When visiting the lodge at Torrey Pines you may think of taking a relaxing spa, golf clubs and ogling romantic California craftsman architecture popularized by Greene and Greene designers in Pasadena.
Or you may think of taking a backpack, hiking pole and bug spray.
That’s because there are two equally magnificent Torrey Pines lodges almost next door to each other on Southern California’s scenic coast
One is the AAA Five Diamond resort known as the Lodge at Torrey Pines. The other is the historic adobe structure known as the Torrey Pines Lodge that is the diamond of the 1,750-acre Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
Once operated as a restaurant, it was a popular stop-off for tourists heading from Los Angeles to San Diego until 1933 when what is now Torrey Pines Road was re-routed and byed the lodge entrance.
The original Torrey Pines Lodge is 100 years old this month. It was dedicated on April 7, 1923, and today there will be a free celebration marking its centennial that begins with a vintage car parade at 9 a.m. An official ceremony at 10 a.m. will be followed by ranger talks, tours led by docents in period costumes, kids’ activities and booths highlighting the history of the adobe structure and its surroundings.
The lodge has been many things in its life — a restaurant, tea house, residence , and more. Today it serves as a museum, visitor information center, park ranger office and gathering place for hikers.
The family of Deborah Whitney, of San Marcos, is the last to have resided there. Her grandfather, Edward Carl Stiegemeier, was the caretaker of the city-owned park and picnic grounds. He left in 1959 after the California state parks system took over the reserve.
Whitney, who was living with her grandparents and mother, Marian Elizabeth Smith, called the lodge home for about seven years until she moved away at age 11.
At that time, the lodge offered a concession stand, where her grandparents sold candy, sodas, souvenirs and postcards of California and the reserve.
“He never had a problem with anyone,” recalls Whitney, although they occasionally heard noises, and her grandpa had to get up in the middle of the night and ask uninvited after-hours motorists to leave. “We never had a break-in.”
The lodge owes its existence to forward-looking philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. She bought 200 acres along the bluffs to preserve the scenic beauty and rare Torrey pines. She then contributed about $25,000 toward building the adobe Southwestern-style ranch house, which cost more than $30,000 (suring $500,000 in today’s dollars).
The Torrey pines are only found in San Diego County in their natural habitat and a subspecies of a Torrey pine discovered on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara. Unlike most pine trees, which have three needles in each sheath, or bundle, Torrey pines produce five long needles, an adaptation to the desert climate to draw in more life-sustaining moisture from fog and dew.
Renown architect Richard Requa and his structural engineering partner, Herbert Jackson, designed the Pueblo Revival-style lodge following Scripps’ instructions, including that its color match that of a nearby cliff face.
Some unusual aspects of the lodge and reserve gleaned from various local historical reports include:
- The shoreline once was 400 feet lower, and stone bowls and mortars from Native American occupants have been found in the water at Torrey Pines State Beach.
- The Torrey pines could have been called Parry pines as they were identified in 1850 by botanist Charles Parry, who elected to name them after his botanist colleague, John Torrey, at Columbia University.
- The Southwestern-style lodge was built with a beehive-shaped kiva fireplace and decorative pole ladder in of Hopi Native American style.
- Its 20,000 adobe bricks, each weighing about 50 pounds, were made on-site by Mexican Handmade Tile Co. artisans using earth from excavation for the foundation.
- During World War II, soldiers from nearby Camp Callan used the lodge for meetings. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, an aircraft observation post was set up on its flat roof.
- Meals were served in the lodge restaurant into the early-’50s, however, the restaurant’s heyday was 1923-1933 before Torrey Pines Road was re-routed.
- Sadly, the lodge, which was added to the National of Historic Places in 1998, is deteriorating.
“The lodge is basically falling apart,” says Susanne Florin, executive director of the Torrey Pines Conservancy, created to and raise funds to conserve the historic property.
There are cracks in the stucco exterior and structural timbers are sagging. A recent assessment concluded that repairs and renovations to the tune of $5 million are necessary to fix everything from plumbing and electrical to roof deterioration.
Matt Xavier, president of the Torrey Pines Docent Society, the educational group that is co-hosting today’s centennial celebration, points out that, in addition to the 5,000 Torrey pine trees, there are more than 300 endangered or threatened species in the reserve.
Of note is the California gnatcatcher songbird found in the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon to the north.
“Conservation is important. We have to protect nature,” he stresses. “The lodge is a symbol.”
