By Bruce Coughran and Eric Duvall / Pt Loma-OB Monthly / August 21, 2024
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I wonder whatever happened to the old Point Loma House hotel”? No? Never even heard of it, you say?
How about those enormous and fantastic colored glass domes that used to sit on the very top of the ridge that we call Point Loma? Talk about a landmark! Those domes were spectacular, sparkling in the sun by day and illuminated at night.
They say that between the turn of the last century and the Second World War, any mariner approaching Point Loma from the Pacific would see those domes long before they would see the new (1891) Point Loma Light. The domes were even indicated on all the navigational charts of the period.
You don’t suppose there was any correlation between those remarkable glass domes and that obscure old hotel, do you?
Of course there was. This is the short version.
The Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society was organized in New York City in 1875. The society’s co-founders were Russian spiritualist Helena Blavatsky, retired U.S. Army Col. Henry Steele Olcott and Irish immigrant William Quan Judge.
For the balance of this article and its wonderful photos, please go here.
Well, actually the Theosophical Institute had lodges in New Your and Switzerland before they held a convention on Point Loma in 1897 that led to the Brotehrhood of Theosophists and a large structured commune involved with Eastern theocracy organized by military and spiritual leaders. They had acres of agriculture cared for by several hundred followers and youngsters who lived on the grounds. Wealthy people like sporting goods magnate Albert Spaulding and his wife donated funds to the cause, but lived off campus and owned about 1,000 acres as far north as West Point Loma. But the dream nearly ended when their spiritual leader died in a car crash in 1925. They hung in there through the Great Depression, but were driven out when the United States Department of War seized the land for World War 2. The Theosophists retreated to Krotona Colony in Los Angeles and then settled in Ojai, California. The property lay vacant but rented buildings out ot the YMCA and other tenants until Cal Western University bought the property, demolished some of the Theosophical bulidings, bulldozed a football field, and opened a law school in the early 1960s. That sold to the Nazarenes, who still occupy the land, but lease out the Greek Theater for community events.
Before the campus was PLNU, it was Cal-Western and I was introduced to all of it because my parents had bought a house on Catalina Blvd in 1950 and I used to ride my bike around the area. I remember playing as a pre-teen in the Greek Theater. Most of the western part of the campus was in its natural state – it didn’t have formal fields or student dorms yet. To us, it was a large playground.