St. Matthew's Episcopal Church

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1904.

From the record

“Matthew's Episcopal Church is a historic church at 521 E. 8th Street in National City, California. It is an active congregation within the Episcopal Church and is part of the Diocese of San Diego.”
Wikipedia article St. Matthew's Episcopal Church (National City, California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 148 National Register listings published here for San Diego County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 521 E. 8th St., National City, 91950
When was it listed? October 1973
Category. building
Census division. San Diego
Architectural style. Gothic Revival
National Register reference number. 73000432 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1904 to 1996

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, surveyed 1996

Topographic sheet covering St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, surveyed 1904

Fires near this property

465 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 465 fires within 5 miles of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church between 1994 and 2020, burning about 250 acres in total. None started naturally. 101 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	258
Arson/incendiarism	101
Debris and open burning	41
Smoking	30
Misuse of fire by a minor	21
Equipment and vehicle use	10
Recreation and ceremony	4

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	San Diego Unit	not named
9 September 2011	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	San Diego Unit	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
8 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
7 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	San Diego Unit	not named
7 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	San Diego Unit	not named
7 September 2007	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
7 September 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in San Diego County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Salt, Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
National Brick Company	Clay	Past Producer
Sweetwater Sand Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Chollas Valley Salt Co.	Salt	Past Producer
Sweetwater Creek	Salt	Past Producer

Every working recorded in San Diego County

Storms near this property

2 since 2019

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names National City, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 2019 and 2022: 1 flash flood, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
December 2022	Hail	National City	$10,000	Hail of pea size (0.25 inch) to 0.5 inch in diameter, with hail covering the road on Coronado. Accidents reported on Highway-75 between Nab Coronado and Leyte Road on the Silver Strand (Beach Highway). One vehicle flipped.
November 2019	Flash Flood	National City	-	Swift water rescue occurred in National City.

Every storm recorded in San Diego County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1904 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500 - 9 printings
1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000 - 5 printings
1930 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500
1944 USGS National City quadrangle1:31680
1950 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1954 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1967 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1979 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings
1996 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Brick Row	0.3 miles	1973
Granger Hall	0.8 miles	1975
Station and General Office, California Southern Railroad	1.3 miles	1996
Chicano Park	3.0 miles
Villa Montezuma	3.4 miles	1971
Alfred Haines House	3.5 miles	1992

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000432 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
San Diego County	All 148 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.