La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on three sides by ocean bluffs and beaches and is located north of

Downtown San Diego Downtown San Diego is the city center of San Diego, California, the eighth largest city in the United States. In 2010, the Centre City area had a population of more than 28,000. Downtown San Diego serves as the cultural and financial center and ...

and south of the

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

line. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature of . La Jolla is home to many educational institutions and a variety of businesses in the areas of lodging, dining, shopping, software, finance, real estate, bioengineering, medical practice and scientific research. The

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

(UCSD) is located in La Jolla, as are the

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

(part of UCSD),

Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

, and the headquarters of

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...

(though its academic campuses are elsewhere).

History

Origin of the name

Local Native Americans, the

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

, called this location ' (), "land of holes" (' = "land"). 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 La Jolla Shores, with its northern part Scripps Beach, is a beach and vacation/residential community of the same name in La Jolla, San Diego, California. The La Jolla Shores business district is a mixed-use village encircling Laureate Park on Ave ...

. It is suggested that the Kumeyaay name for the area was transliterated by the Spanish settlers as '. Another suggestion for the origin of the name is that it is an alternative spelling of the Spanish phrase ', which means "the jewel". Despite being disputed by scholars, this derivation of the name has been widely cited in popular culture. This supposed origin gave rise to the nickname "The Jewel". 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.

Early history

During the Mexican period of San Diego's history, La Jolla was mapped as ''

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

'' 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 A real-estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real-estate markets, and typically follow a land boom. A land boom is the rapid increase ...

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 A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures. State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable ten ...

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. 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. By 1900, La Jolla comprised 100 buildings and 350 residents. The first reading room (library) was built in 1898. 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 Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Missi ...

), and first postmaster. La Jolla Elementary School began educating local children in 1896. The Bishop's School opened in 1909.

La Jolla High School La Jolla High School (LJHS) is a comprehensive high school for grades 9–12 located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California. Opened in 1922, La Jolla High School (LJHS) is the second-oldest campus in the San Diego Unified School Distric ...

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. The La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club (later the

La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club is a private social club located on the shores of the La Jolla area of San Diego, California. History The first foundation for the club began in 1927, when the area was designated for a private yacht club. The l ...

) was built in 1927.

Ellen Browning Scripps

In 1896 journalist and publisher

Ellen Browning Scripps Ellen Browning Scripps (October 18, 1836 – August 3, 1932) was an American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her half-brother E. W. Scripps created the E. W. ...

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 Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve ...

or his nephew and partner

Louis John Gill Louis John Gill (May 9, 1885 – August 19, 1969) was a San Diego-based architect and the nephew and one-time business partner of another famous San Diego architect, Irving Gill. The San Diego Historical Society calls Louis Gill "one of San Dieg ...

. Many of these buildings are now on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

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 The La Jolla Recreational Center is a historic recreation center in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California. It was commissioned by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, on property adjacent to her home, and designed by San Diego's bes ...

(1915), the earliest buildings of The Bishop's School, and the

Old Scripps Building The Old Scripps Building is a historic research facility on the campus of the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California. Built in 1909-10, is the oldest oceanographic research building in continuous use in the United States, and ...

at the

, as well as her own residence, built in 1915 and now housing the

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (or MCASD), in San Diego, California, US, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present. Mission The stated mission of ...

. Her donations also launched the

Scripps Memorial Hospital Scripps Health is a nonprofit health care system based in San Diego, California. The system includes five hospitals and 19 outpatient facilities, and treats a half-million patients annually through 2,600 affiliated physicians. The system also inc ...

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

), and the Children's Pool. Ellen Browning Scripps also founded

Scripps College Scripps College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1 ...

, a women's college, in 1926. Scripps College is located in Claremont in Los Angeles County (not to be confused with Clairemont, a community of

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

The

, one of the nation's oldest oceanographic institutes, was founded in 1903 by

William Emerson Ritter William Emerson Ritter (November 21, 1856 – January 10, 1944) was an American biologist. Ritter initiated and shaped the Marine Biological Association of San Diego (now Scripps Institution of Oceanography of UC San Diego) and the American S ...

, chair of the zoology department at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, with financial support from Scripps and her brother

E. W. Scripps Edward Willis Scripps (June 18, 1854 – March 12, 1926), was an American newspaper publisher and, together with his sister Ellen Browning Scripps, founder of The E. W. Scripps Company, a diversified media conglomerate, and United Press ne ...

