SAN DIEGO — The famous ‘Mushroom House’ south of Black’s Beach has been a tourist attraction for decades because of its unique architecture and other-worldly appearance. CBS 8 is taking you inside the story behind this La Jolla landmark.
“It looks like a big, brown UFO,” said hiker Christian Vite.
“It’s this circular, kind of dome-looking thing,” said surfer Mark Caccam.
Some say the beachside home looks out of this world.
“Easily Star Wars, yeah,” said Megan Dickerson while strolling on the sand with her friend.
The circular-shaped beach pad got its nickname for a reason.
“What does it look like to you?” asked CBS 8’s Brian White. “Like a big, mushroomy house shooting out of the cliff,” said surfer Sabian Shane.
La Jolla Mushroom House
Tucked away along the rocky La Jolla coastline, the ‘Mushroom House’ will surely grab your attention.
“It’s something you might see in like a desert landscape when you’re coming around the corner, and suddenly it’s a beautiful surprise,” said Dickerson.
The Bell Pavilion, as it was originally called, was designed by Dale Naegle and built for Sam Bell of Bell’s Potato Chips in the 1960’s. Bell already had a summer home on top of the cliffs and wanted the guest home built down below so visitors could have a 180-degree view of the ocean.
“Everybody knew the mushroom house, we used to like walk from here as a little kid just to go look at it, and you’d see people, the owners, and their friends entertaining people on the patio out there,” said surfer Bruce Fearon.
“I believe my friend was telling me there was like an elevator that leads from the bottom to like the top part of the house,” said Caccam.
It’s been inoperable for about 5 years, but a funicular railway-style elevator tram used to take people up and down the 300-foot cliffside between the two homes.
“Since I was a little kid, I remember in the early 70’s walking from here and going up to surf at Black’s and that was iconic like, ‘Hey, meet you in front of the mushroom house, we’ll paddle out there,’” said Fearon.
CBS 8 met the current owner, a San Diego philanthropist who purchased the property in 1987. He didn’t want to be interviewed, but showed CBS 8’s Brian White a copy of an old National Geographic magazine from July 1969, in which the home was featured.
Sadly, the owner says the guest home has been vandalized in recent years, making it difficult to maintain.
“Well, right now it looks abandoned and kind of decomposing a bit,” said Fearon. “Last time I walked by it, the concrete was kind of spalling, probably from the weather. It was boarded up, there was a wall around it.”
The owner told CBS 8 that erosion of the cliffside and sea level rise have been issues to contend with, but for now, there are no plans to tear it down.
CBS 8 reached out to the La Jolla Historical Society. They say while the home is an iconic San Diego landmark, it’s not currently considered historic. To receive such a designation, it would need approval from the City’s Historic Resources Board.