La Jolla

La Jolla, 1908

Local Native Americans, the Kumeyaay, called this location mat kulaaxuuy (IPA [mat kəlaːxuːj]), lit. 'land of holes' (mat = 'land').[11] The topographic feature that gave rise to the name "holes" is uncertain; it probably refers to sea-level caves located on the north-facing bluffs, which are visible from La Jolla Shores. It is suggested that the Kumeyaay name for the area was transcribed by the Spanish settlers as La Jolla. Another suggestion for the origin of the name is that it is an alternative spelling of the Spanish phrase la joya, which means 'the jewel'. Despite being disputed by scholars, this derivation of the name has been widely cited in popular culture.[12] This supposed origin gave rise to the nickname "The Jewel".[13] The name may also come from the Spanish La Hoya, meaning a geographic hollow. Different spelling conventions over the years would permit this to be written as La Jolla.[14]

"Red Roost" and "Red Rest", two bungalow cottages built in 1894 on the road above La Jolla Cove. In recent years the cottages have been covered in tarpaulins.

The side view of "Red Roost", a bungalow cottage built in 1894, one of two that still exist on the road above La Jolla Cove

During the Mexican period of San Diego's history, La Jolla was mapped as pueblo land and contained about 60 lots. When California became a state in 1850, the La Jolla area was incorporated as part of the chartered City of San Diego. In 1870, Charles Dean acquired several of the pueblo lots and subdivided them into an area that became known as La Jolla Park. Dean was unable to develop the land and left San Diego in 1881. A real estate boom in the 1880s led speculators Frank T. Botsford and George W. Heald to further develop the sparsely settled area.

In the 1890s, the San Diego, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla Railway was built, connecting La Jolla to the rest of San Diego. La Jolla became known as a resort area. To attract visitors to the beach, the railway built facilities such as a bath house and a dance pavilion. Visitors were housed in small cottages and bungalows above La Jolla Cove, as well as a temporary tent city erected every summer. Two of the cottages that were built in 1894, the "Red Roost" and the "Red Rest", also known as the "Neptune and Cove Tea Room", still exist and are the oldest buildings in La Jolla that are still on their original site. The two cottages have been vacant since the 1980s, boarded up and covered in tarpaulins while their fate was debated. In November 2020 the Red Rest was largely destroyed by fire.[15]

The La Jolla Park Hotel opened in 1893. The Hotel Cabrillo was built in 1908 by "Squire" James A. Wilson and was later incorporated into the La Valencia Hotel.[16]

By 1900, La Jolla comprised 100 buildings and 350 residents. The first reading room (library) was built in 1898.[16] A volunteer fire brigade was organized in 1907; the city of San Diego established a regular fire house in 1914. Livery stable owner Nathan Rannells served successively as La Jolla's volunteer fire captain, first police officer (the only San Diego police officer north of Mission Valley), and first postmaster.[17]

La Jolla Elementary School began educating local children in 1896.[18] The Bishop's School opened in 1909. La Jolla High School was established in 1922. Between 1951 and 1963, other elementary schools (Bird Rock, Decatur, Scripps, and Torrey Pines) were established in the area to ease overcrowding.[18] The La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club (later the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club) was built in 1927.[16]

La Jolla Recreational Center

In 1896 journalist and publisher Ellen Browning Scripps settled in La Jolla, where she lived for the last 35 years of her life. She was wealthy in her own right from her investments and writing, and she inherited a large sum from her brother George H. Scripps in 1900. She devoted herself to philanthropic endeavors, particularly those benefiting her adopted home of La Jolla. She commissioned many of La Jolla's most notable buildings, usually designed by Irving Gill or his nephew and partner Louis John Gill. Many of these buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places or are listed as historic by the city of San Diego; these include the La Jolla Woman's Club (1914), the La Jolla Recreational Center (1915), the earliest buildings of The Bishop's School, and the Old Scripps Building at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as her own residence, built in 1915 and now housing the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Her donations also launched the Scripps Memorial Hospital in 1924 (originally located on Prospect Street in La Jolla until it moved to its present site in 1964), the Scripps Metabolic Clinic (now the Scripps Research Institute), and the Children's Pool. Ellen Browning Scripps also founded Scripps College, a women's college, in 1926.[19] Scripps College is located in Claremont in Los Angeles County (not to be confused with Clairemont, a community of San Diego).

