We needed to be in La Jolla (1850) and decided to explore a city Steve grew up visiting but never looked beyond the fun he was having with all his cousins. We experienced history lessons, art exhibits, and interesting architecture, all within a one mile radius.
We began our tour at The Athenaeum Music and Arts Library. It is now home to a non-profit membership library, one of only 17 in the country.Its history began in 1894, when a small group of pioneer La Jolla women formed the La Jolla Reading Club. In 1898, Florence Sawyer, a frequent visitor to La Jolla, constructed a Reading Room at the corner of Girard Avenue and Wall Street (this plaque commemorates the event).
By the 1920s, the library had outgrown its space. With generous support from Ellen Browning Scripps and others, a new library building was designed by William Templeton Johnson, who would become the architect of many of San Diego's most important civic structures, including Balboa Park's San Diego Museum of Art and Museum of Natural History. The gracious Spanish Renaissance–style building was dedicated and opened to the public in 1921.For many years, the Library Association, a private institution, supported a general library. In 1955, the City of San Diego agreed to take over the operation of the library as one of its public library branches. The Athenaeum donated the bulk of its library holdings to the public library, retaining certain books on music and art as the nucleus of a collection for the newly named Athenaeum Music & Arts Library.In its art gallery was the Stuart Collection, an exhibition which celebrates 40 years of sculptures at the UCSD college campus (a tour of which is on my list).
A stroll through The Arcade is a stroll through history. There's a story to why this passage, under a series of Mission-style arches, was built in 1928. Four years earlier, an electric trolley line was constructed connecting La Jolla to San Diego. The main station was in a building a few steps from one end of the Arcade. To accommodate shoppers bustling to catch the trolley, architect Herbert Palmer designed this passageway with small shops on either side. The trolley is gone but this fun detour is still here almost 100 years later.I am always excited by WPA projects and when they are post offices, I am downright giddy. This hub of the community was built in 1935.It is extra special that it houses an interior mural by artist Belle Barranceanu, a cubist-style depiction of La Jolla Village (1935-36).
Our next stop was a visit to Wisteria Cottage, a 1904 beach Cottage and example of the distinctive vernacular architecture of early La Jolla. The Cottage was listed as a San Diego Historical Landmark in 1982. It was once owned by the notable Scripps family, and during the period of 1907-09 was remodeled by master architect Irving Gill under commission by Virginia Scripps. This home is the sole-surviving Irving Gill Craftsman Cottage in La Jolla, and the community’s most important remaining example of Cottage architecture. We are fans of Mr. Gill and he has been mentioned a few times on this blog.The Cottage is now home to the La Jolla Historical Society.
We have left much to be discovered here. One such thing are the Murals of La Jolla, "which demonstrates that commissioning artists to create works for public spaces brings energy and vitality to a community." I liked Math Bass' Newz! Oh we definitely will be back!
"A country without a past has the emptiness of a barren continent; and a city without old buildings is like a man without a memory." -Graeme Shankland, Architect and City Planner
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