At the July 2023 meeting of the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board, members considered the La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, and recommended that it advance to the California State Historical Resources Commission. The commission, meeting in Sacramento in August, unanimously agreed that the 8-acre La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register and forwarded the nomination report to the keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C. for final processing. The boundaries of the district are based on an 1887 map of La Jolla Park, as it was then called. Lot sales began that year, quickly leading to development of the now internationally renowned jewel that attracts artists, tourists, and residents. The district hugs 2.5 miles of meandering coastline from Torrey Pines Road and Coast Walk at the north end to almost the south terminus of Coast Boulevard. It includes natural landmarks, and historic architectural landmarks and landscape elements. Among these are the Cove, Children’s Pool, Red Roost and Red Rest cottages, the Cave Store and sea caves, 90-foot palm trees, and private homes. Bruce Coons, SOHO’s executive director, voiced SOHO’s strong support for the nomination.

Opponent groups argued that the district could bring harmful effects to the sea lions and harbor seals who haul up along the La Jolla coast. These groups heard reassurances from state and city preservation officials that the National Register historic district would not supersede local, state, and federal marine wildlife or ocean protections.

Also at the HRB’s July meeting, Coons and another speaker urged the board and city preservation staff to get involved in protecting the Spanish Presidio (1769) and its valuable archeological elements and cultural landscape. Coons seconded Presidio Heritage Trust archaeologist Paul G. Chase’s strong call for the city to recognize Presidio Park, a National Historic Landmark, as its “premier monument for international tourism.” Both advocated for the city to conduct an Environmental Impact Report, rather than a less strict Mitigated Negative Declaration, for the so-called ADA project in Presidio Park. HRB chair Tim Hutter asked how the city made its stated choice to bypass an EIR and why the HRB hadn’t been consulted on the project. Hearing that no site development permit was required, he seemed skeptical and asked staff to request that the project come before the board. Board member Courtney Coyle, chair of the HRB’s subcommittee on Archaeological and Tribal Cultural Resources, said it too should look into the Presidio ADA project.

Coons also asked the board to investigate how the century-old, city-owned Balboa Theatre was recently repainted in non-historic colors by a tenant organization and to prevent this error from happening again.

Staff gave an update on the status of what had the appearance of an orchestrated slew of recent designation appeals. Appeals of two designations were later withdrawn, and no appeals followed the June meeting. Still pending are three appeals of April designations: the Donald and Gladys Clitsome/Lloyd Ruocco House; Mamie and Oliver Evans/William Templeton Johnson House; and Fred Rohr/Ralph L. Frank House.

The board designated two homes, described below. For information only, they heard the Historic Preservation Component of the University Community Plan Update.

1570 Virginia Way, La Jolla, is the c. 1911 Helmhurst Cottage, designated as an early example of a one-story, small La Jolla beach cottage. Its typical characteristics include a low-pitched roof, wood shingle siding, and orientation toward a coastal view, which is enhanced here by a steep hillside site above Torrey Pines Road. The home meets HRB Criterion A, as part of the La Jolla community’s development and is one of a dwindling number of remaining beach cottages.

2304 Plum Street, Peninsula Community, is a one-story Spanish Colonial Revival style home built in 1928. Called the Ernest and Ida Cushman Speculation House, it meets HRB Criterion C, for embodying character-defining features of the style and architectural integrity. The house features, among other historic elements, an asymmetrical facade; a deep recessed, arched front entry with a wooden plank style door; deep inset wood casement windows; a combination of roof forms, including flat, hipped, shed, and faux gable; mission half-barrel tile roof; decorative rafter tails; and a hand-troweled stucco cladding with sand finish. The designation includes the original garage. The designation excludes the 2019 pergola structure in the rear yard.

2412 A Street, Golden Hill, is a 1912 Prairie Style house. Because of a misguided addition of a second-story enclosed porch on top of the flat roof that protects the recessed main entry, the two-story home was deemed a non-contributing structure when the city formed the Greater Golden Hill Historic District. The current owner conferred with HRB staff for guidance in removing the enclosure, and restoring the facade and its original stucco finish. Approving the changes that authentically turned back time, the board designated the house under HRB Criterion F—a contributor to a historic district. Courtesy Google street view