The San Diego River valley was originally called Emat Kuseyaay, which was then named by the Spanish as La Cañada de San Diego. Cañada in Spanish means gully, ravine, or glen. The name was changed to Mission Valley in the 1860s in reference to
Mission San Diego de Alcalá. The Mission Valley area was inhabited by
Kumeyaay Indians for more than 10,000 years, which was home to many Kumeyaay villages such as the villages of Nipaquay (
Nipawai), Haiir, and
Cosoy (''Kosa'aay''). The first Spanish settlement in present-day California was the
Presidio of San Diego and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, both established in 1769 next to the village of Cosoy. The Presidio and Mission were located at the western end of Mission Valley, which is now present-day
Old Town, where the valley opens out into the flood plain of the San Diego River. In 1774, the Mission was moved to its present location at the eastern end of Mission Valley because of better access to freshwater for drinking and farming. Until the 1940s, Mission Valley remained largely undeveloped, featuring dairy farms and other agricultural activities; the city of San Diego was largely confined to areas south of the valley. After World War II, the city's expansion began to encroach on the valley. The last of the valley's dairy farms closed in the early 1960s. The development of Mission Valley began in 1953 when the first hotel was built in what is now Hotel Circle. In 1958, the city council rezoned of the river valley to allow the construction of San Diego's first regional shopping center. The Mission Valley Center (now Westfield Mission Valley) opened in 1961 and was followed by several other large regional shopping malls. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the
U.S. 80 freeway (now
Interstate 8) was constructed through Mission Valley, further opening the area up for development.
Westgate Park, a baseball stadium for the then-minor-league
San Diego Padres, was built in Mission Valley in 1957. In 1967,
San Diego Stadium (later renamed
Jack Murphy Stadium, then
Qualcomm Stadium, then SDCCU Stadium) was opened and the Padres moved there, becoming a major league team the following year. Westgate Park was razed in 1969 and was replaced by the
Fashion Valley Mall. San Diego Stadium was demolished in 2021 and was replaced by
Snapdragon Stadium in 2022. ==Boundaries==