South Park, San Diego

South Park, San Diego

South Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California located east of Balboa Park, and borne out of its southern neighbor Golden Hill. "South Park" is also north of Grant Hill and south of North Park, the boundary being Juniper Street. South Park is a distinct neighborhood that also includes the Burlingame historic district

There has been an ongoing controversy over whether or not South Park has historic significance insofar as its recognition as its own neighborhood independent from Golden Hill. Long time Golden Hill resident and owner/proprietor of the Big Kitchen restaurant, Judy Forman, calls her community Golden Hill. According to her “South Park is a name Republican real-estate people want. They want to be detached from Golden Hill because Golden Hill has an .” The modern boundaries of South Park include the historic neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, which is not often discussed, one rare relic of it being the extant Brooklyn Heights Presbyterian Church.

Serious development in the South Park neighborhood started around 1905 with the extension of streetcar service by the Bartlett Webster developing company. In the 1910s, Golden Hill and the area now referred to as South Park became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was spurred by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of this neighborhood until their retirement in 1939.

South Park is now considered one of the major historic urban communities of San Diego and has long been proposed as a registered historic district. Other historically significant neighborhoods not far from South Park include Golden Hill and Sherman Heights.