La Jolla

The Kumeyaay called the place mat kulaaxuuy, which means land of holes. The holes probably refer to sea-level caves on the north-facing bluffs, visible from La Jolla Shores. The Spanish settlers may have written that Kumeyaay name as La Jolla. Another idea is that it is a spelling of la joya, the Spanish phrase for the jewel, which gave rise to the nickname The Jewel. Scholars dispute that origin, although it is widely repeated. A third suggestion is the Spanish La Hoya, a geographic hollow.

During the Mexican period La Jolla was mapped as pueblo land with about 60 lots. It became part of the chartered City of San Diego when California became a state in 1850. Charles Dean bought several lots in 1870 and subdivided them into La Jolla Park, but left San Diego in 1881. A real estate boom in the 1880s drew speculators Frank T. Botsford and George W. Heald. In the 1890s the San Diego, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla Railway connected La Jolla to the rest of San Diego and turned it into a resort. The railway built a bath house and dance pavilion, and visitors stayed in small cottages above La Jolla Cove or in a tent city set up every summer.

By 1900 La Jolla had 100 buildings and 350 residents. La Jolla Elementary began teaching children in 1896, The Bishop's School opened in 1909 and La Jolla High School in 1922. Two cottages built in 1894, the Red Roost and the Red Rest, are the oldest buildings still on their original sites, and fire largely destroyed the Red Rest in November 2020. Anna Held made La Jolla an art colony in 1894 with the Green Dragon Colony, a cluster of twelve rustic cottages.

Journalist and publisher Ellen Browning Scripps settled in La Jolla in 1896 and lived there for the last 35 years of her life. She had her own wealth from investments and writing, and in 1900 she inherited a large sum from her brother George H. Scripps. She put it into philanthropy, mostly for La Jolla. She commissioned many of its most notable buildings, usually designed by Irving Gill or his nephew and partner Louis John Gill. They include the La Jolla Woman's Club (1914), the La Jolla Recreational Center (1915) and the earliest buildings of The Bishop's School. Her own residence, built in 1915, now houses the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Her gifts also launched Scripps Memorial Hospital in 1924, the Scripps Metabolic Clinic (now Scripps Research) and the Children's Pool. She helped fund Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which was founded in 1903 by William Emerson Ritter, with support from her and her brother E. W. Scripps. It started in a boathouse in Coronado. In 1905 the group bought a 170-acre (69 ha) site in La Jolla, and the first laboratory buildings opened in 1907. It became part of the University of California in 1912.

From 1917 through 1964 the Marine Corps ran a base in La Jolla for marksmanship training, called Camp Calvin B. Matthews. As homes crept closer after World War II, the range became less suitable. The site was already being eyed for a new University of California campus. The Marine Corps declared the camp surplus in 1962 and closed it formally in 1964, the same year UC San Diego enrolled its first class of undergraduates.

Civic leaders had long wanted a campus. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under director Roger Revelle, had become an important defense contractor, and aerospace firms such as Convair wanted local training for scientists and engineers. The state legislature proposed the idea in 1955 and the Regents approved it in 1960. It was briefly called the University of California, La Jolla. The first college, Revelle College, was established in 1965, a medical school followed in 1968 and the Brutalist Geisel Library opened in 1970. There are now eight colleges, and the university is the second largest employer in the city.

The Village of La Jolla is the downtown business district, with most of the shops and restaurants. Prospect Street and Girard Avenue are shopping and dining streets, noted for jewelry stores, boutiques and upmarket restaurants. South of it, the Beach-Barber Tract runs from Windansea Beach to the Village. Bird Rock, in the south, is known for five traffic roundabouts on La Jolla Boulevard, coastal bluffs and nearby surf. Muirlands, Country Club, Hidden Valley and La Jolla Heights climb the slopes of Mount Soledad, mostly without businesses.

To the north, La Jolla Shores has the Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus along the beach, plus a small business district on Avenida de la Playa. La Jolla Farms is just west of UC San Diego and includes Torrey Pines Gliderport, the Salk Institute and expensive homes above Black's Beach. La Jolla Village, in the northeast, is named for the La Jolla Village Square shopping center, which holds the area's only remaining movie theater. Mount Soledad, 822 feet (251 m) tall, sits on the eastern edge of La Jolla. A large cross was placed at the top in 1913. After years of lawsuits, the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association bought the land under the cross in 2015, and the case ended in 2016.

La Jolla Cove is the most popular tourist destination, with snorkelers, swimmers and seals. It lies within the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, so fishing and swimming devices such as surfboards are not allowed. La Jolla Shores has some of the gentlest waves in San Diego, sits next to Scripps Pier and is a spot for kayaking. Windansea Beach, in the south, has no facilities and has hosted many talented surfers. A simple Surf Shack there is a historic landmark. Children's Pool Beach is a breeding spot for harbor seals and closes from December 15 to May 15 for breeding season.

Black's Beach sits below Torrey Pines, set against high cliffs, and has one of the most powerful beach breaks in Southern California. Offshore, migratory gray, humpback and blue whales, dolphins and orcas pass through the water, and California sea lions and harbor seals rest on the rocks. A large offshore kelp forest shelters sea urchins, abalone, sea stars, king crab and giant octopus, and scuba divers explore it. Great white sharks hunt seals around the kelp in winter. Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve covers 2000 acres of plateau and cliffs and holds the rare Torrey pine tree, the park's namesake.

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was founded in 1941 in the former home of Ellen Browning Scripps and holds more than 3,500 post-1950 American and European works. The La Jolla Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, went inactive in 1959 and was revived in 1983 on the UC campus. The La Jolla Music Society has been based at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center since April 2019. The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library is a nonprofit, membership library that sponsors exhibitions, concerts and lectures.

The Salk Institute is one of Louis Kahn's most important works, built of unfinished concrete on cliffs over the ocean. Along with the Geisel Library, it is one of two significant Brutalist works the guide points visitors to. Nearby research institutes include Scripps Research, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. Torrey Pines Golf Course hosts a PGA Tour event each January or February and hosted the U.S. Open in 2008 and 2021. Torrey Pines Gliderport is popular for gliders and hang gliding.

Reaching the village from the south, drivers can follow Mission Boulevard and La Jolla Boulevard from Pacific Beach. La Jolla Parkway to Torrey Pines Road is another route. In the village near the Cove, walking, biking and skating beat driving, and parking is hard. Elsewhere, around UC San Diego or Torrey Pines, distances and hills make a car easiest. Route 30 serves the village and links to Pacific Beach, Old Town and UTC. Four Blue Line trolley stops opened in the neighborhood on November 21, 2021: Nobel Drive, VA Medical Center, UC San Diego Central Campus and UC San Diego Health La Jolla.

La Jolla is served by the San Diego Unified School District. Public schools include La Jolla High School, La Jolla Elementary, Muirlands Middle School, Torrey Pines Elementary and Bird Rock Elementary, plus Preuss School, a public charter school. Private options include The Bishop's School, The Children's School, Delphi Academy and Stella Maris Academy. National University is headquartered here. The La Jolla Community Planning Association advises the city on development, and the La Jolla Town Council speaks for local businesses and residents.