Our Location
Laguna Beach is Southern California’s premier seaside artist haven. Though world famous, Laguna Beach still possesses a unique small-town charm rarely found anywhere else. Quaint cottages framed by subtropical gardens line bluffs above sandy coves along a seven-mile picture-postcard coastline. Inland, luxuriant foliage and sea view homes cover canyons and ridges that tower more than 1,000 feet above the ocean. Laguna Beach is located in southern Orange County, California, approximately 24 miles southeast of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 23,727 at the 2000 census. What a PERFECT place to REDISCOVER your true self!
A Brief History
Almost from the beginning, Laguna Beach has stood apart from the rest of Orange County. The differences are geographic, social and political. And they endure. The area was named Lagonas by the coastal Indians who first lived there, and who were attracted by two rare freshwater lagoons in the nearby canyon. But by the time the first non-Indian settlers arrived in the 1870s, the area now known as Laguna Beach had more than mere physical allure. Unlike most of the rest of Orange County, it was never included in any of the Spanish land grants. Under the Timber-Culture Acts of the 1870s, anyone who agreed to plant 10 acres of trees in the area over 10 years and live there while they grew was granted 160 acres to call his own. The cove-filled coastline attracted a handful of homesteaders. But the land was too steep and rocky for agriculture or ranching.
Instead, Laguna quickly gained a reputation as a beachfront resort. Even in the days of mule trails and stage coaches, inlanders from such new towns as Santa Ana and El Toro would make the daylong trek to the quaint seashore village.
They’d set up tents and stay the weekend. Some would build summer homes—hasty clapboard cottages with few embellishments, but spectacular views. A few still stand. By 1888, Laguna Beach was the permanent home to about 15 families, but come summer, the beaches would be lined with rows of canvas tents. Today, a similar influx arrives. Civic officials estimate the city of 24,000 attracts 40,000 visitors daily during the summer.
The community’s long-standing status as one of the county’s biggest art colonies can be traced back to shortly after the turn of the century, when a San Francisco watercolorist named Norman St. Clair arrived by stage and started painting the surroundings. Back in San Francisco, St. Clair became a one-man visitor’s information bureau, persuading fellow artists to follow his trail. Within 10 years, more than 30 artists had settled in the coastal village. In 1918, they created the Laguna Beach Art Association, a body that exists today. In the early 1930s, the artists created two of its most popular and enduring annual events: the Festival of Arts and the Pageant of the Masters. Over the years, the city’s reputation as a creative getaway has attracted such notables as Bette Davis, John Steinbeck, Victor Mature, Erle Stanley Gardner, Tennessee Williams and Timothy Leary. The city now claims more than 75 art galleries. Other than its own natural beauty—which attracts tourists and gives artist something to paint, it has no real industry.
