El Cerrito

North	College Valley Tract
East	College Avenue
South	University Avenue
West	54th Street

General History

These areas would not see significant development until the 1920s when the old Cajon Road became U.S. Highway 80 - "El Cajon Boulevard".

It was during the 1920s that other subdivisions straddling El Cajon Boulevard appeared, including Redland Gardens, Cajon Terrace, Monte Mar Vista; El Retiro, and the area's namesake; El Cerrito Heights.

In the late 1930s El Cerrito Heights was expanded south below El Cajon Boulevard.

After World War II the development of the Belleview Heights area extended the neighborhood to University Avenue.

Rediscover El Cerrito

A neighborhood in San Diego with historical homes of diverse architecture perched on a hill with fantastic views. Forget Mission Hills, Point Loma and Kensington. The latest neighborhood that’s being re-discovered with classic home developments from every era since the 1920’s is El Cerrito.

El Cerrito truly escapes the architectural monotony and ambience of many newer areas because its various home developments span 80 years and have resulted in an eclectic mix. As San Diego City’s suburban growth moved east in the early 1920’s, speculators and developers plotted new subdivisions along El Cajon Boulevard. These new subdivisions included Redland Gardens (1923) and Extension (1924), Highland Gardens (1924), Cajon Terrace (1926), Monte Mar Vista (1926), El Retiro (1927), and the areas namesake, El Cerrito Heights (1926-32).

Many Custom Built Homes

The Great Depression slowed new home development in San Diego, but due to the opening of SDSU, not in El Cerrito. The majority of the homes built to this point were built in the popular Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean Revival styles. Most of these homes were individually built homes of all sizes and shapes. In addition, lots were generally large and so generous gardens are the norm. Since finger canyons run throughout the neighborhood, many homes line the edges of preserved green areas.

Mixture of Architecture

As the community grew, at first mostly north of El Cajon Boulevard, its name evolved to El Cerrito. In the mid-late 1930’s, El Cerrito Heights continued its expansion to the south. As the>

Great Depression gave way to renewed development, the first Federal Housing Administration’s new loan program created a new middle-class market. Soon the earlier tracts such as Ocean View Gardens (1936) began to fill with a mixture of traditional revival style homes such as Cape Cod, Colonial, California Ranch, Streamline, and Modern. By the time World War II began, the northern half of El Cerrito was full of homes.

After World War II, the development of the area picked-up and followed the building trends of the times adding still more diversity as development moved south toward University Avenue. New subdivisions such as Belleview Heights (1947) enlarged the neighborhood. Collwood Village (1947) extended the area northeast of 54th. Later, tracts such as Cosgrove Terrace (1949) and Piedmont Estates (1952) filled in the mesas tops and introduced newer ranch style homes. By the late 1960’s, the new Collwood Drive was cut through and lined with pleasant condominium complexes.

Lot Sizes up to 1 Acre

Today El Cerrito property values have appreciated rapidly, largely because of the neighborhood’s charm and eclectic style homes. These older tracts bring great value, due to their rural development with larger lots. Many of these homes have lot sizes of 1/5 to a 1+ acre, which are large estates compared to most home developments built more recently. Over the past decade, scores of El Cerrito homes have been remodeled, expanded or even rebuilt thus adding even more variety to the neighborhood landscape.

Historic research provided by James Newland.

Community Council

The El Cerrito Community Council (ECCC) is a local community group that holds monthly meetings of interest to the local community.  Visit the ECCC website here.

We appreciate your interest in El Cerrito, an exciting community located in the eastern part of San Diego, which encourages pedestrian activity and fosters a small town ambiance. Our name, El Cerrito literally means, "little hill", and when visiting the community its not hard to understand why. From most homes and streets you can see spectacular views. At 450 feet above sea level, this neighborhood is perched on a hill that affords speculator home vistas of Mexico to the south, city high-rises and ocean to the west, and the mountains to the east and northeast.

We feel that you'll find El Cerrito to be distinctly different from typical inner city neighborhoods and other suburban developments from the past 30 years. The most visible difference is the historic and well-established old subdivisions that support a village concept, encourage people to meet neighbors, walk to nearby parks, sit on front porches, and walk to nearby shops. There is a clear but quiet and cozy street morphology-that is a basic grid but with curving streets and no major throughways. This encourages people to ‘walk around the bock".

The dynamic El Cerrito Community Council’s activate membership works hard to encourage a community for walking people, rather than just cars. This community has a vision for the future and is currently working with the city and developers for new retail and market-rate housing that preserves our architectural character and heritage.

As you learn more about our pedestrian-friendly community online, we hope that we can answer your real estate needs. But whether you visit us in person or peruse us online, we are confident you will appreciate our efforts to rekindle the neighborliness of small town America.

Thank you again for your interest in El Cerrito. We hope you enjoy your online tour!

About Our Neighborhood

El Cerrito has a diverse architectural landscape because it was built (like Mission Hills, Point Loma, Kensington and Talmadge) when builders constructed houses singularly, or a few at a time; in different styles and sizes rather than in tracts of 1,000 units of predetermined models. Much of El Cerrito follows this pre-war "exclusive subdivision" norm that changed with prefabricated mass production techniques pioneered during World War II. Features such as Cajon Terrace’s stone gateways along 55th Street are reminiscent of similar features found in Kensington and Talmadge adding extra charm. In fact, early real estate ads in the 1920’s called the neighborhood "The Mission Hills" of eastern San Diego.
There are large lots and houses of all sizes for people who love gardening and big families or those who want a cozy patio.  The neighborhood also is a short drive and conveniently located to major shopping centers, downtown, beaches, universities, Balboa Park, Hillcrest, La Mesa, the mountains and over 100 culturally diverse restaurants.
The community is far enough inland so that the marine cloud layer is disbursed permitting more sunshine, yet close enough to the ocean to provide cooling in the summer.
We are proud to have San Diego State University nearby. The community can take advantage of cultural and athletic attractions and the new San Diego Trolley station will provide convenient transit service.
Blessed Sacrament Church serves as one of El Cerrito’s architectural landmarks and is visible from miles away. It also forms an important community center and alternative educational option for local residents.