History of the La Jolla Historical Society

The La Jolla Historical Society was founded in 1963 by a small group of community leaders and local citizens dedicated to preserving the community's rich heritage and culture. However, the work of the Society actually dates back to the late 1930s with the arrival in La Jolla of Howard S.F. Randolph. A historian and genealogist from New England, Randolph advocated greater recognition of local history in the community, particularly in La Jolla's development during the 1880s and '90s. Working with the Library Association of La Jolla, Randolph established a Historical Committee and gathered photographs and documentation to create his seminal book La Jolla: Year by Year. The publication triggered increased interest in local history amongst La Jollans, culminating in a February 22, 1940, meeting in the Presbyterian Church attended by more than a hundred citizens to discuss La Jolla's recorded past and how it might be best preserved. With the community's support, Randolph's collection grew, becoming the nucleus of the significant archival collection of images and documents that the Society maintains today.

La Jollans' efforts supporting heritage education and preservation remained connected to the Library Association for years. In 1955, the Association financed a second edition of Randolph's book and, by the 1960s, community members realized a separate organization was necessary to address the growing interest in La Jolla history. After the Society's founding, the board of trustees of the Library Association in April 1964 gave the Historical Committee permission to transfer the Randolph Collection to the new organization. Articles of incorporation were filed on July 7, 1964, with the Society's first officers being Barbara Dawson (President); Hiomi Nakamura (Vice President), and Mrs. A. B. Crosby (Secretary).

Throughout its history, the Society has operated out of numerous facilities, initially working from a room in the La Jolla Federal Savings & Loan building at 1100 Wall Street. It then met in private homes until 1968 when a small office was established at 7917 Girard Avenue. In 1971, operations were moved to the La Jolla Public Library at 1010 Wall St. (location of the present-day Athenaeum). Six years later, the Society moved to the Colonial Inn. Finally, in 1981, the Society moved to its current location in a 1909 cottage at 7846 Eads Avenue, located within the historically significant Scripps-Gill cultural complex in central La Jolla.

Today, the Society boasts more than 1,000 members and has grown into a multi-faceted non-profit organization with an exciting future. In 2005, the Society secured long-term leases on the three buildings on the site of what was once the estate of Ellen Browning Scripps, including the Society's current headquarters and the adjacent Carriage House and historic Wisteria Cottage (formerly John Cole's Book Store). Current plans call for the renovation of Wisteria Cottage as the Society's new home, featuring spaces for public exhibitions, an educational center, gift shop, and modern, enlarged archival storage. In 2006, the organization hired its first full-time Executive Director and professional Archivist/Curator and launched a multi-million dollar capital campaign to raise funds for the restoration of the three structures.

Historic Wisteria Cottage

780 Prospect Avenue

Located on the corner of Prospect Street and Eads Avenue in the heart of the Scripps/Gill Cultural District, Wisteria Cottage is by far the most prominent of the La Jolla Historical Society's facilities. Outstanding for its proximity to the ocean, rich architectural roots, and significance of past ownership and residents, Wisteria Cottage is one of La Jolla's most distinguishing structures.

Wisteria Cottage Plaque

Wisteria, named for the wisteria-covered pergola in front of the entry, was built in 1904 by George B. and Edith M. Seaman, who relocated to La Jolla from Alameda, CA. The Seamans owned the property only briefly before deeding it to a son whose ownership was also abbreviated. It was then sold to E. Virginia Scripps, half-sister of beloved La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. With this transfer, the Cottage began its long-standing association with the community as a historical landmark where even today it remains in the ownership of Scripps family descendants.

Known for her generosity as much as her eccentricity, Virginia Scripps first offered the Cottage as a temporary home for the St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church from 1906-08 until the church could be relocated to its present site across the street on land she donated. During that time she also commissioned acclaimed architect Irving Gill to design an addition, completed in 1909, which added to the property's value a grand total of $1,375!

Although Gill's name is not specifically tied to the original cottage, the architecture is reminiscent of the craftsman style that characterized his early years before he turned to more modern veins in the La Jolla cultural center, in buildings such as the Recreation Center and Woman's Club. The original cottage and addition retains its historic character: a wood-framed house with a pitched hip roof. Gill's addition and remodel included enclosing a front porch on either side to create, in the architect's terms, a loggia, making the basement into living quarters and adding the trademark pergola. The final distinctive feature of Wisteria is the cobblestone masonry foundation, a detail repeated in the smaller cobblestone wall about a foot tall around the entire property line.

