The month of February and its link especially to American history is well-established with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th followed by George Washington’s ten days later, on the 22nd. The combination of both celebrations into a single Presidents Day (this year on the Feb. 19) has greatly curtailed observations of the individual presidents’ February birthdays, but the past remains full of recollections when this was not so.
In the history of patriotic Februarys in La Jolla, one particular year is outstanding. It was 1916. The nation was in the midst of World War I. La Jolla and its then-small population of only a few hundred people was in the midst of throwing a “George Washington Tea Party and Colonial Evening,” later to be reviewed as “the most perfect entertainment in every detail ever given in Southern California.” It was held Feb. 28 on a stage at the then-newly constructed La Jolla Woman’s Club, endowed by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. And, although the staging was by a local talent (Mrs. William Wise, who also appeared as Martha Washington), it may as well have been done by Cecil B. de Mille.
Various tableaux, musicals and dancing were in order for an entire evening, with leading members of the community in ornate costuming and powdered wigs appearing as President Washington and his cabinet members. Other persons played the 13 States of the Union. John Hancock, Dolly Madison, John Adams et al., were in evidence in the various characterizations. Dr. John Ritter, then head of the Biological Institute (now Scripps Institution of Oceanography) played President Washington, handsomely attired with a wig, frocked shirt and suit of silk brocade. The costume of the evening, however, was worn by Mrs. Franklin Hall, representing England, an elaborate concoction of lace and silk that, itself, was more than 200 years old and once had been worn by an ancestor in the court of Queen Anne. (A newspaper account of the program noted the dress had been miraculously preserved through the years in a tin box.)
La Jollans from all over prepared for the pageantry and staging of the program for weeks, gathering antique furnishings from the Colonial period from their homes for the set. It included more than 200 pieces.
According to a March 3, 1916, newspaper report: “Two tall white pilasters, twined with asparagus fern and surmounted by great baskets of callas guarded the carpeted steps to the stage above which some splendid Stars and Stripes were draped.”
More than 300 persons came from far and wide to attend the February celebration, including the president of the Panama-California Exposition then running in Balboa Park. It concluded with the tableaux “General Washington Leading His Mother to the Ballroom” and tea for everyone present.
” Note: “Reflections” is a monthly article prepared for this newspaper by the La Jolla Historical Society. The writer is the historian for the Historical Society.