Mission Hills is a neighborhood of San Diego. It is located on hills just south of the San Diego River valley and north of downtown San Diego, overlooking Old Town and San Diego Bay. It was subdivided on January 20, 1908 as a smaller portion of what is now referred to as Mission Hills. The City of San Diego describes Mission Hills a being the area north of Horton Avenue, South of Mission Valley, West of Goldfinch Streer and Reynard Way, and East of the Old Town community area. Mission Hills is part of the 92103 zip code area.
The area is primarily residential, with some small shops and restaurants. The area was developed in the early 20th century and most of the houses are still from that era, often carefully preserved and restored. Homes there were also often designed by San Diego’s premier architects including William Hebbard, William Templeton Johnson, Emmor Brooke Weaver, Nathan Rigdon, Richard Requa, and Joel E. Brown. Master Builders such as the Pacific Building Company, Morris B. Irvin, and Martin V. Melhorn contributed by building in the vernacular architecture.
Modern homes were built along canyon rims as infill during the 1950s and 1960s by modern masters such as Lloyd Ruocco, Homer Delawie, John Lloyd Wright and Sim Bruce Richards, among others. Ironically, San Diego's most famous architect, Irving Gill never built in Mission Hills as by the time this area was being developed he was mainly working in Los Angeles county.
The famous horticulturalist, Kate Sessions helped to influence development in Mission Hills. She founded the Mission Hills Nursery, which is still an active business (since 1910).
Several public, private, and religious schools are located in Mission Hills. The best known is the lower school campus of the private Francis Parker School, founded in 1912. This school was run on progressive ideals by William Templeton Johnson and his wife Clara. Mr. Johnson designed the original school building and his wife ran the school.
