Coronado Historical Association

The Coronado Historical Association is located on Orange Avenue on Coronado Island, just a few blocks away from the famous Hotel del Coronado. The Coronado Historical Association can really bring a visitor a great deal of information regarding the interesting history of Coronado. They offer historical walking tours on a daily basis that point out many of the historical buildings in the center of Coronado. These cost about $10, depening on the tour, and cover a variety of themes from the history of Coronado to the Hotel del Coronado to the trees on the island. You can also purchase tickets to all teh major attractions in San Diego: the Zoo, Sea World, you name it!

The association is housed in an historical building (naturally!). There is a gift shop with some a unexpected surprises, including darling cards by artists. The artists are not local, which I think is a shame, but the gifts cards are adorable and some are very funny. They also offer charming collection of memorabelia as well as some typical trinkets and souveniers.

The Coronado Historical Association also offers a free art and history exhibit in the building. There is a permanent exhibit about Coronado’s history, but there is also a rotating exhibit that offers a broader context, though also relating back to Coronado, at least tangentially. The rotating exhibit has shown a photo exhibit of Marilyn Monroe, who filmed “Some Like it Hot” at the Hotel del Coronado.

Other exhibits include a history of the island itself, from the days as a grass patch where people hunted jackrabbits, to the purchase of the entire island in the late 1880’s for $110,000 by the developers of the Hotel del Coronado. There is also information about the military base there, and the history of women’s roles in the military. It is all very interesting.

The exhibit space is very small, but it allows visitors to spend quality time at each stop inside. Instead of whirling through, you could spend just a few minutes at each stop and really read and enjoy every portion, and still be done in an hour or so.

Coronado Historical Association
Coronado Visitor Center
1100 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
619-437-8788

Athenaeum

Next time you are wiling away a day in La Jolla, be sure to stop into the Athenaeum. This music and arts library has been around for over 100 years. It is one of the few remaining private libraries in the nation. If you did not know, all libraries used to be private; you had to pay a fee to join in order to check out books. In some parts of the world libraries still work this way, for example in Paris. In the United States the vast majority of libraries have been publicized, except for 17 of them, and most of these are specialty libraries.

The Athenaeum’s specialties are art and music. There is a huge selection of music CD, sheet music, and books on art and music to check out to members. But the library itself is open to the public, and anyone is welcome to browse the selections for a minutes or an afternoon. I highly recommend spending some time in the space. There is a gallery that hosts several art exhibits each year, specializing in artists from Southern California and Baja Mexico.

The library includes three heritage buildings that have recently been renovated to connect the space inside, without altering the appearance of the protected buildings on the outside. The gallery was expanded, the art school was made handicapped accessible, and behind the scenes the offices were improved and they built a climate-controlled vault for their art collection.

Their collection of art also has a specialty: Artist Books. This relatively new art form really only came into critics sight in the 1970s. But San Diego is a hub of activity for book artists, and the Athenaeum is one reason. They have a permanent collection of artist books, and they have an exhibit of artist books that is simultaneously on display with the larger art gallery.

Throughout the library there are little nooks and each corner seems to hold a surprise discovery. Whether you wander into the art gallery, happen upon the artist books, or discover the children’s art books collection, the athenaeum is a delightful place to explore. In the heart of La Jolla, on the corner of Wall St and Girard St, it is a historical delight that is not to be missed.

Athenaeum
1008 Wall Street (@ Girard)
La Jolla, CA 92037-4418
858 454 5872