Saving 2122: Chapter One, Meet the MacKay Apartments

I own a four-plex at 2122 30th Street in South Park, and for a while it was mostly just “the building with the wrong Assessor date.”

County records list the construction year as 2014, which is clearly not right. The building has older bones, older details, and a history that seemed worth figuring out.

So I started digging.

The goal is to better understand the property’s history and see whether it may qualify for historic designation. If it does, that could potentially open the door to San Diego’s Mills Act program, which offers property tax relief to qualifying historic properties in exchange for ongoing preservation and maintenance.

The next Mills Act filing window opens March 31, 2027, so there is a real timeline to work against.

Starting With the Right People

My first step was reaching out to Katherine Hon, secretary of the North Park Historical Society.

Technically, 2122 30th Street sits just outside her usual area, but I figured she would know where to point me. She wrote back with more than just guidance. She had already looked through old newspaper archives and sent over an evaluation suggesting the building may qualify as an individually significant historic resource.

She also sent a PDF of historical notes that gave me the first real outline of the building’s story.

The MacKay Apartments

The property is historically known as the MacKay Apartments.

According to Susan Hunter Bugbee’s book, South Park: Seaman & Choate’s Addition, the story appears to begin in March 1912, when builder Frank E. MacKay pulled a permit to construct a 12-room residence on 30th Street between Hawthorn and Ivy.

His sister, Margaret MacKay, had purchased the lots the month before. Frank and Margaret moved into one of the units and lived there for about a decade.

By September 1912, ads were already running for the completed building:

“New, modern, four rooms; on the No. 2 car line.”

The streetcar line was the selling point, which makes sense for the time and gives a good sense of how the neighborhood was being marketed as it grew.

The 1930 Conversion

The property changed hands over the following years and was eventually owned by Charles and Leanna Kern in the 1920s.

In June 1930, the Kerns hired builder Stanley Nash to convert the duplex into the four-plex configuration it has today. The documented cost was $5,900, including roofing, fixtures, and permits.

Old Evening Tribune clippings track the work, which is helpful because the building’s physical history is going to matter for any future historic review.

By 1974, the property was being advertised for sale as:

“Four Sharp Ones!!!”

Not subtle, but effective.

The People Connected to the Building

The resident history is also interesting.

Around 1940, John Joseph Smith, a World War I Navy veteran and one of the most decorated servicemen in San Diego at the time, lived at the property with his wife and son.

There is also a newspaper item connected to Leanna Kern, who wrote about a dangerous road trip through the Canadian Rockies where she and Charles drove past a forest fire that killed several people.

These details may or may not factor into a formal historic designation case, but they help build a fuller picture of the property and the people connected to it.

The Assessor Date Issue

The paperwork is where things get a little messy.

I asked my title rep, Ryan, to pull a preliminary title report so I could review the ownership chain and see what the County had on file. The prelim also shows a 2014 build year, which does not align with the newspaper records, permit references, or the building itself.

I called the Assessor’s Office, and they suggested the correct year may actually be 1914, not 1912.

That is still something I need to verify with the original building permit. Either way, the current 2014 date appears to be wrong.

Once I have the original permit documentation, I plan to go downtown to the Assessor’s Office at 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 103, to request a correction.

Next Steps

From here, I’m working on a few things at once:

Tracking down the original building and remodel permits from the City
Finding a copy of Susan Hunter Bugbee’s South Park: Seaman & Choate’s Addition
Searching the San Diego History Center archives for historic photos
Reviewing the ownership chain through the preliminary title report
Identifying a preservation consultant with San Diego HRB experience
Preparing for the formal Historical Resources Research Report

That report is the main piece. The City requires it for historic designation, and it would be the foundation for any future Mills Act application.

Why It Matters

This started because the Assessor date was obviously wrong. But the more I dig, the more it feels like 2122 30th Street has a real story worth documenting.

It is a streetcar-era South Park building with early 1900s roots, a 1930 four-plex conversion, a long chain of owners and residents, and enough documentation to keep the process moving.

There is still a lot to verify, but this is the start.

Saving 2122, Chapter One.