Landscape Information
This reserve was established on 364 acres of former pueblo land in 1899 by the San Diego City Council. Shortly after naturalist Guy Fleming laid out the reserve’s first trail system in 1921, landscape architect Ralph Cornell created a restrained master plan that preserved the park’s natural landscape. A second ordinance in 1924 expanded Torrey Pines Park to nearly 1,000 acres, encompassing cliffs, canyons, and mesas. In the late 1920s, architects Richard Requa and Herbert Jackson designed the Pueblo Revival-style Torrey Pines Lodge, which has since become the visitor center. The Guy and Margaret Fleming House, built by Guy Fleming in 1927, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 and now serves as the Torrey Pines Reserve Ranger Residence. In 1936 the present North and Parry Groves were bequeathed to the city by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps. The site became a state park in 1959, granting the reserve added protections. An additional 197 acres were added to the park in 1970, and, in 2007, the name was changed to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Located some 21 miles north of San Diego, the site covers 1,750 acres of seaside woodland, coastal shrubland, and salt marshes, alongside miles of sand beaches and scenic trails. The park preserves the torrey pine, considered one of the rarest pine trees in the world, and which is endemic to the La Jolla region.
