Anna Held isn’t typically considered a household name in La Jolla’s history like Ellen Browning Scripps or Irving Gill. But in her time here starting in the late 1800s, she established the Green Dragon Colony, creating a haven for artists and Bohemians that marked a key era in La Jolla’s development.
To kick off the La Jolla Historical Society’s new series of tours called “People & Places,” Held and her one-time home (now Eddie V’s restaurant) were featured in a tour led by La Jolla historian Carol Olten on Feb. 27.
“It’s about some of the kind of crazy, eccentric, different people that have lived in La Jolla through history,” Olten said of the new series. Held fit that bill for her innovation, appreciation for Bohemian lifestyle and more, Olten said.
About Anna Held
Held was a native of Berlin and came to Southern California to serve as the nanny for Ulysses S. Grant Jr.’s children, Olten said.
“One day, Anna decided she wanted to take a drive out to La Jolla … and she parked herself on this knoll and looked at the ocean and said she wanted a beach cottage here,” Olten said, standing in front of Eddie V’s at 1270 Prospect St.
Held founded the Green Dragon Colony in late 1894, using the property on which Eddie V’s now sits as her personal home.
Soon after, she built 11 more cottages on some of the surrounding parcels that line the hillside leading down to La Jolla Cove, and “all the world came to visit,” Olten said.
In 1904, La Jolla and the Green Dragon Colony were featured in a story published in the San Francisco Chronicle, drawing even more attention to the burgeoning community.
Among the early guests were English Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry, Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska (better known in the United States as Helena Modjeska), poet/author Rose Hartwick Thorpe, British writer and suffragette Beatrice Harraden and singer/composer Max Heinrich.
For Held, having Heinrich as a guest had an impact for the rest of her life.
Heinrich was in San Diego to perform and was told to visit the Green Dragon Colony, Olten said.
“A lot of musicians were here, so he came out,” Olten said. “Max knocked on the door of Anna’s house, but there was nobody there. But he saw the piano in her house, so he let himself in and played. … Anna came up the hill and heard this beautiful music and so she went in and Max introduced himself. The two of them ended up getting married.”
Sign of the times
Olten said the attraction of the Green Dragon Colony came from the right combination of timing and location.
“The culture of that time was steeped in classical music, and one of the first concerts in La Jolla was organized by Anna Held,” Olten said. “She would bring culture here and … people that came here were Bohemian but also intellectual Bohemians. … So this kind of Bohemian living by the beach was a California thing. … There were these people looking for alternative lifestyles to traditional Victorian things that had gone on.”
Heinrich died in 1916 while on tour. Afterward, others ran the Green Dragon Colony while Held traveled, eventually crossing the Atlantic Ocean 44 times. She died during one of those trips in December 1941.
After her death, the main house and some of the surrounding cottages were left to Heinrich’s daughter. She turned the main house into a teahouse. Upon her death, Olten said, the property was bought but remained a teahouse. After a few more purchases and changes of use, Eddie V’s opened in 2011.
Through it all, the brick chimney that Held built remained and still stands. The chimney, considered a signature of her home, is believed to have been designed and built with the help of Gill, a famed local architect.
Surrounding properties weren’t so fortunate. The cottages fell into disrepair and the parcels were sold for further development. In 2020, the La Jolla Bay Homes, three townhouses ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, opened on the hillside that once housed some of the smaller cottages.
Hap and Mishap
Held also was known for her 200-piece doll collection, specifically two dolls named Olive Hap and Olive Mishap, created by a Parisian dollmaker.
“After Anna Held left [to travel], she gave a lot of her possessions away or left them with friends,” Olten said.
The dolls were considered lost, given that they had been ed from person to person. But 15 years ago, Olten found photographs of the dolls and set out on a mission to find them.
“I wrote a few columns and sooner or later, one came through our door in a shoebox,” Olten said. “It had been held together by string and … needed to be reassembled, so we hired a conservator to do that.”
Olive Mishap made its new debut for the La Jolla Historical Society’s 50th anniversary in 2014.
Olten thought that was the end of the story. But six months later, she received a letter from Washington, D.C., indicating that the other doll, Olive Hap, had been found along with a suitcase of “pristine” doll clothes.
Both dolls remain in the Historical Society’s collection.
Future tours
The next two “People & Places” tours are scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursdays, March 27 and April 10. Tickets are $10 for Historical Society and $20 for non-. Each tour lasts about an hour and a half. For more information, visit lajollahistory.org. ♦