. At first the institution operated out of a boathouse in

Coronado Coronado may refer to: People * Coronado (surname) * Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred to simply as "Coronado" * Coronado Chávez (1807–1881), President of Honduras from 1845 to 1847 Places United ...

. In 1905, they purchased a 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 The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

in 1912. Ultimately, it became the nucleus for the establishment of the University of California San Diego.

Camp Matthews

From 1917 through 1964, the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 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. 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.

University of California, San Diego

Local civic leaders had long toyed with the idea of a San Diego campus of the

, and the quest became more definite following World War II. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under its director

Roger Revelle Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (March 7, 1909 – July 15, 1991) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global ...

, had become an important defense contractor, and local aerospace companies like

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, it ...

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. 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. The founding chancellor was

Herbert York Herbert Frank York (24 November 1921 – 19 May 2009) was an American nuclear physicist of Mohawk origin.http://www.edge.org/conversation/nsa-the-decision-problem. The Decision Problem He held numerous research and administrative positions a ...

, named in 1961, and the second chancellor was

John Semple Galbraith John Semple Galbraith (November 10, 1916 – June 10, 2003) was a British Empire historian concentrating on Canada (The Hudson's Bay Company) and South and East Africa. He served as chancellor of the University of California San Diego, from 1 ...

, 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 Revelle College is the oldest residential college at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California. Founded in 1964, it is named after oceanographer and UC San Diego founder Roger Revelle. UC San Diego—along with Revelle Colle ...

after

, who is regarded as the "father" of the university. A

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

was established in 1968. The landmark

Geisel Library Geisel Library is the main library building of the University of California, San Diego. It is named in honor of Audrey and Theodor Seuss Geisel. Theodor is better known as children's author Dr. Seuss. The building's distinctive architecture, des ...

with its

Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...

opened in 1970. The university is the second largest employer in the city and has the 7th largest research expenditure in the country.

Antisemitism

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". 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

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an ancestry could own property; this excluded

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, who were not considered

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. Such "

restrictive covenants A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a se ...

" were once fairly common throughout the United States; the 1948 Supreme Court case ''

Shelley v. Kraemer ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', 334 U.S. 1 (1948), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark United States Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive housing Covenant (law), covenants cannot legally be enforced. The ...

'' 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 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applie ...

). However, realtors and property owners in La Jolla continued to use more subtle ways of preventing or discouraging Jews from owning property there.For example, when the world-famous mathematician and philosopher

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He was known to friends and professional colleagues alike by the nickname Bruno. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to sc ...

came to the

in 1963, he wanted to build a home on La Jolla Farms Road for his family. For his required character references, his family produced letters from members of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, in 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." The issue was overcome; La Jolla now boasts a thriving Jewish population, and there are four synagogues in La Jolla.

Mount Soledad cross

Mount Soledad Mount Soledad, also known as Soledad Mountain, is a prominent landmark in the city of San Diego, California, United States. The mountaintop is the site of the Mount Soledad Cross, the subject of a 25-year controversy over the involvement of reli ...

is an 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 cross ( 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 The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

. Since then the cross has had a war memorial built around it and was renamed "Mount Soledad Veterans War Memorial". 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 Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

in 2006. The

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

declared the cross unconstitutional in 2011, and the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

declined to hear an appeal. 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. 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 Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

for $1.4 million. 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.

Arts

La Jolla became an

art colony An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...

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

, who had moved to San Diego only a year earlier and later became San Diego's best-known architect. The

La Jolla Playhouse La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. History La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer. In 1983, it was revived under ...

was founded in 1947 by

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

Dorothy McGuire Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actre ...

, and

Mel Ferrer Melchor Gastón Ferrer (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ''Scaramouche'', ''Lili'' and ''Knights of the Round ...

. It became inactive in 1959, but was revived in 1983 on the University of California campus under the leadership of

Des McAnuff Desmond Steven McAnuff (born June 19, 1952) is the American-Canadian former artistic director of Canada's Stratford Festival and director of such Broadway musical theatre productions as '' Big River'', '' The Who's Tommy'' and '' Jersey Boys''. ...

. It now incorporates three theaters: the

Mandell Weiss Theatre The Mandell Weiss Theatre is located on the campus of the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, California. The Center houses La Jolla Playhouse La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre on the campus of the Univ ...

(1983), the Mandell Weiss Forum (1991) and the Potiker Theater (2005). The

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. The La Jolla Music Society was founded in 1941 as the Musical Arts Society of La Jolla by

Nikolai Sokoloff Nikolai Grigoryevich Sokoloff (28 May 1886 – 25 September 1965) was a Russian-American conductor and violinist. Biography He was born in Kiev, and studied music at Yale. From 1916 to 1917 he was musical director of the San Francisco ...

