In a new attempt to take action at the long-neglected properties housing the vacant 132-year-old Red Roost and Red Rest cottages in La Jolla, a plan submitted to the city of San Diego calls for reroofing Red Roost and demolishing the fire-damaged Red Rest. But opponents have other ideas.
The permit application to the city says it would secure Red Roost “to prevent further deterioration” and tear down and remove the remains of Red Rest, which was largely destroyed by a fire in 2020. The cottages are at 1179 and 1187 Coast Blvd.
An applicant is not listed, and city representatives did not immediately respond to the La Jolla Light’s requests for more information.
No interior work on Red Roost is proposed, and no occupancy is being sought. The application does not include plans to rebuild Red Rest.
A San Diego hearing officer will consider the application, though that has not yet been scheduled.
Both cottages were included in the recently designated La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
As part of the review process for the new application, the city determined the project is exempt from a state-regulated environmental review.
However, given that the application does not include plans to rebuild Red Rest, local historic preservationists are raising alarms.
“Those cottages are a character-defining feature of La Jolla and have been since 1894,” said Bruce Coons, executive director of the San Diego-based Save Our Heritage Organisation. “They have been icons since they were built. Every early picture of La Jolla has them in the background. …
“It’s unconscionable to not require reconstruction of [Red Rest] and for the city to say that this doesn’t affect a historic resource. It makes no practical sense.”
In addition to SOHO’s concerns, members of the La Jolla Historical Society submitted an appeal of the application, though they declined to comment to the Light with further details.
Coons argued that a plan that includes reconstruction of Red Rest would be more in line with historical considerations and previously stated city requirements.
“Elements that are salvageable should be restored and [Red Rest] should be rebuilt with its original materials,” he said. “That has been the city’s position for decades, and for them to back off from it is ridiculous. It’s a crazy situation.”
Red Rest and Red Roost, built in 1894 for George Leovy and Dr. Joseph Fishburn, are considered The Village’s oldest structures. However, they have been virtually unmaintained for decades in what preservationists have called “demolition by neglect.”
After almost 50 years of private ownership and holdings transfers, the cottages were acquired in 2014 by Denver-based Apartment Investment and Management Co. In 2018, AIMCO sold the cottage property and the adjacent La Jolla Cove Hotel & Suites to a group of investors in the hotel business.
Early on Oct. 26, 2020, Red Rest burned down and Red Roost was damaged. At the time of the fire, the cottages were uninhabited and covered by protective tarps.
In spring 2022, a preliminary application from La Jolla-based Alcorn & Benton Architects (now Benton & Benton Architects) was submitted to build a condominium project and rehabilitate the two cottages “to usable condition with modifications to provide for modern commercial uses [and] reconstruction of missing historic features.”
However, in 2024, that application was suspended due to inactivity. ♦