University Heights Architectural Styles: Spanish Colonial

By Ginger Weatherford Architectural Historian

Founded in 1888, University Heights is one of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods with several significant historic landmarks including the former Mission Cliff Gardens, Ostrich Farm, Trolley Carbarn, and San Diego Normal School.

University Heights also has many older homes, including 170 that are historically designated, that represent a wide variety of architectural styles from Craftsman, Spanish Colonial Revival, Minimal Traditional, Contemporary, Victorian, and Queen Anne Free Classic to Mission Revival.

This is the second in a series of articles that will focus on the architectural features that define some of the most common architectural styles in University Heights. Homes designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style were built between 1910 and 1945 and represent about 20% of the properties in the 2007 Uptown Historic Resource Survey database for University Heights.

What is the Spanish Colonial Architectural Style?

Architectural style is defined as a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable.

Spanish influenced architecture was revived in San Diego when New York architect, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, designed the master plan for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.  Buildings within the Exposition ranged in style from Spanish Baroque Churrigueresque to more vernacular building forms influenced by the architecture of Spain, Mexico and Native Americans throughout California, the Southwest, and Florida. 

After the Exposition closed in 1917 and throughout the 1930s, Spanish influenced design was very prominent in residential architecture.

Spanish Colonial Style Architectural Features

There are a wide variety of identifying features of the Spanish Colonial style including asymmetrical facades, stucco exterior walls, prominent arches, low-pitched roofs with little or no eave overhang, and red tile roof cladding.  Decorative details influenced by Moorish, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance designs, such as towers, arches, decorative tiles, and grilles, are also utilized.

Slide Show of Spanish Colonial Style Architectural Features

Scroll through the slide show of homes to view some of the character-defining features of the Spanish Colonial architectural style:

Low-pitched roofs with little or no eave overhang

4435 New Jersey Street. Image Source: University Heights Historical Society.

Flat roof with parapet

4795 Oregon Street. Image Source: Homeowner

Red tile roof covering

4469 Georgia Street. Image Source: CHRID.

Prominent deeply cut arches above principal windows and doors

1050 Cypress Avenue. Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Smooth or textured stucco exterior

4226 Georgia Street. Image Source: CHRID.

Asymmetrical façades

4795 Oregon Street. Image Source: Homeowner.

Casement Windows

1050 Cypress Avenue. Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Relationship to outdoors through use of pergolas, French doors, and terraces

1050 Cypress Avenue. Image Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Brick or tile vents

1050 Cypress Avenue. Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Vents cut out of stucco wall

3481 Cooper Street. Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Ornamental metal work (gates, railings, window grills, lighting)

1025 Devonshire Drive. Image Source: Ginger Weatherford.

Decorative tiles around doors and windows and on stair risers

3481 Cooper Street. Source: Ginger Weatherford.