Scripps Institution of Oceanography pier

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the nation's oldest oceanographic institutes, was founded in 1903 by William Emerson Ritter, chair of the zoology department at the University of California, Berkeley, with financial support from Scripps and her brother E. W. Scripps. At first the institution operated out of a boathouse in Coronado. In 1905, they purchased a 170-acre (69 ha) site in La Jolla, where the Institution still stands today. The first laboratory buildings there opened in 1907. The institution became part of the University of California in 1912. Ultimately, it became the nucleus for the establishment of the University of California San Diego.

From 1917 through 1964, the United States Marine Corps maintained a military base in La Jolla. The base was used for marksmanship training and was known as Camp Calvin B. Matthews. During and after World War II, the population of La Jolla grew, causing residential development to draw close to the base, so that it became less and less suitable as a firing range because of risk to the adjacent civilian population.[20] Meanwhile, the site was being eyed as a location for a proposed new campus of the University of California. In 1962, Camp Matthews was declared surplus by the Marine Corps. The base formally closed in 1964, and that same year, the first class of undergraduates enrolled in the University of California San Diego.

The June 2007 Watermelon Drop at Revelle College

Local civic leaders had long toyed with the idea of a San Diego campus of the University of California, and the quest became more definite following World War II. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under its director Roger Revelle, had become an important defense contractor, and local aerospace companies like Convair were pressing for local training for their scientists and engineers. The state legislature proposed the idea in 1955, and the Regents of the university formally approved it in 1960.[21] During the planning stage of the university's establishment, it was briefly known as the "University of California, La Jolla", but the name was changed to "University of California, San Diego" before its founding in 1960.[22] The founding chancellor was Herbert York, named in 1961, and the second chancellor was John Semple Galbraith, named in 1964. The university was designed to have a "college" system; there are now seven colleges. The first college was established in 1965 and was named Revelle College after Roger Revelle, who is regarded as the "father" of the university.[22] A medical school was established in 1968. The landmark Geisel Library with its Brutalist architecture opened in 1970. The university is the second largest employer in the city and has the 7th largest research expenditure in the country.[23]

The Camp Matthews site for the university was selected with some hesitation; one of the concerns was "whether La Jollans in particular would lay aside old prejudices in order to welcome a culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse professoriate into their midst".[21] La Jolla had a history of restrictive housing policies, often specified in deeds and ownership documents. In La Jolla Shores and La Jolla Hermosa, only people with pure European ancestry could own property; this excluded Jews, who were not considered white. Such "restrictive covenants" were once fairly common throughout the United States; the 1948 Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer ruled them to be unenforceable, and Congress outlawed them twenty years later via the Fair Housing Act (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968).[24] However, realtors and property owners in La Jolla continued to use more subtle ways of preventing or discouraging Jews from owning property there.[25] Revelle stated the issue bluntly: "You can't have a university without having Jewish professors. The Real Estate Broker's Association and their supporters in La Jolla had to make up their minds whether they wanted a university or an anti-Semitic covenant. You couldn't have both."[26] The issue was overcome; La Jolla now boasts a thriving Jewish population,[27] and there are four synagogues in La Jolla.[28]

The Christian cross on Mount Soledad

Mount Soledad is an 822-foot-tall (251 m) hill on the eastern edge of La Jolla and one of the highest points in San Diego. A large Christian cross was placed at the top in 1913 as a prominent landmark. It has been replaced twice, most recently in 1954 with a 29-foot-tall (8.8 m) cross (43 feet (13 m) tall including the base). Originally known as the "Mount Soledad Easter Cross", its presence on publicly owned land was challenged in the 1980s as a violation of the separation of church and state. Since then the cross has had a war memorial built around it and was renamed "Mount Soledad Veterans War Memorial".[29]

