San Diego Strolls: Mixing Exploration Afoot with Public Transportation

At 1st Avenue & Broadway, I hopped on Route 11 and headed north into Bankers Hill, then Hillcrest, and finally University Heights. As soon as the bus turned onto Adams Avenue, I requested a stop and disembarked to meet a friend at Old Trolley Barn Park. 

I didn't realize it at the time, but arriving by public transit was a fitting way to visit a neighborhood whose history is closely tied to it.

Where the trolleys slept

Today, Old Trolley Barn Park is an 8.5-acre neighborhood green space, with a broad lawn, playground and views toward Mission Valley. But beginning in 1913, this land had a different purpose.

A massive red-brick trolley barn once stood here, built to house and service San Diego's electric streetcars. The facility contained more than a mile of track and could accommodate roughly 100 streetcars. Trolleys entered and exited through a network of switches connected to Florida Street.

These streetcars were an important part of University Heights' development. They allowed residents and visitors to travel between downtown and the neighborhood by rail. In fact, the old No. 11 streetcar traveled up from downtown, eventually reaching Park Boulevard—the same route number that had delivered me to the neighborhood today.

By 1949, buses and automobiles had displaced San Diego's streetcars. The trolley barn was sold to the San Diego Paper Box Company and converted into a warehouse before eventually being demolished around 1980. Developers proposed building housing on the property, but neighborhood residents organized to preserve the land as public open space. Their efforts ultimately succeeded, and Old Trolley Barn Park was established. 

From streetcars to strolling

From the park, my friend and I continued on foot to admire the nearby beautiful homes, and then later in search of food and drink. And fortunately, we didn't have to look long.

Park Boulevard has developed into one of the neighborhood's defining dining corridors. The three-block stretch between Meade and Adams alone packs restaurants, cafés, bars and dessert shops into a remarkably walkable area. And the variety is part of the fun. Within a relatively small area, we found everything from sushi and Thai food to Ethiopian cuisine, casual cafés, cocktails, coffee, savory pies and ice cream. 

Rather than arriving with a reservation or a destination already programmed into our phones, my friend and I did something refreshingly simple: we walked around until something looked good.

This article originally appeared in the San Diego Sun as part of the "Walking In The City" column. Read the original version here.