La Jolla historians spoke in favor of the designation, stating the modest nature of the home is part of what qualifies it as a historic resource. 

A cottage in La Jolla achieved designation from the San Diego Historical Resources Board despite city of San Diego staff stating the property does not meet HRB criteria. 

The home at 7320 Fay Ave is a one-story, single-family building constructed in 1928. Apartments over the original garage were added in 1959, now addressed as 7318 Fay Ave.

The owner-led nomination for historical designation stated the property is significant under HRB Criterion C as an example of the Colonial Revival style.

The house “does retain integrity” with the original design, city associate planner Alvin Lin said at the Jan 22 HRB meeting, as modifications since construction are in kind and used appropriate materials.

However, the home exhibits only two character-defining features of the proposed Colonial Revival style, Lin said: an accentuated front porch with decorative crowns supported by columns and symmetrically-balanced windows and doors.

“These features minimally express the Colonial Revival style,” Lin said, precluding the property from designation eligibility.

The home exhibits several Colonial Revival features, homeowner Michael Maher argued, including its compact, rectangular form; accentuated entryway; pilasters and more.    

This “restrained, classical detailing” clearly embodies the Colonial Revival movement, Maher said, making the Fay Ave house a “textbook cottage example consistent with its era and its La Jolla streetscape.”

Colonial Revival style, La Jolla historian Diane Kane said, “can be expressed either minimally or grandly, depending upon what the house is.” 

Further, the home is an example of a “rare” San Diego property among a larger movement of redevelopment, Kane said, and is “representative of a dwindling supply of affordable housing stock characteristic of 1920s La Jolla.”

The Fay Ave property “clearly conveys its historic period,” La Jolla historian Seonaid McArthur said. “Calling this building a ‘minimal expression’ does not disqualify it,” as most historic housing in The Village was modest. 

“If minimal expression were grounds for denial, much of La Jolla’s historic fabric would already be ineligible. … This house doesn’t need to be exceptional to be historic.”

HRB members largely agreed, with a motion to designate the property historic under Criterion C passing 7-2.