The issue has been in almost continual litigation ever since, with the city attempting to sell or give away the land under the cross. By an act of Congress, the federal government took possession of it under eminent domain in 2006. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declared the cross unconstitutional in 2011, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear an appeal.[30] In December 2013, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ordered that the cross be removed within 90 days, but stayed the order pending a forthcoming appeal by the government.[31][32]

On July 20, 2015, a group called the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association reported that it had bought the land under the cross from the Department of Defense for $1.4 million.[33] On September 7, 2016, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a one-page ruling, ordering dismissal of the case and an end to all current appeals, stating that the case was now moot because the cross was no longer on government land. Both sides agreed that this decision puts a final end to the case.[34]

La Jolla became an art colony in 1894 when Anna Held (also known as Anna Held Heinrich) established the Green Dragon Colony. This was a cluster of twelve cottages designed by Irving Gill, who had moved to San Diego only a year earlier and later became San Diego's best-known architect.[35]

The La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer.[36] It became inactive in 1959, but was revived in 1983 on the University of California campus under the leadership of Des McAnuff. It now incorporates three theaters: the Mandell Weiss Theatre (1983), the Mandell Weiss Forum (1991) and the Potiker Theater (2005).

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was founded in 1941 in La Jolla, in the former home of Ellen Browning Scripps (designed by Irving J. Gill). The museum has undergone several renovations and expansions, and is working on plans to triple its size.[37][38]

The La Jolla Music Society was founded in 1941 as the Musical Arts Society of La Jolla by Nikolai Sokoloff, former conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. It presented the premieres of commissioned works in the auditorium of La Jolla High School before presenting their concerts in the Sherwood Auditorium of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Since April 2019, the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center is the permanent home of La Jolla Music Society and hosts world-class performances presented by LJMS as well as other San Diego arts presenters. Additionally, The Conrad will see a wide range of conferences, corporate meetings, and private events.

In the mid-20th century, Downtown La Jolla was a major regional retail district with branches of major department stores Walker Scott and upscale specialty department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and I. Magnin, all on Girard Avenue within walking distance of each other.[39] Boutique shopping continues there, but heavyweight retail presence, since the closing of the last downtown La Jolla department store, Saks Fifth Avenue, in 2004, has long since moved to Westfield UTC and other adjacent shopping centers.

The community's border starts at Pacific Beach to the south and extends along the Pacific Ocean shoreline north to include Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve ending at Del Mar, California. La Jolla encompasses the neighborhoods[40] of Bird Rock, Windansea Beach, the commercial center known as the Village of La Jolla, Muirlands, La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Farms, Torrey Pines, and Mount Soledad to name a few.

The City of San Diego defines the community's eastern boundary as Gilman Drive and the Interstate 5 freeway[41] and the northern boundary as UCSD.[42]

The United States Postal Service defines a somewhat larger area, assigning the community the 92037 ZIP Code, recognizing it as a historically and geographically distinct area. This unique ZIP code allows addresses to read La Jolla, CA, and is the only community within the City of San Diego so recognized. Additionally, it is in the 919xx/920xx sequence used for suburban and rural ZIP Codes in San Diego County, rather than the 921xx sequence used for the remainder of the City of San Diego. These conditions sometimes lead to the erroneous impression that La Jolla is a separate city, rather than a part of San Diego. The 92037 ZIP code extends the northeasterly boundary to Genesee Avenue and the northerly boundary to Del Mar, California. The UCSD campus, also part of La Jolla, has ZIP Codes 92092 and 92093.

Despite the city and postal service definitions, La Jolla does not have universally accepted boundaries. In the 1980s, the trustees of Scripps Hospital voted to move the campus from downtown La Jolla to University City, east of Interstate 5 and not within the traditional boundaries of La Jolla. The governing documents of the hospital required it to be located in La Jolla, however. A court ruled that "La Jolla" exists merely as a "state of mind" and thus allowed the relocation of the hospital.[43] Several businesses and housing developments east of Interstate 5 use "La Jolla" in their names despite being geographically located in the University City neighborhood of San Diego, which includes areas east of Interstate 5.

