Cottages aat Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove was a small Southern California community on the beach between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.  It became a leisure retreat when the Irvine Company began leasing the beachfront land to a group of families who wanted to set up seasonal beach homes. Between the 1920s and 1940s, about 46 cottages were hand-built right on the beach and the bluff. These were never meant to be permanent or luxurious—just informal, colorful beach shacks with a laid-back, artistic vibe. Some were even made from salvaged materials. The community had a strong bohemian and artist culture.  Crystal Cove became a popular filming location for movies, especially in the 1930s–1950s. The timeless, untouched coastal backdrop made it perfect for scenes that needed to feel remote and wild.

This painting is of some the primitive cottages as they look today…but it won’t look like this much longer.

On the website of the Crystal Cove Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) that now owns and operates the property (together with the State of California) we are “invited you to experience Crystal Cove as it existed from 1935 to 1955 in one of our 24 cottages.”   Well…not quite…not quite as it existed in 1935….

“The Conservancy is thrilled to announce the last tranche of funding has been secured for the North Beach Cottage Restoration Project, allowing the first group of eight newly restored North Beach cottage rental units to be open. With investment from Bank of America, The Conservancy secured the last tranche of $10 million for the $55 million restoration project by securing Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits on the project, a method that incentivizes investment in restoration projects on historically significant structures – providing a means to secure capital for construction and tax relief to the investor.”

Because I was lucky enough to be on this beach when these places were owned by individuals, everything about this makes me sad.  And it is just one of the many ways I know I’m growing old (“hey kid, get off my lawn!”).