May is being celebrated around the country as National Preservation Month, a time set aside to appreciate historic culture, architecture and landscape. One of the most important endeavors through the years also has been the preservation of open space ” an area specifically pertinent throughout the history of La Jolla as well as at this particular time.
La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps is to be thanked for the foresight in seeing to the preservation of open space in the community, even though in her lifetime here in the early part of the 20th century the words had hardly been coined. In endowing institutions in the heart of the village such as the La Jolla Recreation Center, the La Jolla Woman’s Club and Scripps Park, she guaranteed that the beautiful open spaces closest to the ocean and beaches would not become locations for condominium towers and commercial complexes. Her own home, now the site of the Museum of Contemporary Art on Prospect Street, also continues in the spirit of open space with rear gardens cascading toward the sea somewhat as Ms. Scripps envisioned the original.
But even as early foresight guaranteed preservation of open space in La Jolla, today finds new threats looming as real estate values rise along with the community’s population. The most immediate concern the Fay Avenue Extension, Salk Institute and the Torrey Pines Gliderport ” the latter a national historic landmark. Anyone who has ever experienced the sight of gliders floating above the cliffs with the sky as the only background can realize that this is about as open as any “open space” can get. The future could change that, or at least some of it. And before decisions are made, it seems only pertinent to review the history of the gliderport and its significance in La Jolla’s past.
The first launch of a sailplane actually took place Jan. 29, 1930, from the top of Mt. Soledad with none other than Anne Lindbergh soloing. Aviation pioneers, including Charles and Anne Lindbergh, soon recognized that the steep cliffs facing prevailing winds at Torrey Pines were perfect for a gliderport. It soon became a mecca for an international group of solo flyers and many worldwide records were set.
The first challenge to the gliderport open space occurred in 1992, when the University of California, San Diego, and the city parks and recreation center “” each of which owns about half of the approximately 60-acre site “” warned that the land may not lay fallow forever and development could be forthcoming. Hue and cry resulted in the gliderport being declared a state and national historic site. Presently, however, development plans again are being talked about and major open space could be lost forever.
On another note, the Fay Avenue Extension “” the 24-acre site of open space that La Jollans fought to preserve as a natural landscape and bike path in the late 1970s “” again is on the potential development block as public-owned land that could be sold to bolster city revenue. Before the preservation effort of the 1970s, the site was specified as a right-of-way for a traffic corridor to ease congestion on La Jolla Boulevard and various other thoroughfares.
As National Preservation Month continues this May, La Jollans may well reconsider the saving of these and other open spaces to maintain the beauty of the community so envisioned by Ms. Scripps. Even her private gardens were open space to the community enjoyed by hundreds in La Jolla’s early years.
She said, “I have all this space here “¦ It is always open to the public, and when I divide what it costs me by the number of people who enjoy it, I think it is one of the most economical civic duties I could perform.”
” “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. Monday through Friday.