Audrey Geisel University House, University chancellor residence in La Jolla, San Diego, US.
Audrey Geisel University House is a Pueblo Revival adobe house at 9630 La Jolla Farms Road, the first built in La Jolla Farms, designed by Santa Fe architect William Lumpkins for William H. and Ruth Black and occupied from 1952 to 1967. It overlooks Black's Beach, the Scripps Coastal Reserve and the Pacific, and since 2014 has been the chancellor's residence and venue for formal university events.
William H. and Ruth Black had architect William Lumpkins design the house, built between 1950 and 1952 as the first in La Jolla Farms. The Regents of the University of California bought it in 1967 and it housed UC San Diego chancellors until 2004, when it was deemed structurally unsound. After a $10 million renovation completed in 2013, it was renamed for donor Audrey Geisel.
The grounds are sacred to the Kumeyaay, and between 1929 and 2008 the remains of 29 Kumeyaay were found and removed from the site; at least 17 were later housed in the San Diego Museum of Man. The property is listed as SDM-W-12 Locus A (CA-SDI-4669), and the house also serves as a venue for formal university functions.
The house is a private residence and event venue, not a museum open to the public; entry is by invitation to university functions or with permission from UC San Diego. It stands at 9630 La Jolla Farms Road, above Black's Beach and the Scripps Coastal Reserve, and the grounds include a Kumeyaay cemetery, so access to the land is likewise controlled.
The grounds hold a cemetery and the site of a prehistoric Kumeyaay village; between 1929 and 2008 the remains of 29 Kumeyaay were found and removed here, and at least 17 were later housed at the San Diego Museum of Man. The National Register listing of 2008 covers the house plus this contributing archaeological site on 6.9 acres.
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