Seashells and marine fossils played a larger life in the history of La Jolla than you might think. In the pioneer days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were one of the main attractions that brought visitors here. Collecting expeditions to the tide-pools were common, with railroads from downtown San Diego advertising times of low tides when crustaceans were most visible to be gathered and taken home for use in decoration or kept for specimens.
San Diego newspapers of the 1890s often carried this advertisement: “Watch for the dates on the dodgers in the streetcars and on the corners for low tides at La Jolla.” Tidepooling often was best in the late afternoons in November, December and January, when the sea was at its lowest ebb. In the pools were rich harvests of sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers and any variety of snails to be found up and down the shorelines.
While the seashells and fossils were of great interest to early visitors, they also intrigued the small local population ” including two of La Jolla’s most prominent citizens, Ellen Browning and Eliza Virginia Scripps. For Ellen Browning’s South Moulton Villa, built high above the sea on Prospect Street in 1896 (present site of the Museum of Contemporary Art), one entire room was magnificently decorated with seashells and oceanic ephemera, all gathered from La Jolla’s beaches. It is believed that Eliza Virginia Scripps collected the shells and did the decoration as a gift to her beloved half-sister, with whom she usually resided.
Ellen Browning’s love for the sea was akin with Shelley’s. In 1899 she wrote an article on the “Future of La Jolla” in which she referred to the Pacific at her back door as “the illimitable, eternal sea with its ever varying, wondrous colors and moods and aspects “¦ From La Jolla to Bird Rock the entire coast is beautiful, changing, majestic. There are numberless curious pieces of rock formation, gigantic in size and varying as the sands in formation. Let the imagination but play among these rocks, caves and overhanging bars, let the various beauties but become beloved of the poet, painter and romancer.”
Thoughts such as these were among the inspiration for “By the Beautiful Sea: A Photographic History of Summers in La Jolla, 1870-1930,” an exhibition presented by the La Jolla Historical Society July 26 through mid-August. It will be open to the public free of charge from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Sundays at Wisteria Cottage, 780 Prospect St. The focus will be on the importance of the seaside in La Jolla’s early history as a destination for summer visitors.
Photographs show them collecting shells, splashing in the waves in archaic swimwear, fishing and picnicking on the beaches.
The exhibit also features a replication of Miss Scripps’ fireplace mantel employing shells and sea fossils from the present day. For many years, La Jollans and visitors alike have enjoyed collecting such shells and oceanic artifacts at local beaches. One of La Jolla’s landmarks and destinations for decades was the Shell Shop on Cave Street, known for its collection of shells from around the world. It remains now only in memory, having closed several years ago.
” “Reflections” is a monthly column written for the La Jolla Village News by the La Jolla Historical Society’s historian Carol Olten. The Society, dedicated to the preservation of La Jolla heritage, is located at 7846 Eads Ave. and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays thru Fridays.