At the time of the founding of San Diego, the area that is now Normal Heights was largely covered with brush and populated only by rabbits.

[2] The community was officially founded in 1906, when a syndicate led by D. C. Collier and George M. Hawley filed a subdivision map with the county.

[3] A trolley barn was built in Normal Heights in 1913; the Adams Avenue Operating Division was established in 1915.

The blaze damaged or destroyed "expensive bluff-top buildings with views of the valley and Mission Bay" as well as "modest bungalows built when the Normal Heights community was first started in 1906.

[6] Normal Heights is centrally located in the city of San Diego, on a mesa just south of Mission Valley.

[8] Like other urban mesa neighborhoods north of Balboa Park, Normal Heights has a high rate of pedestrian activity.

The Adams Avenue Street Fair, Southern California's largest free music festival, is typically held the last weekend in September.

[citation needed] Normal Heights is a Mid-City Community and is part of City Council District 9, currently represented by Sean Elo-Rivera.