Finding the Abandoned Mushroom House of La Jolla, California 

Lol!

@@billwillson890 lol

I used to go the Black’s Beach all the time.

@@u4riahsc I went to it when visiting a friend from home. He was attending U of SD

@@samanthab1923 Did you climb down and back up? The recent cliff collapse probably ruined the trail.

Thank you. I'm not quite brave enough to go in the abandoned mines! lol

The cliff maybe a quarter mile from there just collapsed.

Good ! Let Mother Nature speak. Unsightly industrial metal railings are offensive AF. Ostentatious, along with environmental impact on Beach. Build pretentious ugly architecture elsewhere.​@@SidetrackAdventures. Goo

How do you just abandon a multi million dollar home!? I wouldn’t even abandon a car

Looks like where they built the house didn’t leave mush room for anything else.

That's what I was thinking. Can't even build the simplest retaining wall today. Notice this structure hasn't affected marine life at all.

I think the local prison wanted their watchtower and walls back.

Cool. Does he live in the house on top of the cliff?

No respect for private property? The beach is considered public property in California. Just goes to show that rich a-holes can try and buy their way around the laws that everyone else has to abide by. No one should be able to live on the beach, it’s for all people to enjoy so stop complaining

@@dustinocallaghan7570people don’t need to graffiti it though.

@@dustinocallaghan7570 what's worse is how people treat PUBLIC property. The fact that people think the ground is thier trash can and bathroom. That if it's not bolted down, behind glass, or locked up-it must be free "because it's public property" way of thinking is destroying everything. Public or private people don't know to respect anything. Especially in California...richest state with one of the highest homeless populations - get your ducks in a line already Cali.

@@dustinocallaghan7570 my thoughts exactly. Maybe people find it shameful that some ultra rich guy has his private property in the middle of a public beach. Didn't even think that was legal. And lets start a go fund me for him so he can get to it more easily from his mansion. LOL

I wasn't able to find any interior photos either.

There’s one picture of the inside I found on google. That’s it!

I found pictures very easily of the interior by searching “mushroom house San Diego interior” even a magazine feature spread. It looks amazing and must feel surreal to have that viewpoint.

@@DomesticRevival Doing that search yielded only exterior views. Where did you get interior views?

Perhaps searching Bell Beach Pavilion - Dale Naegle, 1968?

So 15 years ago it was habitable? I wonder what dumb laws the City/State imposed which forced the owner to abandon it.

It was probably closer to 18 years ago that I worked on it. I am not convinced that it is not habitable. The top of the tram is in the back yard of this very nice home, I would not call it a mansion, because we built the most expensive homes in San Diego County, from Solana Beach to Coronado. Tim

@@johnbeckwith1361 taxes nine ways to Sunday like everything else...🤔✌️🙏💪😸

Reminds me something like MIB when the bug was Epcot pavilion , also the old Landmark Hotel in Vegas across from the convention center and Hilton,, towers are one of a kind design like stratosphere...🤔🎯☝️🙏✌️😸☯️💪

@@johnbeckwith1361 The City didn't do anything. The tram was rendered unusable due to damage from a landslide. The only access is from the beach, so not very convenient for the owners, hence it's not currently used.

Re: "permitted" -- it's not so amazing when you think about Bell's fortune and how loud money talks. And nothing has changed!

I imagine it would be pretty crazy in there during a storm.

I have only been in SD for 2 weeks and have been here.

I haven't seen anything to say they were related but its always possible.

Enjoyable, Interesting, a little history👍

@@billwillson890 😂😂😂

@@billwillson890 I believe he also invented the Liberty Bell.

@@biknjak Bell bottoms.

Thank you for watching.

The house at the top is occupied.

I thought about it but didnt want to take the chance of crashing into the windows.

@@SidetrackAdventures The windows are probably heavy duty, but I get it. Better safe than sorry.

Because its owned by an old man and the tram rail is buckled. Even when it was being built, the people contracted to building the tram abandoned the project (leaving it up to Negel to finish) so to even just get that in order is a feat in itself.

agree..!

It shouldn't be there in the first place, the coast belongs to everyone; not just rich people.

@@DiogenesOfCa Well its hard to imagine but back then, la jolla wasnt this super wealthy area that everyone wanted to be. To the point that UCSD had to give away homes to potential professors just to get them to work there because the area was so out of the way. It was the boonies. The area where they were building these homes happens to be the area where the main Bell home is. So I think back then it was possible because no one cared nor did they see it as a class threat.

​@@DiogenesOfCa sounds like comununism...

I can imagine it being pretty scary in a storm.

The concrete looks like it's in decent shape. I wonder how the interior is.

I lived in Costa Mesa in 1973 and we had to move when my landlord was selling the house for the outrageous sum of $75,000. We moved to a rural area in San Diego and got our first house for $38,000, which as way more affordable!

What was the interior like? Very cool that you got to be in that house.

@@KelseyDunlevy It was a full house set up with a kitchen, and living room facing the ocean and in the round, if I remember correctly, bedrooms were in the back near the cliffs and it had at least one bathroom near the bedrooms. I was only there when there were parties and special occasions so my memory is extra hazy;)

@@kamaramcandrews3960 haha! Thanks for the reply! What was the interior design like? To me, I think mid-century modern would've been the look in that place!

You were a rich kid, one of the privileged class.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

That path is still there near the glider port.

