Community Corner

Lemon Grove Gets Its Close-Up on 'San Diego Insider'

The city will be featured on Channel 4 San Diego at 6 p.m. on June 19.

Do you know the story about the “Big Lemon?”

Viewers can learn about the city’s icon and other fun facts when Lemon Grove is featured in the Then and Now segment of San Diego Insider, a weekly program on Channel 4 San Diego.

The segment explores San Diego’s past and present by visiting locations found in archived photographs from the San Diego History Center.

Find out what's happening in Lemon Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We like to tell the story that connects the past with the present,” said Jack Gates, San Diego Insider reporter and Then and Now producer, reporter and host. “I’m sure a lot of people don’t realize the history of Lemon Grove. This is just an opportunity for people to learn about the history and the really important role that it played in the county’s history.”

Lemon Grove Historical Society President Helen Ofield gave Gates a tour of Lemon Grove and discussed the city’s history to help him prepare for the segment.

Find out what's happening in Lemon Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It’s a delightful segment that performs a tremendous service to communities that have significant history,” Ofield said. “It brings them to the attention of the wider world."

Gates said the segment will show what the storefronts along Lemon Grove Avenue and the nearby trolley station used to look like.

“When you do that dissolve from the old to the new, there really is kind of a magical moment there,” he said.

Of course, the program will also include the history of the Big Lemon, he added.

“There’s always the Big Lemon that people see and wonder what’s the deal with the Big Lemon,” he said.

Ofield said that curious people often ask Lemon Grove Historical Society members about the structure. Still, she said there is much more about the city that viewers will learn from the segment.

“When I see this program about other people’s communities, it’s invariably fascinating,” she said. “There is a great story under every rock; you just have to go look for them. Jack is out there looking for them.”

San Diego Insider will air on Channel 4 San Diego at 6 p.m. on June 19. The program will repeat that evening at 8 p.m.

“We never know what we’re going to find when we go out on these kinds of stories,” Gates said. “Sometimes things have changed a lot; sometimes things haven’t changed very much. But we always learn something. We hope our viewers learn something, too.”


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