, former conductor of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Sev ...

. 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 The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, also known as The Conrad, is a concert hall located in La Jolla, California. It was opened in April 2019 and serves as the permanent residence of the La Jolla Music Society. History Since 1986, the ...

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.

As a regional shopping district

In the mid-20th century, Downtown La Jolla was a major regional retail district with branches of major department stores

Walker Scott Walker Scott, also Walker-Scott or Walker's, was a chain of department stores in San Diego and surrounding area from 1935 to 1986 and had eight branches at the time of its closure. It was founded by Ralf Marc (or R.M.) Walker and George A. Scott ...

and upscale specialty department stores

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...

and

I. Magnin I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, ...

, all on Girard Avenue within walking distance of each other. 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 Westfield UTC (formerly known as University Towne Centre) is an open-air shopping mall located in the University City community of San Diego, California built in 1977. It lies just east of La Jolla, near the University of California, San Diego c ...

and other adjacent shopping centers.

Geography

Demarcation

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 Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is of coastal state park located in the community of La Jolla, in San Diego, California, off North Torrey Pines Road. Although it is located within San Diego city limits, it remains one of the wildest stretches ...

ending at

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...

. La Jolla encompasses the neighborhoods of Bird Rock,

Windansea Beach Windansea Beach is a stretch of coastline located in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. The neighborhood adjacent to the beach is named Windansea after the beach. It is named after the 1909 oceanfront Strand Hotel that was renamed "W ...

, the commercial center known as the Village of La Jolla, Muirlands,

, La Jolla Farms, Torrey Pines, and

to name a few. The City of San Diego defines the community's eastern boundary as Gilman Drive and the Interstate 5 freeway and the northern boundary as UCSD. The

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

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 proper. 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

. The UCSD campus, although it is 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. 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 incorporates everything east of Interstate 5.

Geology

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.

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. La jolla beach

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. Popular beaches and coastal access points, listed from north to south, include: *

Black's Beach Black's Beach is a secluded section of beach beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States. It is officially part of Torrey Pines State Beach. The northern portion of Black's Beach is ow ...

(a ''de facto''

nude beach A nude beach, sometimes called a clothing-optional or free beach, is a beach where users are at liberty to be nudity, nude. Nude beaches usually have mixed bathing. Such beaches are usually on public lands, and any member of the public is allow ...

) *Scripps, near

La Jolla Cove La Jolla Cove is a small cove with a beach that is surrounded by cliffs in La Jolla, San Diego, California. Point La Jolla forms the south side of the cove. The area is protected as part of a marine reserve and is popular with snorkelers, swimm ...

*Boomers Beach * Shell Beach *

Children's Pool Beach Children's Pool Beach is a small sandy beach area located at 850 Coast Boulevard, at the end of Jenner Street, in San Diego, California, United States. The Children's Pool earned its name after the construction of a concrete breakwater in 1931. ...

*Wipeout Beach *Horseshoes *Marine Street *

*Bird Rock

Climate

Demographics

According to United States Census Bureau figures, the ethnic/racial makeup of La Jolla is 82.5% White, 0.8% Black, 0.2% American Indian, 11.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.0% some other race, and 3.1% two or more races. Latinos, who may be of any race, form 7.2% of La Jolla's population. There is also a sizeable Persian population in La Jolla. La Jolla had the highest home prices in the nation in 2008 and 2009, according to a survey by

Coldwell Banker Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is an American real estate franchise owned by Anywhere Real Estate, with headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. It was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and has approximately 3000 offices in 49 countries and territor ...

. The survey compares the cost of a standardized four-bedroom home in communities across the country. The average price for such a home in La Jolla was reported as US$1.842 million in 2008 and US$2.125 million in 2009.

Neighborhoods

* La Jolla Farms — This northern La Jolla neighborhood is just west of UCSD. It includes the

Torrey Pines Gliderport The Torrey Pines Gliderport is a city-owned private-use glider airport located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States, 11 nautical miles (20 km) northwest of the city's central business district. It was first ...

