Linda Vista started with a housing boom in 1941
Eighty years ago this month, construction began on Linda Vista, a huge federal defense housing project built on Kearny Mesa, a plateau just north of Mission Valley. The new community was intended to provide homes for the families of aircraft workers pouring into San Diego as World War II raged across the ocean.
From The San Diego Union, Sunday, March 23, 1941:
BUILDING 3000 HOMES IN 300 DAYS JOB OF 3000 MEN ON BUSTLING KEARNY MESA SECTION A HOUSING PROJECT GAINS GROUND DESPITE MUD CITY OF 10,000 WITHIN ONE OF 250,000 SOON TO BE REALITY ACROSS VALLEY
A city which will be inhabited by 10,000 to 12,000 residents is rising magically from the brush-covered lands on Kearny Mesa.
The order from Uncle Sam is 3000 homes in 300 days, or an average of 10 homes a day. Tomorrow 3000 men will report back to work after a day of rest and continue the beehive activity, which for four weeks has been progressing despite rain and mud.
Guiding this tremendous project is an office staff of 400, which takes care of everything from stray nails to paychecks. Charts and blueprints show exactly what has been done, what remains to be done — even how far behind schedule the work has fallen because of inclement weather.
MESA PROJECT COVERS 1000 ACRES
The Kearny Mesa project spreads over about 1000 acres. Construction plans are divided into five sections. Most of the preliminary work on Section A has been completed. Lots have been surveyed for 422 units, most of the excavating has been done and foundations have been laid for several hundred homes. Work in Section A includes homes in every stage of construction, from foundation to completed unit.
The natural question is: Just what kind of house is Uncle Sam building for defense workers? The answer is a complete, modern abode, with built-in floor furnace for heat and kitchen equipped with cooking stove and electric refrigerator.
The homes are being constructed in single, duplex and multiple units, the largest being two-story structures with accommodations for six families. The average unit is 25 by 30 feet, totaling 750 square feet of floor space. Compact arrangement provides for a sizeable living room, and each bedroom will have a roomy closet.
MESA HOMES PRESENT COLORFUL PICTURE
Speculation over the final appearance of this “city within a city,” was distrustful that it might be an “eyesore” to San Diego. The impression gained by visitors to the mesa at this early date however, is that the 3000-unit community will be one of the showplaces of San Diego. Even in its incomplete stage, the large group of structures in Section A, which have reached an advanced state of construction, present a colorful picture with their vari-hued roofs. The exteriors of these homes by no means present a stereotyped pattern. Siding vary in line, some being of stucco, others frame, and still others, a combination of both.
Cooperation is the keynote on which the nation’s largest defense construction project is progressing. On the one hand, the public buildings administration and the federal works agency are working hand-in-hand as the government’s representatives. The magnitude of the project threw together two large construction firms. The McNeil Construction Co., and Zoss Construction Co., both of Los Angeles, have the joint responsibility of seeing that 3000 homes, complete with all facilities and fronted by surfaced roads, are ready by next February.