In 1946 Florence Scripps Kellogg, niece of Ellen Browning Scripps, donated a parcel of waterfront property along La Jolla Shores to the City of San Diego. Her donation barred commercial development at the site and stipulated that plantings must always cover at least 60 percent of the park. Kellogg Park was dedicated in 1951 and expanded in 1987 to mark the centennial of the La Jolla community.
Separated from the La Jolla Shores boardwalk and beach by a row of Mexican fan palms, the linear park is divided into two sections and is mostly an open, green space in keeping with Kellogg’s wishes. In the three-acre southern section, an oval-shaped lawn is flanked by rows of picnic tables and surrounded by two arcing beds planted with flowering hedges. Shade tree plantings of Monterey cypress dot the smaller beds on the periphery. The area’s southwestern corner features a sand-bottomed playground and a formal arrival area planted with coastal shrubs and hedges. Since 2009 the Friends of La Jolla Shores has worked with community members to enhance this end of the park, introducing marine-themed way-finding devices including a mosaic of the adjacent San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park, a bronze whale sculpture with overhead shade sails, and interpretive panels mounted on the park’s play structures. The park’s northern section comprises a two-acre, flat lawn with similar perimeter plantings.
