Red Roost and Red Rest Bungalows, La Jolla

As SOHO’s longest-running preservation battle, the Red Roost and Red Rest cottages have endured more than three decades of deliberate neglect and flagrant disregard of City of San Diego laws that protect designated historic resources. Built in 1894, they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and stand within the new La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District, which was recently added to the National Register.

SOHO has met with a series of owners over the decades to assist them in their proposed restoration and reuse of the cottages. Then came the devastating fire that nearly destroyed the Red Rest and damaged the Red Roost in October 2020.

Considered La Jolla’s oldest buildings, the single-wall redwood bungalows are remnants of the area’s popular seaside artists’ retreats. They are also precursors of the Arts and Crafts vernacular bungalows that evolved into homes still beloved and occupied throughout San Diego and Southern California.

After the fire, the cottages’ current owners, a group of investors in the hotel business, pledged they would stabilize and restore or rehabilitate them. In April 2022, about 18 months after the fire, architects Alcorn & Benton filed an application with the city to rehabilitate the historically designated cottages for “modern commercial use” and to reconstruct missing historic features. They also proposed to move the cottages closer to the property line to make room for a new four-story, eight-unit condo building with underground parking.

The process to acquire necessary site and coastal development permits can take months or years, and includes hearings before the city’s Historical Resources Board and the Planning Commission. SOHO is monitoring the progress, which seems to have stalled.