, the

, and a group of expensive homes on the cliffs above

(one of which is the Audrey Geisel University House). *

— The residential area and the

campus along La Jolla Shores Beach and east up the hillside. Also includes a small business district of shops and restaurants along Avenida de la Playa. * La Jolla Heights — The homes on the hills overlooking La Jolla Shores. No businesses. * Hidden Valley — Lower portion of

on the northern slopes. No businesses. * Country Club — Lower Mt. Soledad on the northwest side, including the La Jolla Country Club golf course. *

Village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

— Also called Village of La Jolla (not to be confused with La Jolla Village) the "downtown" business district area, including most of La Jolla's shops and restaurants, and the immediately surrounding higher density and single family residential areas. * Beach-Barber Tract — The coastal section from

to the Village. A few shops and restaurants along La Jolla Boulevard. * Lower Hermosa — Coastal strip south of Beach-Barber Tract. No businesses. * Bird Rock — Southern coastal La Jolla, and the very lowest slopes of Mt. Soledad in the area. Notable for shops and restaurants along La Jolla Boulevard, five traffic roundabouts on La Jolla Boulevard, coastal bluffs, and surfing areas just two blocks off the main drag. * Muirlands — Relatively large area on western middle slope of Mt. Soledad. No businesses. * La Jolla Mesa — A strip on the lower southern side of Mt. Soledad, bordering Pacific Beach. No businesses. * La Jolla Alta — A master-planned development east of La Jolla Mesa. No businesses. * Soledad South — Southeastern slopes of Mt. Soledad, all the way up to the top, east of La Jolla Alta. * Muirlands West — The small neighborhood between Muirlands to the south, and Country Club to the north. No businesses. * Upper Hermosa — Southwestern La Jolla, north of Bird Rock and east of La Jolla Blvd. * La Jolla Village — Not to be confused with the Village (of La Jolla). In northeast La Jolla, east of La Jolla Heights, west of

I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

and south of UCSD. The neighborhood's namesake is the

La Jolla Village Square La Jolla Village Square is a retail power center with a collection of mostly big box retailers. Before 1992, was an enclosed upscale regional shopping mall, mall with department store anchors and an adjacent "convenience center" (or strip mall) ...

shopping and residential mall, which includes two movie theaters.

Community groups

The La Jolla Community Planning Association advises the city council, Planning Commission, City Planning Department as well as other governmental agency as appropriate in the initial preparation, adoption of, implementation of, or amendment to the General or Community Plan as it pertains to the La Jolla area as well as review specific development proposals. The nonprofit La Jolla Town Council represents the interests of La Jolla businesses and residents that belong to the Council. The Bird Rock Community Council serves the Bird Rock neighborhood, while the La Jolla Shores Association serves the La Jolla Shores neighborhood. La Jolla Village Merchants Association, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed in February 2011 to manage the La Jolla Village Business Improvement District for the City of San Diego. Community organizations include Independent La Jolla, a membership-based citizens group seeking to secede from the city of San Diego. Service clubs in La Jolla include

Kiwanis Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Since 1987, the organizatio ...

, Rotary, La Jolla Woman's Club and the Social Service League of La Jolla, to name a few.

Attractions and activities

La Jolla is the location of

Torrey Pines Golf Course Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility on the west coast of the United States, owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla, just south ...

, the site each January or February of a

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

event formerly known as the Buick Invitational and since 2010, called the

Farmers Insurance Open The Farmers Insurance Open is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played in the San Diego, California, area in the early part of the season known as the "West Coast Swing". The tournament was noted for having singer-actor Andy William ...

. Torrey Pines also hosted the 2008 U.S. Open, and will host the 2021 U.S. Open. Nearby are the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

, and the

. Downtown La Jolla is noted for jewelry stores, boutiques, upmarket restaurants and hotels. Prospect Street and Girard Avenue are also shopping and dining districts. The Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1941, is located just above the waterfront in what was originally the 1915 residence of philanthropist

. The museum has a permanent collection with more than 3,500 post-1950 American and European works, including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographic art, design objects and video works. The museum was renamed

in 1990 to recognize its regional significance. Beaches and ocean access include

and

. For many years, La Jolla has been the host of a rough water swim at La Jolla Cove. In 2011, the La Jolla Community Foundation commissioned various artists to contribute to the scenery of the town, through various

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s. Some of the artists that are featured in the series are

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a painter, ...

Julian Opie Julian Opie (; born 1958) is a visual artist of the New British Sculpture movement. Life and education Opie was born in London in 1958 and raised in the city of Oxford. He attended The Dragon School and then Magdalen College School, Oxfor ...

, and Kim MacConnel. There are 11 murals in the series, all of which will be on display for two years. The La Jolla Concours d'Elegance auto show is hosted at

annually.