Goat trail

I read Bell went out of business in the 90s but I don't remember it at all. By the time I was in elementary school in the 80s everything was the big national brands that are around now.

@@SidetrackAdventures Yeah they had every flavor Frito Lay had to offer at that time. Their BBQ chips were really good.

We used to ride our mini bikes by Granny Goose in Pico Rivera I think PR or Montebello CA ✌️ Eric Underwood Class of 81 Downey High school CA ✌️

Glad you enjoyed it

For San Diego I have a list of weird or interesting places, when travelling I kind of just look to see what's around where we are going.

I appreciate that!

Glad you like them!

That place was built before the California Coastal Commission existed so you could do a lot more then.

Really interesting in Sweden all beaches are public property as far as being able to walk and use them so this issue doesn’t really arise but can def understand how it can be annoying if you’ve specifically payed for something which is then not included. We’ve had that issue with private roads which has then lead to a system with servitutes which means you might have access to roads, drinking water etc as part of a buy and that is then entered in local records and unless it has a timelimit will stay that way for all time.

​@@gaelle4328 I didn't know that about Sweden, interesting. And here it is true that California beaches are public beaches and beachfront property owners are precluded by law from blocking public access to the beach in front of their houses. Anyone could walk down that paved road to Black's beach. But a simple gate was locked at the top to prevent vehicle access for the key-less. Was a locked gate legal in the first place? I don't know. La Jolla as it exists today is a reified memory of nice place that it isn't any longer. Because too much money moved in. My mom's grandparents were from a part of Norway which I'm told used to be part of Sweden. When conspicuous consumption first started to appear in La Jolla, my mother was absolutely shocked at that bad behaviour. Flaunting wealth she considered extremely rude and socially destructive. I don't know, but perhaps that was her Norse ancestors in her talking. We weren't upper middle class, but the area became so. Not that anyone would be interested. But. Of note for Sweden: Svante Arrhenius' grandson was a scientist a Scripps, his son my age. I was told Tom's mother walked around nude in the house at times without giving it a thought. This was highly unusual to hear a mom doing. Or if she was in the bathtub and a playmate needed a bandage she would just have you walk in to get it without a thought! Well I never saw her like that. She was then very warm personally while other parents seemed a bit off. Oh, and, get this. Another friend descended from Siri von Essen who I see now wasn't Swedish, was a Finn. Well, Eric von Essen in his 40's moved to Uppsala, I believe to teach music. But he died there of a heart attack about the time I survived mine! Isn't that all so interesting? I find it so.

@@charleswood2182 Indeed, the fabric of history and personal relationships to time and space can be absolutly fascinating.

Thanks for watching!

The weather is definitely beach weather. I wanted to jump in the ocean on this hike but didn't have my suit.

Yeah, the house was totally rebuilt in the late 80's-early 90's or so. I was hoping the owners would repair the track down to it, but they didn't bother. )

@@deezee6732 That track has serious issues. Would need to be completely rebuilt. And I'm thinking the entire thing probably would have code compliance issues these days, too. The rails would need to be anchored a lot better to the cliff wall -- but doing anything to that cliff wall would be problematic. (Look up the video of the major cliff slide that happened up at Torrey Pines 3 or 4 days ago.)

Similar one in Dubuque, Iowa if I’m not mistaken.

yah the unelected enviro terrorists in the coastal commission. they oppose everything .

The beach is public property and there is no chance this house gets built today. I believe the house is owned by UCSD now, but I am not 100% sure on that, I couldn't find a concrete answer.

It's still technically on the cliff, so it is private property. Unlike the east coast, there is no such thing as "private beach" in California: in theory you could walk from Imperial Beach to Oregon without trespassing... But you'd better get used to soggy boots.

@@SidetrackAdventures I made a comment about traversing "public beach" a moment ago... Then I remembered Camp Pendleton and Vandenberg. I'm not sure if you can walk the beaches there, and I'm not going to try! 😏

@@deandupont5503 Technicaly the military is a public owned although secure entity. So you were still correct in declarin it publicaly owned.

@@deandupont5503 Not sure where the exact line is determined where the beach becomes 100% public (probably related to a max. high tide line), but CA has rules that mandate allowing *access* to public beaches even across 100% private property so even where something might be permitted and private you can still have to allow people to come through...you can fence that pathway to keep it separated from the public and you see that a lot in exclusive North County beach properties. That's all California Coastal Commission enforced and they didn't exist until 1972, its a given that they would never allow anything like this project to happen again in a million years using all manner of rules. The access issue is interesting though since most all of those cliff areas are posted to keep away due to instability and fenced off when the danger becomes critical.

From what I know about blacks beach I would have guess a mushroom house to be an entirely different thing.

Yes, I wish we had mushroom house money too!

I heard 1990s but I'm not 100% on that.

Actually its closed now, yep sorry guys no more surfing there. Tell all your friends.

@@emboudik haha, nice try.

Billions of bags sold, my friend.

@@louismcglasson7913 and still scraped up enough money to buy a nice home.

I thought about it but didn't want to risk crashing into the windows and wanted to respect the no trespassing signs.

The bluffs behind it are not.

@@Britishdave09 Yet it has stood for ages.

@@Britishdave09 That's what I was wondering - they look like high cliffs of sandy loam - could collapse at any time. The path down to the beach looks like it traverses lesser 'cliffs' where they have long since fallen down into lesser mounds.