Heritage Park Victorian Village

Heritage Park Victorian Village, at 2455 Heritage Park Row in Old Town, San Diego, California, is a small county park where a group of 19th-century buildings were relocated to save them from demolition. By the 1960s and 1970s, downtown San Diego was losing many of its Victorian homes to redevelopment, and a preservation movement led by local citizens and organizations moved a selection of the structures to a hillside near Old Town. The park opened in the 1970s. The buildings represent the Queen Anne, Italianate and Eastlake styles popular in the 1880s and 1890s, when San Diego grew rapidly after the arrival of the railroad and the founding of New Town. The best known is the Sherman-Gilbert House, built in 1887 and later moved to the park, a Stick-Eastlake home associated with a family of local prominence and a rare surviving example of its style. The park also contains the Christian Temple, a Queen Anne church built in 1889, the Bushyhead House, the Burton House and other homes. Several of the houses now serve as a bed and breakfast, a shop or event spaces, while the church is used for weddings and small gatherings. Visitors generally see the buildings from outside, with the grounds open daily. The architecture is decorated with spindlework, bay windows, patterned shingles and steep gabled roofs. Restoration was done by volunteers and preservation groups, who repaired woodwork and repainted the houses in historical colors. The park is less a conventional museum than an outdoor architectural collection, and its interpretation relies on signs and occasional tours. Its location above the Old Town historic park makes it an easy addition to a historic walking circuit, and the grounds are free to enter. Check availability if hoping to see interiors, since these are limited to events and tours.