In its hundred-plus year history, Wisteria Cottage has experienced a number of uses, all important to the cultural and educational life of the community. Although Virginia Scripps never used it as a private residence, her guests who visited La Jolla often occupied the house for long intervals. They included the naturalist John Burroughs who spent the winter of 1920-21 in residence. After Virginia Scripp's death, ownership of the property passed to her niece, Dolla, who lived there until 1942 when title went to Ellen Revelle, a member of the Scripps family and wife of UCSD founder Roger Revelle. The cottage then became the Balmer School, predecessor of the current-day La Jolla Country Day School.

After the school relocated, Wisteria Cottage began a long period of tenure ship as a bookstore. From 1961-66 it was the Nexus Bookstore and from 1966 to 2005, the John Cole's Book Store. As John Cole's it became a landmark noted for book signings and visits by famous personalities, including actor Charles Laughton (who loved to sit in the attic and read) and Dr. Seuss (the La Jolla children's' book author who lived just up the hill). It was during this time that the cottage was designated Historic Site No. 166 by the City of San Diego.

With owner Barbara Cole's death in 2005, Wisteria Cottage began a whole new era of history — devoted to history. The La Jolla Historical Society signed a ten-year lease with the Revelle family with plans to renovate the cottage and surrounding gardens for use as a museum, gift shop, education center, and archival storage.

La Jolla Cottage (current LJHS Headquarters)

7846 Eads Avenue

In the early 1900s, La Jolla was a small beach-side town of a few dirt roads with horse-drawn carriages and about a hundred residential cottages, either rented or owned. Most cottages had one or two bedrooms with no plumbing or electricity. Typically, they were of simplistic exterior wood shingle construction and finished inside with wainscot and pine plank floors.

One such cottage was built in 1909 at 245 Prospect Street, utilized as a residence and rental for decades. The La Jolla Historical Society, which had been located in a small office at the Colonial Inn hotel on Prospect Street, acquired the cottage as the Society's new home after discovering the cottage would be demolished to make room for a three-story condominium. In 1981, the cottage was moved a few blocks north on Prospect and around the corner to its current Eads Avenue location by La Jolla developer Dewhurst & Associates. The expense of moving the cottage was provided by the Revelle Family, whose property the cottage now occupies, just down the hill from Wisteria Cottage. Once in place, plumbing and electricity was installed.

Over the past twenty-five years, in its adaptive re-use by the Society, the cottage has held archives collection files, staff offices of the executive director, office manager, archivist, and historian and accommodates a growing corps of volunteers. Work is located throughout four separate rooms, each retaining historical flavor with original wainscot and windows replete with "wavy" window glass — the effects of time on a century-old structure.

Carriage House

Eads Avenue

Until about 1912, there were no cars in La Jolla, horse-drawn carriages and wagons being the transportation of the early days. At the time, Ellen Browning Scripps owned an extensive tract of property along the La Jolla coastline that included her first Victorian-style home (Moulton Villa), a lathe house and this carriage house is still on its original Eads Avenue site that housed her horse-drawn carriages. A 1915 arson fire destroyed Moulton Villa and much of Scripps' surrounding structures but the small Carriage House escaped untouched.

With the age of the automobile approaching, the Carriage House began to accommodate Scripps' stylish new Pierce Arrow touring car, driven around town by chauffeur Fred Higgins. British by birth, Higgins remained Scripps' chauffeur until her death in 1932. It was widely reported that he lived in the back room of the Carriage House for some years, although in an oral interview years later he gave his address as 7866 Eads Avenue, another Scripps'-owned cottage farther down the street and no longer in existence.

The Carriage House is characteristic of the many small buildings constructed in La Jolla in the early 1900s, featuring single-wall construction with wood siding finishing the main façade. A high-pitched roof and garage entry doors allowed large carriages to come and go with ease. The rear of the structure contains a series of small partitions that may have been used as living quarters at some time. One window repeats the small triangular-topped panes also found in Wisteria Cottage.