The La Jolla Historical Society hit the archivist\u2019s jackpot when Rev. Eleanor Ellsworth of the historic St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church presented the original deed to the seaside church, as well as a number of other historically significant documents. Ellsworth made the presentation to the society\u2019s board of directors for caretaking on Sept. 24. During a churchwide cleanup effort in July, church staff member Walter DuMelle stumbled upon boxes of decades-old documents in one of the church\u2019s storage rooms. “A bunch of boxes had been put aside for shredding, and I just thought it wise \u2014 because they were from a particularly old part of our archival storage \u2014 to give it a once-over before it went to the shredder,” DuMelle said. Almost immediately, he recognized the importance of the documents in his hands, some of which were more than 100 years old. “It became clear pretty quickly that these things needed a thorough going-through because my hands were touching documents from the 1920s almost instantly,” he said. “The folder of deeds popped out in a rather large way.” After bringing the documents to Ellsworth, she realized at once that DuMelle had stumbled upon a treasure in need of long-term preservation, which is how the documents came to travel across the street to the Wisteria Cottage, where the historical society preserves stacks upon stacks of La Jolla\u2019s history in an archival storage area. “With Rev. Eleanor Ellsworth\u2019s keen perception of the value of these documents and the historical society\u2019s willingness to become involved, we feel very fortunate to have reconnected with these documents of our past, helping to connect the dots of our more than 100 years of history,” said DuMelle. More than just a single piece of old paper; the society\u2019s board inherited a peek into the longstanding history of the church and its property. “Originally, we were expecting one deed for the property, but what they found was this collection of documents pertaining to the history of this lot,” said historical society archivist and curator Michael Mishler. “It looks like the initial one is from 1903, where Ellen Scripps is deeded the property that appears to be where St. James is.” Additional documentation given as a durable loan to the historical society includes: a legal agreement for the sale of another portion of the present-day church\u2019s property to Ellen Scripps\u2019 half-sister, Virginia Scripps in 1911; a quitclaim deed from 1929 when Ellen Scripps gave the property to St. James Church; documentation requiring San Diego architect Louis Gill to be the draftsman of the building; a 1937 insurance policy on the property; and paperwork from the 1980s showing updates to the property over the years. “The purpose of an archive is to preserve vital documents that show the history of the community,” said Mishler. “These are a great link to that kind of old history. It shows how the Scripps family was involved in this community, and it shows St. James\u2019 history in the community.” Among St. James\u2019 archives are also hundreds of military papers with a series of correspondences between the church\u2019s spiritual leaders and servicemen and women at war in the 1940s. “It\u2019s this wonderful archive of letters going back and forth,” said DuMelle. “The story of a church is the story of its people and its families, and the warriors were a very important part of that, especially as San Diego connection to the Pacific Campaign.” Although many more hours of perusing old documents lie ahead for DuMelle, his dedication to the task will undoubtedly help shed light on more history within the church, within the La Jolla community and beyond. “I think we found the real jewels, but I think there are some just as equally relevant documents fleshing out the St. James story with real names and real faces with some of the previous rectors and administrations.” Mishler indicated his hope that the historical society will systematically gather similar documents that represent the history of other organizations, churches and universities in La Jolla to help continue piecing together the many facets of La Jolla\u2019s history little by little. “Those things that talk about what the organization did, who was involved, board meeting decisions initiatives they made \u2014 any of that boring stuff about running a business is really what an archivist is looking for because it shows how an organization got its start,” he said. “All these groups help build the history of a community. You get a fuller picture of the history of La Jolla.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The La Jolla Historical Society hit the archivist\u2019s jackpot when Rev. Eleanor Ellsworth of the historic St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church presented the original deed to the seaside church, as well as a number of other historically significant documents. Ellsworth made the presentation to the society\u2019s board of directors for caretaking on Sept. 24. During […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Piece of St. James history brought to light and preserved for 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":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268283","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=268283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}