Viejas La Jolla

Arts & Crafts | 1959-1968

Viejas was a retail studio and workshop located at 5460 La Jolla Blvd serving locals and tourists alike with their unique designs in glass, plastic, wood and ceramics between 1959-1968.

Between 1959 - 1963, Viejas La Jolla advertised in print including in San Diego & Point and The San Diego Union. These curious ads featured slogans like "mosaics are our business...custom crafted for you" and "we specialize in creating the unusual in interior and exterior decorating.” Through these print ads, Viejas La Jolla sold mosaic panels and lighting fixtures as well as tables, copper enamels, "unusual gifts", "art pieces", and "objets d'art" all for "commercial and residential decoration."

Prior to moving from Alpine to Pacific Beach, William L. ‘Lester’ Ramsay (d. 1970) lost his home – the Alpine Tavern – in 1955. The Tavern reportedly hosted a museum, jewelry factory, Alpine Artists and Writers Club and craft fairs as well as the Alpine Chamber of Commerce. In 1958, Alpine Chamber of Commerce president William Lethbridge and Mr. Ramsay were living in Alpine and working at Bali Hai Tropic Shop.

By 1959, Lethbridge was living in La Jolla while Ramsay had moved to Pacific Beach, around the same time, and established the Garnet Street Nursery prior to founding Viejas, Inc. “a mosaic-ceramic manufacturing firm.” That same year, Ramsay, Lethbridge, along with sculptor Jack Boyd installed a copper cross at the New Methodist Church a commission that came through Viejas.

While few details, beyond the Methodist cross, are known about Boyd’s contributions to the Viejas operation, he likely contributed to designs while having his own workbench in the back of the shop. Clearly, Boyd was an asset to Viejas, and may have designed the mosaic tabletop shown (to the right) in this advertisement from 1961. Boyd would have left Viejas about 1962 when he opened is own workshop and gallery.

Viejas continued through much of the 1960s – including a commission at La Jolla’s Hotel Charro Penthouse. Viejas closed by March 27, 1968 when Fischer Auction Co. liquidated the inventory, equipment and fixtures owned by ‘Viejas Arts.’

Please contact me if you have any information on Viejas, La Jolla by emailing me HERE.