Ellen Browning Scripps gifted the La Jolla Recreation Center to the region in 1915, a legacy of freedom and leisure with far-reaching significance.
La Jolla’s relationship with recreation is serious, and the La Jolla Recreation Center is an inextricable part of that tradition. For 111 years, the Rec Center has stood in the heart of The Village, a gift to the community and region that continues to provide all with free, unfettered access to fun.
The La Jolla Playground and Community House
The La Jolla Recreation Center began as the La Jolla Playground and Community House, one of numerous neighborhood contributions by early, prolific La Jolla benefactor Ellen Browning Scripps.
Among many endeavors, Scripps was particularly interested in helping orphaned children, at one point considering turning her own Prospect Street house, called South Molton Villa and now the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, into a children’s home.
That idea merged with Scripps’ interest in developing a playground to serve all children in San Diego, and Scripps chose to combine three lots across Prospect Street from her home and buying the adjacent land to acquire the entire block, which required relocating existing cottages and closing Kline Street from Cuvier to Draper Avenue.
Scripps commissioned architect Irving J Gill, whose other La Jolla projects include several notable buildings including The Bishop’s School and La Jolla Woman’s Club, to design the new community house; construction began in August 1914.
The building came to life with Gill’s signature arches across the Prospect-facing patio, a large assembly room, locker rooms, clubrooms and basement with kitchen.
Outside, the Rec Center boasted, among other components, swings and see-saws, croquet grounds and volleyball and tennis courts that could be cleared for outdoor celebrations, dancing and more.
Wading pool c 1913/Image courtesy of San Diego History Center
There was also a shallow wading pool near the northwest corner of the building.
The playground and community house were completed in 1915 and were “praised as exceptionally well provided with the most modern amenities,” according to local historian Molly McClain in her book “Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money & American Philanthropy.”
Playground c 1913/Image courtesy of San Diego History Center
Scripps paid the $180,000 (about $5.9 million in 2026) cost “with the understanding that this would be a place where ordinary people could meet and speak their minds without fear of harassment from civil authorities,” McClain wrote.
This freedom of speech was so important to Scripps it was formalized in her gifting of the new center to the city of San Diego.
A notarized document filed with the San Diego city clerk on July 6, 1915 and signed by Scripps stated the “premises and buildings shall forever and continuously be maintained and used by the said city as a public playground and recreational center and as a meeting place for public gatherings.”
“No speaker shall be denied the privileges of the premises or buildings thereon, on account of any opinions,” it continued.
Further, should the city close the Rec Center, the document declared, the premises would revert back to Scripps and her heirs (now the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation).
From Community House to Recreation Center
Though it’s not clear when the building was renamed to the La Jolla Recreation Center (paperwork from 1954 refers to the space as the La Jolla Community Recreation Center), what is certain is the center’s constancy as an anchor for occasions both momentous and mundane.
Once the La Jolla Rec Center opened with a formal ceremony July 3, 1915, Scripps spent many an afternoon there participating in exercise and other recreational activities and remained “highly satisfied” with the playground and community house, calling such spaces assets of progress, according to McClain.
In 1918, La Jolla marked the end of World War I with a celebration at the playground and community house that involved a parade of cars, pedestrians and a marching band, speeches and more.
In the 1920s, following suggestions the playground might be subject to segregation, Scripps refused; “Her vision of La Jolla as a socially progressive community survived decades of social and political change and remains vital today,” McClain wrote.
On July 14, 1926, the community honored Scripps with the installation of a circular bench, shallow pool and bronze figure of a girl. The bench remains, though the statue of the girl was stolen in 1995 and replaced by a similar design in 1997, according to late La Jolla historian Pat Schaelchlin in her book “La Jolla: The Story of a Community.”
Scripps died in 1932 but the Rec Center lives on, remaining a community mainstay for children and adults alike.
The wading pool was removed likely during the polio epidemics of the 1950s but other play structures for children were added and upgraded.
In 1975, the Rec Center received its still-displayed Hugh Ballin mural “The Progress of California,” relocated from its original location at the now-torn down La Jolla branch of First National Bank.
Recreation Center as event venue
Besides its role as an everyday hangout for casual basketball groups, pickleball fanatics and energetic children, the Rec Center has for decades been home base for many La Jolla events, including the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla’s beloved annual pancake breakfast and the culminating festivities for the La Jolla Christmas Parade.
The La Jolla Community Planning Association, La Jolla Town Council and other groups meet in the assembly hall and civic leaders like San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, holds his Town Halls there.
San Diego itself hosts a bevy of activities at the La Jolla Rec Center, from ongoing theater, cooking and sports programs for children and classes for adults to special “movie in the park” nights, Easter egg hunts and more.
Renovation plans in the works
With hundreds using the Rec Center daily for more than a century, the structure and grounds are showing the strain of significance.
In 2020, a committee of the nonprofit Friends of the La Jolla Recreation Center unveiled grand plans to preserve the historic value of the Rec Center while upgrading its spaces and repurposing others for future generations.
Proposed Rec Center renovations/Rendering courtesy of Trace Wilson
The plans would outfit the Rec Center with refurbished meeting spaces, state-of-the-art gym and more; outside, an all-new playground and reorienting of sport courts will maximize fun for all ages and a now-approved vacation of the adjacent portion of Cuvier Street will become expanded park space.
The plans also propose bringing back the original water feature, modernizing it with a splash pad element.
The renovation plans are on hold as some of those involved are also leading an effort for La Jolla to become a city independent of San Diego.
Current status: Disrepair amid budget woes
While the renovations, which would be privately funded, are shelved, the Rec Center suffers from San Diego’s budget pains.
A bocce court opened in 2021 but is awaiting new benches; the weight room is in need of equipment repairs and replacements; and a play structure is missing, pending funding after a car jumped a curb and damaged the structure.
Visitors to the Rec Center today would see faded, distressed playground pieces, “out of order” signs and caution tape placed on others.
Most concerning to the community, is the threat of full closure, proposed by the city in May to help address a $118 million budget deficit.
But after an emergency meeting of the Rec Center’s advisory board, community complaints to LaCava and the City Council, petitions and more, the full closure idea was withdrawn and the city promised only to reduce the weekly hours from 60 to 40.
Rec Center in real time
The backlash to an impending closure reveals recreation runs deep in this community and serves a larger purpose, withstanding a century-plus of progress and evolving with the region to provide space, freedom and sanctuary for all.
