Excerpt: New Book Tries To Explain Why Laguna is So Quirky

Submitted by Skip Hellewell:

Laguna Beach, the jewel of the California Riviera, is a unique town formed from a fascinating history. It was first a gathering place for homesteaders of an obscure faith in the 1870s, then the preeminent art colony of the West Coast for early California Impressionists, a busy site for movies with “sound” in the ‘30s and home to stars before Malibu, a force in the rise of surfing culture with surfer-businessmen like Hobie Alter and Charles “Tex” Haines, and finally home to the conservationists who created the Laguna Greenbelt, the nation’s most important urban wilderness.

Finally there’s a book, written for residents as well as visitors, that examines the roots of Laguna’s uniqueness. “If we don’t remember the origins of Laguna’s uniqueness,” warns author Skip Hellewell, “we’re fated to become just another beach town.” Chapters remember past Laguna characters like Eiler Larsen and Pancho Barnes, the original homesteading families, early artists like Norman St. Clair and William Wendt, the architects behind our picturesque buildings, and the founding of the first churches. There are resources for “things to do,” tips for dining like a local, walks through the downtown area and Heisler Park, and driving tours to picturesque cottages that go back to the 1880s.

The book, Loving Laguna: A Local’s Guide to Laguna Beach, just launched on July 1, 2013. Loving Laguna, a full color condensed tome of 116 pages, is designed for carrying in the purse or jacket pocket, though it should also complement each Laguna home. The book is available at Laguna Beach Books, Tuvalu Home Furnishings, Laguna Beach Drugs, Amazon.com, the Hotel Laguna, and future sites to be announced.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: R. “Skip” Hellewell first came to Laguna on a surfing trip in the ‘50s, relocated to the area in 1974, and moved into town in 1996. A retired medical device engineer and member of the Laguna Beach Historical Society, he is also the author of Midway to Heaven, the Life and Times of John H. Huber; Zion by the Sea: Saints, Sinners, and Surfers; and I Love You Truly: The Lessons of Our Lives, an unpublished account of one family’s immigration to America beginning with the Mayflower.

CLICK THE PDF FILE ABOVE TO VIEW AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK.