Crystal Cove Historic District - Laguna Beach Ca

The Crystal Cove Historic District is a small part (12 acres) of Crystal Cove State Park. It consists of 46 beach cottages built mostly in the early part of the last century.  They were built primarily from wood made available when a lumber ship capsized in the area. It is one of the only remaining Southern California beach developments from early last century. It is located on a beautiful stretch of SoCal coastline, and several silent movies were filmed here in the 1920's.

This was private property until the state purchased it in 1979. People were in a bit of an uproar, because they thought the state was going to demolish all the cottages. They didn't though! In fact, the state, along with the Crystal Cove Conservancy, began a restoration project of the cottages. So far, 21 cottages are now available for overnight rental. There is a lot more information available, but I think what I just said, is just about all you need.  I apologize in advance for the poor quality of some of these photos. It was the middle of a very hazy day and the light was brutal. I would have been better off using the camera on my phone.

Judging by the cars. I'd say this photo (which I found on the CA State Parks website) was taken in the early 1940's. Even though most of the structures you see here are not in good shape today...

...most of them still stand.  The cottages in the foreground have been restored to original. This photo is from the same place as the previous one. 

The following photos are just a small part of what is left. There is also a second tier of cottages.

 There has to be at least one B&W

This is one of the restored cottages

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Laguna (north of Broadway)

A while back I did a couple of posts about Laguna Beach. One was related to before and after a MAJOR storm. The other was some general photos of the beach area south of Broadway, in the middle of town. At that time I said I'd do a post of the beach area north of Broadway.  Here are a few photos of that area. This is about two miles (as the crow flies) from our house. (any closer and we couldn't afford to live there)

Tropical Laguna Beach, last week in mid winter (sorry folks)



 Bird Rocks



A house in a very nice spot

   

 American White Pelicans

One of the very nice private coves

 Million dollar condos on the beach

Out for a sail (with no sail!)

 Looks more like the South Pacific than Southern California

Another Tropical looking cove

Another bird rock

Laguna (south of Broadway)

Although I took the following photos in Laguna, they aren't really related to the storm damage.

Always a fairly common sight around Laguna. First it was hippies and now it's surfers.

Pacific Coast Highway

Skim Boarding  -  The approach

The turn

Drop in

Shred

Walking towards Main Beach and downtown

It's under 60 degrees and this moron is sunbathing! A little bit of the storm surf damage to the right.

She loved the photo, but wasn't happy that I didn't show her new boots. Really? What's the matter with you people?

The view from our table while eating at Olamendi's Mexican food. The land in the background is Catalina Island. It's 30 miles offshore.  The Chicago Cubs used to hold their spring training there.

All of these photos are south of Main Street.  I'll post more of Laguna soon, but next time north of Main Street. Lot's of cliffs in that direction.

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After the Storm - Laguna Beach

About two weeks ago I posted Big Doings in So Cal. As you already know, there was a lot of storm damage here. Yesterday my wife and I went downtown to check out how the repairs and clean up was going.

The morning after the storm (photo LA Times)

Yesterday - A major chunk of beach is gone...

Same view as above, but from the street. A large chunk of lawn and sand are missing.

And this is after the dozers moved most of the mud. (LA Times)

No Movie Today!  (LA Times)

What are you doing out here lady? (LA Times)

 

This is the same spot as the flood video in the earlier post (LA Times)

What a dufus!

Morning After the Storm (Mitch Ridder - OCinsite)

Same intersection as last two photos - Yesterday

A lot of folks had the same idea as we did yesterday. It was the first nice and clear day in a few weeks. Pretty cold (by our standards), but that didn't stop a lot of people from coming out.  About 12 days ago this intersection was under a flood of mud and water. It's amazing how they managed to get it all cleaned up so quickly. Also very surprising was the fact that almost every store was open for business.   I guess when your city's main source of income is tourism, you don't waste any time.

This stuff didn't quite make it to the ocean (LA Times)

On Wednesday I'll post some non-storm related photos from Laguna.

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