Sherman Heights, San Diego, CA

Sherman Heights fills a compact square of streets on the east side of downtown San Diego, boxed in by State Route 94, Interstate 5, Imperial Avenue and 25th Street. Matthew Sherman bought the land in 1867 and subdivided it two years later, which makes it one of the earliest planned residential areas in the city. The houses set this place apart. Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Italianate and Stick-style homes sit beside simpler Craftsman houses from the early 1900s, many with deep porches and detailed woodwork that owners have restored. The city made the neighborhood a historic district in 1987, and it joined the National Register two years later. Freeway construction in the middle decades of the twentieth century took some of those houses. The showpiece is Villa Montezuma on K Street, an 1887 Queen Anne built for the pianist Jesse Shepard and known for its towers and stained glass. The City owns it and runs it as a house museum. For green space, residents cross 25th Street to Grant Hill Park, with its views over the bay and downtown, or head west to Fault Line Park in East Village. Food here leans toward the everyday. Gabriel's Tortilleria on Imperial Avenue presses corn and flour tortillas and sells masa and husks for anyone making tamales at home. Barrio Coffee on 25th Street pours espresso drinks, a house chai and matcha alongside scones and glazed donuts. Market Street and Imperial Avenue carry the rest of the neighborhood's taco shops and small restaurants, and the bigger restaurant scene of East Village is close. Groceries are a quick trip to Smart & Final on 15th Street or Albertsons on 14th Street, both in East Village. Orange Line trolleys pull in at 25th & Commercial, and downtown is close enough to reach on foot or by bike. With freeways on two sides, traffic noise reaches the edge blocks, and the busy commercial corridors carry it along Imperial Avenue too. Inside that frame, though, Sherman Heights keeps the look of San Diego in the 1880s, one restored porch after another.