Bonita

History: Bonita in the Sweetwater River Valley was carved out of the Rancho de la Nación, part of which was incorporated as National City in 1887. Scotsman Hiram Murray Higgins cultivated what he called Bonnie Brae lemons, and other citrus farms followed. The valley was periodically flooded, most devastatingly in 1916 when the Sweetwater Dam failed. The area became popular for wealthy residents and their horse stables, a South County version of Rancho Santa Fe. How it got its name: Henry Ernest Cooper Sr. named his ranch Bonita (“beautiful” in Spanish) in 1884, and the local post office adopted the name. Landmarks: Richard Allen built Glen Abbey Memorial Park in 1924 with landscaping by Balboa Park horticulturist Kate Sessions. The Little Chapel of the Roses, opened in 1925, is a replica of Victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson’s chapel in England. The 1915 Little Church of the Valley was moved and rebuilt after it was washed away in the 1916 flood. U.S. Grant Jr., son of the president, built a home in the 1890s on Sweetwater Road. In Dutch colonial revival style by San Diego architects William S. Hebbard and Irving J. Gill, it is being restored and incorporated into the Phair Co.’s new Carriage Hill Estates subdivision. Did you know: Dead Man Mountain, about a half-mile south of Ellen B. Allen Elementary School, was where 27-yearold Elmore I. Shoudy died in a glider crash on Dec. 3, 1928, beforeacrowd including his wife and two children. Local notables: San Diego Zoo ambassador Joan Embery, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron.