Laguna Beach history

Before the artists

People lived here long before the homesteaders. OC Parks says radiocarbon research dates human habitation of Laguna Canyon back to 2,000 years B.C., that evidence indicates the Acjachemen people lived in the canyon, and that a village called Tom-ok’ stood there. On its Aliso and Wood Canyons history page, OC Parks says Aliso Creek formed the boundary between the Acjachemen (Juaneño) and the Tongva (Gabrieleño), and that some park trails carry Juaneño names, such as Aswut, for golden eagle. OC Parks adds that Acjachemen people continue to seek formal recognition as a tribe.

The Laguna Beach Historical Society’s timeline says the area was one of the few parcels of coastal Southern California that no Mexican land grant covered. Homestead patents followed. More than 40 people applied for and received patents between 1871 and 1916 in the areas that later became Laguna Beach, and the society names Frederick Sievert as the first, in 1875.

By 1880 a Portuguese immigrant named Joe Lucas was greeting stagecoach visitors with a fishing spear, which the society counts as the town’s first unofficial greeter. A stagecoach line through Laguna Canyon connected with the railroad in 1888. A real estate bust in 1888 to 1890 drove many early settlers away, and a hotel, a general store and a livery stable followed in 1895.

The art colony

In 1903 the painter Norman St. Clair arrived, the first of the painters who formed what the society calls the art colony. William Wendt, Frank Cuprien and Edgar Payne came after him. The town took its present name, Laguna Beach, in 1904, after a period when the name was spelled Lagona. By 1915 the society counts 35 artists in town.

Local artists founded the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, and the Laguna Art Museum grew out of it. The society ties the period to plein-air painting, a style it compares to that of French impressionists. Today’s galleries cluster along North Coast Highway.

The calendar of festivals started with the 1932 Festival of the Arts, which added living pictures to draw crowds after the Los Angeles Olympics. The society dates the Sawdust Festival and Laguna Art-A-Fair’s first shows to 1967, and the founding of what it calls Laguna Beach College of Art and Design to 1962. For current festivals, see the events guide.

Movies, a marine lab and a gate

The society’s timeline records that a film called False Colors was shot in town in 1914, with many later productions following. In 1913 Pomona College built a marine laboratory across from Main Beach to study sea life. In 1915 the gate that still hangs at Forest Avenue and Coast Highway went up, and the newspaper Laguna Life began publishing.

Becoming a city

Coast Highway opened between Laguna Beach and Newport in 1926. The next year Laguna Beach incorporated, which the society says made it the first incorporated city in South Orange County, driven by residents’ concern about the visitors the highway would bring. The population was 363 in 1920 and 1,981 in 1930 on the society’s figures.

The society also notes that there is no “Pacific Coast Highway” signage in town. Coast Highway is called North Coast Highway north of Broadway, South Coast Highway from Broadway to Nyes Place and Coast Highway south of that.

In 1968 the city bought 1,000 feet of beach frontage, which became Main Beach Park and opened the Village to the water. The park was dedicated in 1974.

Saving the canyon: the Greenbelt

Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. calls the preserved land around town the result of a decades-long struggle. It says bookstore owner Jim Dilley formed Citizens for the Greenbelt in 1968, inspired by greenbelts he had seen in England, and that the group incorporated as Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. two years later. In 1971, it says, Dilley persuaded the city and the Orange County Board of Supervisors to adopt the Greenbelt concept.

On November 11, 1989, eight to ten thousand people walked through Laguna Canyon to oppose the 3,200-home Laguna Laurel development, and Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. calls that walk the most visible moment in the fight over the canyon. The same year, The Tell: Phase VIII of the Laguna Canyon Project went up in the canyon. The UC Irvine Libraries’ collection guide describes it as a sculpted photo mural 636 feet long, made of more than 80,000 photographs and shown from 1989 to 1990, part of the photographers Jerry Burchfield and Mark Chamberlain’s effort to stop development there. In 1990 nearly 80 percent of Laguna Beach voters approved a property tax increase toward buying the Laguna Laurel land, and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park was dedicated in 1993. See Laguna Coast Wilderness Park for the trails today.

The 1993 fire and the centennial

The Historical Society’s timeline records a suspected arson fire in 1993 that swept the canyons and hilltops and destroyed 366 homes. The 1993 Laguna fire page sets out what happened and what changed afterward. Since the town incorporated in 1927, 2027 is its 100th year as a city; the centennial page lists what the city has announced.

The Historical Society and its bungalow

The Laguna Beach Historical Society is an all-volunteer nonprofit that collects and preserves historical documents and shares them with the public. Its museum is the Murphy-Smith Bungalow at 278 Ocean Avenue, a cottage dated to about 1923 and listed in the City of Laguna Beach Historic Register. Volunteer docents show the memorabilia on display. The society lists hours of most Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.

The society’s website also holds a chronology, a photo collection, newsletters from 1992 to the present and a research page on artists and art.

Researching a house

If you own or are thinking about buying an older home, the society’s research page lists where to start. The city’s Historic Resources Inventory covers pre-1940 homes designated historic in 1980. The city’s Historic Preservation page covers applications for the Laguna Beach Historic Register and the state’s Mills Act. The library’s local history collection, on Glenneyre Street, and Orange County Archives hold older records. For other practical steps after you move, see the living here section.

Places to see

Landmarks covers the Greeter statue, Hotel Laguna, the Victoria Beach tower and other sites with a story. The Village neighborhood has its own page: see the Village. Theater history is on the performing arts page.