An effort to have Children\u2019s Pool in La Jolla officially designated as historic is advancing.
\nConsideration\u00a0of Children\u2019s Pool\u2019s proposed historical designation will be an action item on La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc.\u2019s Aug. 27 agenda.
\nArchitectural historian Diane Kane has teamed with the La Jolla Historical Society to initiate the process for pool historical designation. She has since been canvassing La Jolla civic groups, lobbying them to back historical designation for the pool, created by the construction of a concrete breakwater in 1931 by famed La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. Scripps paid for breakwater construction to create a safe and protected children\u2019s wading pool.
\n“The Children\u2019s Pool has been \u2018deemed historic\u2019 for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),\u00a0 but isn\u2019t formally designated,” said Kane. “If it were formally designated, it would be rehabilitated or reconstructed using the Secretary of the Interior\u2019s Standards and the State Historic Building Code.
\nThese do not require bringing historic properties up to current safety codes, which would be very expensive and result in a beefier facility with high chain-link safety fencing that won\u2019t look at all like the current one.”
\nShe noted Children\u2019s Pool\u2019s historical designation “would also make the facility eligible for both public and private grant money to fix it up. Rebuilding it to current standards would come out of the city\u2019s Capital Improvement Program where there is a long waiting list.\u00a0 So, hopefully, this strategy would result in a quicker upgrade with outside funds to keep the property in service, looking like it was originally designed.”\u00a0
\nKane and associates are working on creating a Children\u2019s Pool historic district. They will be submitting a formal proposal to the State Office of Historic Preservation that reviews National Register nominations at its quarterly meetings, before submitting them to Washington, D.C. for final review.
\nOnly elements at the pool present from 1920-1931 that have “integrity,” will be considered contributors to the historical district according to Kane. She added the historical designation process entails establishing boundaries “to include elements associated with the pool\u2019s original setting, design and construction.”
\nThis would mean everything from the curb on Prospect Street out to the break wall is part of the historical project. Other features in and around Children\u2019s Pool, like the concrete walkways, have been altered disqualifying them from inclusion as “contributing” historical elements.
\nFor years, Children\u2019s Pool has been a battleground between seal supporters and local beach-access advocates, who have contended over the existing harbor seal rookery there and human access to it.
\nKane told LJPB previously the proposed Children\u2019s Pool historic district will be evaluated for its association with engineer Hiram Newton Savage and architect William Templeton Johnson. She said the pool\u2019s historicity will be judged for its innovative engineering and site-specific architecture, influenced by both the Beaux Arts tradition and its organic design. The property will be nominated for historic designation at the local level of significance for the time period 1920-1931.\u00a0
\nLJPB president Ann Parode Dynes and Kane met recently with Andy Field, Meredith Dawson and Paul Jacobs of City Park & Rec to brief them on plans by the La Jolla Historical Society and La Jolla Parks & Beaches Inc. to submit an application to the National Registry to have Children’s Pool designated as a historical site. \u00a0
\n“I believe that they were enthusiastic that this step, if successful, would enable the City to move forward with a clear need to repair the wall, and ultimately the breakwater, consistent with CEQA and other mandates, and hopefully using grant funding available to historical restorations like this,” said Parode Dynes. “We advised them that we are unaware of any negative consequences of this action since the pool is already \u2018deemed eligible\u2019 to be so designated, so it lives in a never-never land, as we discovered when we met with the City engineers a year and a half ago at the site.”
\nDynes said arrangements are being made to bring District 1 Councilwoman Barbara Bry “up to speed on this project.”
\nAt a recent LJPB meeting, longtime La Jolla parks planner Melinda Merryweather cited Kane for her work delineating the historical significance of Children\u2019s Pool calling her efforts, “the biggest gift we could ever get. We\u2019ve been talking about this for 30 years.”
\n“The nomination of the Children\u2019s Pool to the National Register of Historic Places and the California Historic Landmarks register is important for La Jolla because of the site\u2019s association with engineer Hiram Newton Savage and architect William Templeton Johnson, its innovative engineering and site-specific architecture, and its association with philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps,” said La Jolla Historical Society executive director Heath Fox.\u00a0 “Listing on the National and State Registers will ensure the rehabilitation of the Children\u2019s Pool can be accomplished in accordance with the Secretary of Interior Standards and the State Historic Building Code, and will provide an avenue for private funding and the opportunity for the community to participate in the preservation of this important historic site.”
\nLJPB, which makes recommendations to the City on coastal parks in the Jewel, meets at Monda, Aug. 27 at 4 p.m. at La Jolla Rec. Center Auditorium, 615 Prospect St.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An effort to have Children\u2019s Pool in La Jolla officially designated as historic is advancing. Consideration\u00a0of Children\u2019s Pool\u2019s proposed historical designation will be an action item on La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc.\u2019s Aug. 27 agenda. Architectural historian Diane Kane has teamed with the La Jolla Historical Society to initiate the process for pool historical […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Children\u2019s Pool historical designation likely in future","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duplicate","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}