board of Mission Hills Heritage has decided not to
take any more action in this matter.
However, anyone wishing to express an opinion to the school
district in this regard is encouraged to send a letter directly to:
Gary Stanford, Director of Project Management
San Diego Unified School District
gstanford1@sandi.net
Janet Cortez, Senior Project Manager, Facilities
jcortez1@sandi.net
Donald Craig, Principal
dcraig1@sandi.net
Mike Zdon
Mission Hills Town Council
mikezdon@aol.com
Rick Roesling
info@rntarchitects.com
Todd Gloria
City Council Representative for Mission Hills
toddgloria@sandiego.gov
Anthony Bernal, Director of Community Projects
for Todd Gloria
abernal@sandiego.gov
Rich Reyes
Community Representative for Todd Gloria
richr@sandiego.gov
Members-Only Coffee in Spring
If you are a current member of Mission Hills Heritage, you will
soon receive an email invitation to attend another membersonly coffee. These biannual social events are always held at a
historic home in Mission Hills on a Saturday morning in spring
and again in the fall. Please make sure you have notified us of
your latest preferred email address so you don’t miss out on
these special events.
Also, if you have a historic home and are interested in hosting
such an event, please contact us at (619) 497-1193. The typical
attendance is 30 people. Our team of volunteers brings the
supplies and does all the work!
Page 7 of 8
(Impact of 1915 Panama-California Exposition
continued from page 3)
lines as status symbols of their social position. The biggest and
the finest homes erected between 1910 and 1915 were located
in the new Mission Hills and Inspiration Heights District, as
well as Burlingame, Loma Portal, and Bankers Hill. By opening
day at the Panama-California Exposition in 1915, Mission Hills’
neighborhoods were crawling with visitors, seasonal renters,
and tourists seeking historical viewpoints that the “villa lots”
around the edges of Mission Hills had to offer of breathtaking
vistas west to the Pacific Ocean and south across San Diego
Bay all the way down to Old Mexico.
wanted rental houses located along the rail
line so the tourists could access the exposition
when the first buildings opened in 1911 and
1912.
All the wealthy elite of San Diego wanted their
homes to be prominent along the electric railway
2014 Financial Statements
From Lynne Fletcher, Treasurer
Below are the unaudited 2014 financial statements of
Mission Hills Heritage that have been prepared from
our books and records. The Board of Mission Hills
Heritage takes seriously its responsibility for managing
the resources entrusted to it by the membership.
We annually plan a level of spending that directly
supports the anticipated needs of programs and
ongoing operations as well as extraordinary needs that
may arise from threats to our community’s historical
resources, character, and charm. With your help,
we will continue to be a vital and recognized force in
promoting, celebrating, and protecting our heritage for
years to come.
ASSETS
Ordinary Income/Expense
Current Assets
Income
Checking/Savings
Contributed support
$
217.83
Chase - Savings
$
64,026.26
$
64,244.09
$
500.00
Misc expenses
4,877.54
$
500.00
Non-personnel expenses
6,855.04
Total Checking/Savings
Total Accounts Receivable
Total Current Assets
Programs
Total Income
18,458.76
24,288.85
$
64,744.09
$
64,744.09
Occupancy expenses
1,258.00
Professional services
10,081.25
Total Expense
TOTAL ASSETS
5,663.09
Expense
Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable
Earned revenues
167.00
Chase - Checking
Net Income
23,071.83
1,217.02
LIABILITIES & EQUITY
Equity
1,217.02
Unrestricted (ret. earnings)
$
63,527.07
Net Income
$
1,217.02
$
64,744.09
$
64,744.09
Total Equity
TOTAL LIABILITIES & EQUITY
Page 8 of 8
325 W. Washington Street, Suite 2 - Box 221
San Diego, CA 92103
Phone - 619.497.1193
email - info@MissionHillsHeritage.org
Board meetings are held the fourth Thursday
of each month. Call for the meeting location.
Officers
President - Laura Largey
Vice President - James Reily
Chairman of the Board - Barry E. Hager
Treasurer - Lynne Fletcher
Secretary - Sharon Lieder
2015 MHH Upcoming Events
April 18 • Saturday • Annual Walking Tour
September 26 • Saturday • Annual Home Tour
October 17 • Saturday • Annual Membership Meeting
Board of Directors
Kirk Burgamy
Sanford Lakoff
Hugh Largey
Ron Lehman
Jane Ligon
Robert Self
Advisory Director - Ron May
Newsletter Committee
Barry Hager • Valerie Lemke
Laura Largey • Ron May
Event Chair - Ron May
Oral History Chair - Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Membership Manager - Sandé Lollis
Senior Editor - Julie Kolb
Graphic Design & Layout - Sandé Lollis
Webmaster - Sandé Lollis
Visit us on the web!
www.MissionHillsHeritage.org
325 W. Washington Street, Suite 2 - Box 221
San Diego, CA 92103