Crystal Cove Cottages
Contemporary Art Dialogue is pleased to offer its first set of John Connell’s stunning images of Crystal Cove cottages and surrounding scenery, shot during the residential community's last days.
Please enjoy the images on these pages!
At the Edge |
Crystal Cove Kitchen |
Surf Garden |
Flippy Floppy |
Overview |
Oblivious |
Islands in Time
Crystal Cove Cottages, Islands in Time on the California Coast was published in 2005 by Chronicle Books of San Francisco. The 159-page book relates in photographs, paintings and words the development of Crystal Cove, the idyllic Southern California beach community.
Crystal Cove Cottages incorporates more than 300 illustrations, including: Impressionistic paintings of the Cove by early 20th century artists Anna Hills, Frank Cuprien and William Wendt; magnificent landscape and close-up photos by art photographer, John Connell; and historic photographs, documenting the community’s residents and their cottages from the twenties through 2001.
Interlaced throughout the book is colorful, illustrative text by Karen Steen, a New York writer who spent childhood summers at the Cove. She includes enchanting tales of construction of vernacular cottages from found materials, much of it washed up on shore. She writes: "Campers rented trailers to haul in their supplies and invited friends and family to help with the ‘barn’ raising. It took several people to construct a foundation…a subfloor of boards or Masonite followed."
There are also snatches of newspaper articles and quotes by residents and supporters of the Cove, from 1881 to 2005. One quote from the Los Angeles Examiner, August 14, 1927, reads: "On the Coast Highway between Balboa and Laguna is a bathing resort that has the atmosphere of a South Sea atoll. Touring along the highway recently, a party from the Paige Company of Southern California in a Paige 6-65 cabriolet, saw thatched huts and long-fronded palms marking the beach of Crystal Cove. You’re wrong—this is not Waikiki Beach!"
How It Used To Be
A bicyclist traveling on Pacific Coast Highway turned onto a little street with a sign that said "Crystal Cove Cottages." He rode in low gear, down a winding road, and discovered a well-preserved community from another era - a place with cottages utterly different from the cookie-cutter mansions going up across the highway. Crystal Cove was (and still is) a few miles north of Laguna Beach and a stone's throw from the historic Date Shack. The enclave, hidden from view, had been preserved from the ravages of encroaching development.
The Cove's natural, untamed beauty was complemented by 46 charming little cottages - all examples of "Southern California vernacular architecture." In the style of California beach homes of the 1930s, the Crystal Cove cottages included large windows that looked out at the ocean, banquettes, wainscoting, small-paned windows and broad wooden decks.
The community was also home to a number of rare and endangered species of plants and animals that thrive in the tide pools and open waters of the Pacific.
Crystal Cove grew out of the earth organically, as it was created with care by people who gravitated there and raised families there. They told stories of love affairs begun on the beach, of families celebrating joyous events together, and of supporting each other during difficult times - such as seeing a son off to several of last century's wars.
Treasure Island
Movies filmed there included "Rain" with Gloria Swanson, "Treasure Island," "White Shadows of the South Seas," and "Storm Tossed." A more recent film is "Beaches."
In 2004, the Crystal Cove "Historic District" was turned over to the state and residents had to move out. Even before then, a coalition of concerned citizens, headed by philanthropist/environmentalist Joan Irvine Smith and Laura Davick, founder of the Alliance to Save Crystal Cove, were working valiantly to protect the Crystal Cove Cottages, to preserve it for all time and to prevent developers from turning it into a resort.
A Walk Back in Time
Joan Irvine Smith, standing on the beach, looking out at the ocean, said in 2004, "It looks exactly as it did 10,000 years ago. This park is a walk back in time. It is so beautiful that we must prevent developers from acquiring any portion of it."
Smith founded the Crystal Cove Conservancy, "to maintain the existing ambience of Crystal Cove State Park in perpetuity." She wrote, "Today, Crystal Cove State Park contains some of the last remaining undeveloped coastal property in Southern California, as well as scenic upland canyons and ridges, coastal benchlands and bluffs...The park also contains several important Native American sites...It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. This pristine Arcadia retains the character of early California as well as both natural and cultural resources which cannot be replaced."
Davick and Smith gained the support of a coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, League for Coastal Protection, the Surfrider Foundation and Orange County Coastkeeper. They succeeded in stopping development of the Cove into a luxury resort."
As Crystal Cove cottages were vacated, the state restored them for park operations and visitor services; overnight rentals; a Cultural, Arts, Research and Environmental program (CARE); and concessions.
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