Lemon Grove

Lemon Grove is one of San Diego's smallest incorporated cities. With a population a little over 25,000, it enjoys all the benefits of a municipality and the warmth, charm, and more intimate community focus of a small town. The annual Community Bonfire, Sheriff's Pancake Breakfast, Lemon Grove Days, and summer concerts in the park are just a few of the many events that bring Lemon Grove neighbors and neighborhoods together.

Located roughly 9 miles from downtown San Diego along Highway 94, just south of La Mesa and east of Spring Valley, Lemon Grove's four square miles of terrain are mostly coastal mesas. Subtle elevation changes -- ranging from 280 to 530 feet -- and its celebrated weather made Lemon Grove ideal for year-round citrus farming in the last century, and today makes it one of the more attractive and established East County communities. Single-family ranch and Craftsman homes dominate the city's well-maintained neighborhoods, but the area's mostly postwar developments also include a variety of housing options, such as condos, townhouses, and apartments.

Lemon Grove was incorporated in 1977, but its post-mission settlement history dates to the early 19th century, when it was incuded as part of a Spanish land grant to Santiago Arguello. In 1868, Robert Allison purchased roughly 4,200 acres of the former rancho, named it Allison Springs, and began ranching sheep there in 1869.

The area was primarily known for its vegetable crops and sheep and poultry ranching for the next two decades, but by the 1890s fruit orchards were popular enough for the Lemon Grove Fruit Growers Association to be established in 1894. At that time, Lemon Grove had a population of 76, who farmed 5- and 10-acre lemon and orange ranches. By buggy, San Diego was an hour-and-a-half away via Lemon Grove Boulevard, which would later become Highway 94.

Over the next 30 years, citrus production grew into a thriving and financially rewarding industry. A railroad and a packing house helped growers ship tons of lemons to the Midwest and East. Bustling with activity and bright with citrus blossoms, local papers called the area "one of the prettiest spots in the San Diego suburban district." Built between 1892 and 1908, the church, school, packing house, and railway station were surrounded by a "sea of lemons," and the chamber of commerce began promoting the settlement as "San Diego County's most picturesque suburb."

By 1928, Main Street was paved and many of the orchards began giving way to residential and commercial buildings. By the time WWII had ended, most of the groves were gone. The postwar boom, and a San Diego population that had doubled during the war, turned Lemon Grove into a popular suburban destination for families looking for a piece of the American dream. The same conditions that had led growers to Lemon Grove -- the weather, lay of the land, proximity to downtown -- proved equally attractive to San Diego residents. By 1960, most of the land best suited to development was gone.

Today, Lemon Grove is a mixture of residential and commercial buildings, with tightknit neighborhoods and a strong sense of community. The Rec Center offers free afterschool programs, the little league fields are a source of civic pride, and the city's parks offer numerous opportunities for rest and recreation. Downtown Village is a thriving business district with a blend of modern and historic buildings, and the city is pursuing an aggressive mixed-use plan for redevelopment that would feature more retail and residential options. The San Diego Trolley's Orange Line provides a convenient, practical, and economic means of transportation to La Mesa, El Cajon, and downtown San Diego for shoppers, workers, and baseball fans.

Lemon Grove honors its citrus-growing heritage with a small stand of lemon trees and a large lemon statue in the Downtown Village area, near the trolley station. The lemon, which graced a Rose Parade float in 1928, is recognized as the world's largest lemon. The fiberglass lemon proudly bears the claim, "Best Climate on Earth," the city's motto for more than 100 years.