RESOURCES

This Fact Sheet published by the City of San Diego provides information on the historic designation process. Note that we are pursuing the National Registry for the Talmadge Park Estates Historic District, so not all of the city's guidelines will be relevant.

The Standards for Rehabilitation provide direction in making appropriate choices in planning the repairs, alterations, and additions that may be part of a rehabilitation project. The accompanying Guidelines apply the Standards and describe specific treatments that do and do not meet the Standards. The Standards for Rehabilitation are codified in 36 CFR Part 67, are regulatory for the Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program, and are the Standards most often used by local historic district commissions nationwide.

Potential Historical Resource Review

Designated Historical Resource Review

City of San Diego Development Services Department

Evaluation of proposed changes to historic structures, including buildings in historic districts, goes through San Diego's Historic Resources Board (HRB). HRB operates under the auspices of Development Services. Visit DSD's Historic Resources webpage for more information. 

The DSD website also has more information on regulations and processes related to managing changes to historic properties, including properties in historic districts. Click here for more information.

The North Park Dryden Historical District put together a list of frequently asked questions, which we have cribbed for our FAQ page.

This opinion piece in the San Diego Union Tribune clarifies that Historic Districts manage change in neighborhoods and do not prevent ADUs and other compatible developments.

Forbs article entitled, Your House Is In A Historic District: Does That Raise Or Lower Its Value? 

Forbes article highlighting that property values increase in historic districts, by Regina Cole

This article by Andrew J. Narwold, Professor of Economics, School of Business Administration, University of San Diego, models the positive effect of historical designation on the values of surrounding homes.

Published in International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis

Article about the effect of the Mills Act designation on property values, by University of San Diego Professors of Economics Andrew Narwold and Jonathan Sandy, and Associate Professor of Real Estate Charles Tu, International Real Estate Review, 2008 Vol. 11 No. 1: pp. 83 - 95

Article quantifying the effects of upzoning on land values and housing prices.

One of the benefits of owning a contributing resource to a historic district is that your house is automatically eligible for a Mills Act contract and the property tax benefits that come with it. (Normally, you would have to go through the process and expense of getting your house individually designated yourself before applying for the Mills Act.)

Enabled by state legislation in 1972 and adopted by the San Diego City Council in 1995, the Mills Act offers a unique tool for historic preservation through a revolving 10-year contract between the City and the property owner. The program's strength is that it incentivizes, through a property tax reduction, investment in historic preservation for the maintenance, restoration and rehabilitation of historic properties within the City of San Diego.

For full details, visit the City of San Diego's Mills Act webpage here.

Talmadge derives its character and sense of community from its historic lights and gates. The Talmadge Maintenance Assessment District (TMAD) was established in 1999 in part to restore the gates and acorn lights. To get more information on the creation of the district, visit the Talmadge website. The gates were also featured in a segment of Ken Kramer's "About San Diego". 

The full historic report can be found on San Diego's Historic Resources Board (HRB) website.

The following addresses in Talmadge have been designated as historical:

4825 Adams Avenue

4554 Norma Drive

4609 Norma Drive

4615 Norma Drive

4725 Norma Drive

Click here for further details.

The California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID) catalogs all historic resources in San Diego. Historic properties can be searched in various ways.

This is the list of master builders, architects, and landscape architects recognized by San Diego, with biographies and significant works for each.

The subdivision maps are represent the original division of the land for development. The subdivision maps are the starting point for indexing the address information, lot and block books, and so on. These maps are obtained from the County Administration Building, Room 103.​

The proposed historic district combines two subdivision maps. These are:

Map 1900 - Talmadge Park Unit Three (1926)

Map 2104 - Talmadge Park Estates (1928)

The above maps also comprise Zone 2 of the Talmadge Maintenance Assessment District (TMAD). 

Related maps, which are not included in the district include:

Map 2306 - Talmadge Park Estates Unit 2 (1946)

Map 2392 - Talmadge Park Estates Unit 3 (1947)

These maps comprise part, but not all, of TMAD Zone 1.

The lot and block books are used as a reference for when each property was built. These books are obtained from the County Administration Building, Room 103.

As with the phone books, the entry appears in the Lot and Block book the year following the year that the house was built; for example, if a house were built in 1929, the first year for improvements would be 1930 in the Lot and Block Books.

These are the worksheets for recording information from the Lot & Block and Phone Books. These are the primary resources that are used to determine when a property was built. Entries appear in L&B and phone books the year after the property is built and occupied.

Use this worksheet for a single property.

Once you have determined the year built for a given property, you can use this worksheet to summarize the information street by street.

If the Lot and Block books can't pinpoint the date that the property was built, the phone books can provide additional information. The entry appears in the phone book in the year after the property is occupied and phone service is hooked up.

Note that street numbers may have changed over time.

As with the Lot and Block books, usually a house was first listed the year after it was built; for example, if a house were built in 1929, the house would be listed for the first time in a 1930 directory.

Also, you can use the directories to find out if the owner listed in the Lot & Block Books the year the house was built, i.e. 1929, was a builder by looking up the name in relevant directories, i.e. 1929 and 1930. Occupations were often noted beside names in the directories.

Both historic directories and historic Lot and Block Books are acceptable historical documentation for nomination research.  Together they can be used as cross references to help document when a house was built.

The phone books can be found in the City of San Diego's digital archives here.

The Sanborn maps are used to compare current building configurations with prior history.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from San Diego, San Diego County, California.

Sanborn Map Company, 1940 - Dec 1950; Vol. 4

1940 - Dec 1950; Vol. 4.Talmadge is in maps 501, 502, and 503. The west side of Talmadge (by Hoover) is in Volume 2.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from San Diego, San Diego County, California.

Sanborn Map Company, 1920 - Oct 1950; Vol. 2

1920 - Oct 1950; Vol. 2.

West Talmadge is in map 299.

We will be applying for historic designation using the National Register Registration Form, according to these criteria.

This approach follows the model of Inspiration Heights.

Guidelines for Evaluation and Documentation for the National Register of Historic Places By David L. Ames, Linda Flint McClelland (2002)

Available from Google Books.

In 1996 the City of San Diego did a survey of mid-city San Diego, which included a drive-by survey of Kensington and the west side of Talmadge (by Hoover High School).

An overview of the historic survey can be found here. (Browse to the section labeled "Mid-City San Diego Preservation Strategy (1996)" under "Finalized Historic Context Statements With Surveys".)

The survey details specific to Kensington and Talmadge can be found here.

This map shows the area of Talmadge covered in the 1996 survey. The dots indicate the properties that  were singled out for potential historic designation at the time of the survey. Because of the increased passage of time (there is a 50 year horizon on historic designation) and the consideration of a historic district rather than individual houses, we expect that many of the houses that are not marked in the survey will be considered contributors.

This list summarizes the Talmadge properties that are shown in the map. The details of each property can be found here. Where the Primary Record does not show a photo, but rather references the Photo File, those photos can be found here.

The Mid-City Communities Plan includes a brief description of Talmadge.

This is the plan update for the Mid-City Communities, including Talmadge

The Talmadge website has a lot of good background information on the history of Talmadge. Specific items of interest include the Talmadge Master Plan.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is working to connect historic preservation with addressing issues of affordability and climate impact in our cities.

Highlights key financial, aesthetic, and environmental reasons why the windows you already have are the best choice for your historic home.