Education

Higher education

The

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

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

and the

San Diego Supercomputer Center The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). SDSC is located at the UCSD campus' Eleanor Roosevelt College east end, immediately north the Hopkins Parking Structure. ...

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

, the

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Sanford Burnham Prebys is a 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research institute focusing on basic and translational research, with major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The ...

(formerly called the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation),

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology La Jolla Institute for Immunology is a non-profit research organization located in La Jolla, California. It is located in UC San Diego’s Research Park. The institute researches immunology and immune system diseases. The institute employs 220 M.D ...

(LJI), and the

Salk Institute for Biological Studies The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

Other schools

La Jolla is served by the

San Diego Unified School District San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the school district based in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employee ...

. Public schools include

, La Jolla Elementary, Muirlands Middle School, Torrey Pines Elementary, and Bird Rock Elementary, as well as

Preuss School The Preuss School, Preuss School UCSD, or Preuss Model School is a coeducational college-preparatory charter day school established on a $14 million campus situated on the University of California San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla, California, ...

, a public

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

. The community's prep schools are The Bishop's School, The Children's School,

Delphi Academy Delphi Schools, Inc. operates private schools that use the study methods known as Study Tech that were developed by L. Ron Hubbard. The headquarters for Delphi Schools, Inc. are located on the property of the founding school, The Delphian School ...

, Stella Maris Academy, The Gillispie School, and the Evans School.

La Jolla Country Day School La Jolla Country Day School (known informally as "Country Day" or "LJCDS") is an independent school in University City, a community of San Diego, California. The school contains a lower school (consisting of nursery through fourth grade), a m ...

is located in the nearby community of University City.

Religious institutions

Christian: * All Hallows Catholic ChurchSchaelchlin, Patricia. ''La Jolla: The Story of a Community 1897-1987'', Friends of the La Jolla Library, San Diego, 1988 *

Assembly of God The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

Church *

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

(the first church built; burned down in 1915 and re-built in 1916 at 1216 Cave Street) * Barabbas Road Church * First Baptist Church * La Jolla Christian Fellowship * La Jolla Lutheran Church * La Jolla Presbyterian Church * La Jolla Religious

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

* La Jolla

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

* Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic church * Prince Chapel by the Sea (

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

) * St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal * St. John Church of God in Christ * Torrey Pines Christian Church * The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

San Diego California Temple __NOTOC__ The San Diego California Temple is the 47th constructed and 45th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located near the La Jolla community of San Diego, it was built with two main spires, but unique to this ...

* University Lutheran Church Jewish: * Congregation Beth El * Congregation Adat Yeshurun *

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...

Jewish Center of La Jolla

Business and media

La Jolla (under the fictionalized name "Esmerelda") is the setting for

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

's final Philip Marlowe novel, Playback (novel), ''Playback'', published in 1958. Chandler lived in La Jolla for the previous decade. La Jolla's Hotel del Charro becomes "Rancho Descansado" in the novel. A number of landmarks described can still be found today. La Jolla was home to the comic book publisher WildStorm, WildStorm Productions, from its founding by Jim Lee in 1993, until its closing in 2012 when DC Comics, which had purchased the publisher as an imprint in 1998, absorbed the company and moved the office to Burbank, California. La Jolla is the setting for the 2011 season of ''The Real World: San Diego (2011), The Real World: San Diego'', the twenty-sixth season of the long-running MTV reality television series. La Jolla is the base for the Sundt Memorial Foundation, a national organization aimed at discouraging youth from getting involved in drugs. La Jolla is mentioned in the The Beach Boys, Beach Boys' 1963 song Surfin' U.S.A. (song), Surfin' U.S.A. and in The Network, The Network's 2003 song Money Money 2020, Spike. On June 25, 2020 Wilbur Soot released an album called Your City Gave Me Asthma, which included a song called La Jolla after this place. The Netflix sitcom ''Grace and Frankie'' is set in La Jolla, although exteriors are filmed in other parts of California. Scenes from the 2018 film ''The Samuel Project'' were filmed in La Jolla. Disney+'s ''Big Shot (TV series), Big Shot'' takes place in La Jolla.

Notable people

La Jolla has been the home to many notable people, including prominent scientists, business people, artists, writers, surfers and performers.

Notes

References

External links

La Jolla Town Council

Local history timeline
{{Authority control La Jolla, San Diego, Neighborhoods in San Diego Populated coastal places in California Seaside resorts in California Economy of San Diego Spa towns in California Tourist attractions in San Diego