Visit the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla and you’ll find yourself moving through a warm, polished, light-infused world where beautiful dreams are sustained. Last weekend I stepped through the library’s doors and was amazed by what I discovered.
The Athenaeum is home to a large, regionally important collection of books and media concerning music and art, and a permanent collection of artwork. It is a repository for beauty that is timeless. The library is refined and welcoming, like a fine museum.
Each quiet room is a refuge for the contemplative mind. And a richly furnished temple for the heart. And a universe brimming with inspiration and creativity to nourish the human spirit.
The Athenaeum is one of only 16 nonprofit membership libraries in the United States. As you might imagine, it has a very unique history.
In 1894 a group of six women came together to create the La Jolla Reading Club. Five years later a cottage-like Reading Room was built at the corner of Wall Street and Girard Avenue. The most notable founding member, the first president of the Library Association of La Jolla, was wealthy newspaper publisher, philanthropist and La Jolla resident Ellen Browning Scripps.
In 1921 a larger Spanish Renaissance-style building replaced the Reading Room. The elegant new structure was designed by famous architect William Templeton Johnson, who also designed the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. Much of the funding for the new building came from Scripps. Kate Sessions, the horticulturist often referred to as the Mother of Balboa Park, planted an outside garden.
In 1957 the library opened the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Music Room with its striking rotunda, designed by artist and architect William Lumpkins.
In subsequent years additional expansions were made, which allowed for the founding of the Athenaeum’s School of the Arts. Today the expansive library hosts art exhibitions, galas and musical concerts throughout the year.
How does one describe the rare beauty of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library?
Here are a few photos…
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5 thoughts on “Art and architecture at La Jolla’s Athenaeum.”
I think every city has its version of a women’s arts & letters club/association, founded because, at the time, they weren’t allowed to join the “real” (male) institution, or were heavily discouraged from doing so. We’re all the richer now, for their courage (and stroppiness) then.
I always appreciate efforts to preserve the past with an eye toward the future, Richard, not to mention activities to encourage the arts. Thanks for sharing. –Curt
I think every city has its version of a women’s arts & letters club/association, founded because, at the time, they weren’t allowed to join the “real” (male) institution, or were heavily discouraged from doing so. We’re all the richer now, for their courage (and stroppiness) then.
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Does a person have to be a member to check out books there? It’s a very pretty building
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It’s free to go into the library, but you do have to be a member to check anything out–as I understand it.
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I always appreciate efforts to preserve the past with an eye toward the future, Richard, not to mention activities to encourage the arts. Thanks for sharing. –Curt
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