La Jolla is known to home a countless variety of wildlife, including seals, dolphins, green sea turtles, fish, birds,[44] and many sharks most notably (ranging from Great White sharks and Leopard sharks). Many of the aquatic animals belong to an extensive kelp forest off the coast, where scuba divers look to explore and encounter.[45] Throughout the year, especially the summertime, pods of dolphins can be seen playing in the water, sometimes being observed surfing the waves alongside surfers.[46] Seals year-round can be seen, smelled, and heard from the beaches.[47] Often tourists can find them lounging on the rocks, basking in the sun; however, as many locals know, seals are not always a good omen, as seals bring big sharks, especially the Great Whites.[48][49] During the winter, these apex predators breed; hunting the seals around the kelp beds and sometimes even closer to shore.[50] Piers, caves, and buoys are the areas that surfers avoid for these reasons, although majority of shark encounters are uneventful, and often white sharks could be within mere feet of people completely unnoticed.[51]

La Jolla is an area of mixed geology, including sandy beaches and rocky shorelines. The area is occasionally susceptible to flooding and ocean storms, as occurred in January and December 2010.[52]

Mount Soledad is covered with the narrow roads that follow its contours and hundreds of homes overlooking the ocean on its slopes. It is the home of the large concrete Mount Soledad Easter Cross built in 1954, later designated a Korean War Memorial, that became the center of a controversy over the display of religious symbols on government property.

View from Coast Boulevard in between The Cave Store and Children's Pool.

The most compelling geographical highlight of La Jolla is its ocean front, with alternating rugged and sandy coastline that serves as habitat for many wild seal congregations. There are many beaches, accessible from the cliffs all throughout the coast of La Jolla. Locals and surfers will walk barefoot down to the beachfront, occasionally using ropes and planks to safely cross otherwise impassable, steep passageways down the cliff-face.[53] There are many notable tourist locations including Blacks Beach, Torrey Pines Glider Port, Sunset Cliffs, La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Cove, and more. Blacks Beach, commonly known for being one of the only nudist beaches in the area, is one of the most popular lesser known surfer spots throughout the year.[54] The Torrey Pines Glider Port is another a staple of the La Jolla cliffs, as boats coming in from sea are sure to see many gliders scattered throughout the air.[55] Sunset Cliffs is a location popular amongst locals and tourists alike, known for views of the sunset off to the horizon past the cliffs and caves below.[56] La Jolla Shores, not to be mistaken with La Jolla Cove, is located right next to the UCSD Scripps pier[57] and is close to many small shops, homes, and restaurants.[58] La Jolla Cove, the staple of La Jolla, is the most popular tourist destination[59] in La Jolla, featuring many snorkelers,[60] swimmers, and wildlife (most notably the La Jolla seals).[61][62] During some parts of the year, people will find the shallow ends of the beach filled with harmless Leopard Sharks, as they come closer to shore to breed.[63] All of the popular beaches and coastal access points, listed from north to south, include:

The University of California San Diego is the center of higher education in La Jolla. The campus' name was briefly UC La Jolla during the planning stage of the university's development. UCSD includes the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

National University is also headquartered in La Jolla, with several academic campuses located throughout the county and the state. Among the several research institutes near UCSD and in the nearby Torrey Pines Science Park are Scripps Research Institute, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (formerly called the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation), La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI), and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

La Jolla is served by the San Diego Unified School District. Public schools include La Jolla High School, La Jolla Elementary,[90] Muirlands Middle School,[91] Torrey Pines Elementary,[92] and Bird Rock Elementary,[93] as well as Preuss School, a public charter school. The community's prep schools are The Bishop's School, The Children's School,[94] Delphi Academy, Stella Maris Academy,[95] The Gillispie School, and the Evans School. La Jolla Country Day School is located in the nearby community of University City.