Red Rest and Red Roost Cottages

The cottages are located along Coast Blvd., a curvilinear promenade and scenic drive that follows the La Jolla coastline. They occupy a site directly across the street from La Jolla Cove and the Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve.

The Red Rest, 1187 Coast Blvd. is located east of the Red Roost, 1179 Coast Blvd. They are situated between two tall, 30 feet (10 m), condominium buildings dating from 1974 to 2000.

In the mid-1880s, the anticipated arrival of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads led to a real estate boom along the Southern California Coast. La Jolla, a remote area best known for its natural scenery, was targeted by developers for the construction of tourist facilities and residential housing.

With the arrival of the San Diego, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla Railroad in 1894, La Jolla became a popular tourist destination that attracted visitors from the East, particularly during the winter months. Approximately one hundred homes were built between 1887 and 1900, most of them with names rather than street numbers. The population increased from zero in 1887 to 350 in 1900.^[3]

Many visitors to La Jolla came for what was referred to as the “nature cure.” Before the popularization of the germ theory of disease, people believed that climate played a significant role preventing or curing illness.^[4][5] The “nature cure” involved fresh air, sea-water bathing, and exercise. It also required houses with porches, large windows for air and sunlight, and good cross-ventilation. The California bungalow was developed as an architectural form that maximized the health benefits of the Southern California climate.^[6][7]

George J. Leovy (1858–1921), a New Orleans native and railroad lawyer, built the Red Rest as a summer house for his family. For several years, the family had camped in Scripps Park. The cottage was sold to Florence Sawyer, founder of the Reading Room, La Jolla's first library. She lived there for a brief period with her new husband John Ransome Bransby. It then became a rental property.

The Red Roost, originally known as Neptune, was built in 1894 for John E. Fishburn (1860–1929) who worked for the First National Bank of San Diego. In 1940, the Red Roost was briefly converted to the Cove Tea Room. Among the people who rented the property in the 1950s was a young Walter Munk of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.^[8]

In 1977, tenants were evicted from both properties due to safety and liability concerns. The cottages have remained vacant for the last fifty years.^[9]

Built of old-growth redwood, the cottages are wood-framed, rectangular structures with hipped roofs and single-wall construction. The Red Rest has an enclosed porch that was added between 1894 and 1905. They are rare examples of early Arts & Crafts-era bungalows still on their original site.

Architects identify the Red Roost and the Red Rest as prototypes of the modern American vernacular house due to their simple tongue-and-groove, single-wall construction; wide veranda; and large windows. The cottages introduced concepts such as economy, simplicity, informality, and indoor-outdoor living that were taken up by a generation of modern architects, notably Bernard Maybeck, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Irving J. Gill.^[10]

Architect Eugene Ray described the bungalows as “a metaphor of the new spirited architecture that Louis Sullivan travelled all the way to California to see.” It produced “what we know as modern architecture in California today; an architecture that looked outward, to the sea, rather than inward.”^[10]

On October 26, 2020, a fire inside the Red Rest caused substantial damage.^[11] The buildings are partially covered with tarps. The owners are working with the City of San Diego Planning Department on rehabilitation of both cottages. Prior to the fire, the cottages were documented to Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) standards and can be accurately repaired and/or reconstructed.