Kensington, San Diego

Kensington, San Diego
Community of San Diego
Kensington
A neon sign hangs over Adams Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Kensington.
Kensington, San Diego Location within Central San Diego
Coordinates: 32°46′17″N 117°06′00″W / 32.771399°N 117.10001°W / 32.771399; -117.10001
Country	United States of America
State	California
County	San Diego
City	San Diego

Kensington is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. Its borders are defined by Interstate 15 to the west, Interstate 8 to the north, Fairmount Avenue to the east, and Monroe Street to the south. Its neighboring communities are Normal Heights to the west, and City Heights to the south.

Kensington was founded in 1910 when a map was filed on April 9, 1910. The map contains the name of two sisters who owned the land which became the Kensington Park subdivision. Abby (Hall) Hitchcock and Mary (Hall) Gleason inherited the ex-Rancho Mission land from the estate of their deceased brother and mother. Abby's husband was a realtor, and her brother-in-law was a land use attorney and early mover-and-shaker in San Diego. Through the Hitchcock brothers, a connection was made to William Douglas, a real estate promoter from Los Angeles. Douglas' name also appears on the original Kensington Park map.

William Douglas promoted the subdivision and handled the early sales of lots. A newspaper announcement heralded the opening of the Kensington Park subdivision for lot sales on November 25, 1910. The owners had managed to convince the officials of the San Diego Electric Railway company to extend the Adams Avenue trolley line into Kensington Park in time for the opening. The first houses began to be built in 1910 and were all of the Craftsman style. The original Kensington Park subdivision stretched from Ward Canyon on the west (now SR-15), to County Line Road (now 42nd Street) on the east, and from Monroe Avenue on the south to Jefferson Avenue on the north (now Alder Drive). Kensington Park was annexed to the City of San Diego in 1952.

Sometime in 1913, the two sisters sold their interest in the Kensington Park land to a consortium of former executives from the Santa Fe Railway Company, headed by G. Aubrey Davidson. Davidson redrew the map of Kensington Park and acquired more land to the north to develop Kensington Manor. Later subdivisions followed, including Kensington Heights, Kensington Park Annex. These areas today are known collectively as "Kensington".

From its beginnings in 1910, Kensington was serviced by route 11 of the San Diego Electric Railway ( SDERy ) via a wooden trestle bridge across Ward canyon.  Automobile access from Adams was added in 1913 when a second bridge was built beside the first.  During the time of that service, the line ran several historically notable streetcar designs including the San Diego Class 1 StreetCar, one of the first "pay as you enter" designs in the nation, and the "The Presidents' Conference Committee" design, both built by the St. Louis Car Company.  Streetcar service to the neighborhood continued until 1949 when the last of San Diego's street car lines were abandoned.