With Change Comes Progress
In 1951, the YWCA again announced that Asilomar was for sale. The people of the Monterey Peninsula feared for the loss of Asilomar and flooded the local papers with letters of protest. Pacific Grove's mayor, John Nelson, created the Save Asilomar committee, chaired by Kate Gompertz. The committee was formed to investigate ways in which Asilomar could be preserved.
In 1952, while the National Board of the YWCA was entertaining bids for the sale of Asilomar, Newton Drury, Director of California State Parks, expressed an interest in purchasing Asilomar for its dune ecology. Just a few years earlier, in 1949, the California State Parks had purchased some coastal property for a state beach across from the Asilomar grounds. Meanwhile, Owings Glass had bid on the property to be used for sand extraction at the same time that the City of Pacific Grove was busily lobbying the California Legislature to purchase Asilomar through the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Drury got his sand dunes, but the YWCA agreed to sell to the State Parks only if the conference grounds were included in the sale. Senator Fred Farr and Assemblyman Alan Pattee drafted a legislative bill to make Asilomar a state park with the proviso that no public funds would be used to support the park. The bill was passed unanimously, only to be vetoed by Governor Goodwin Knight who had been convinced by State Finance Director, John Pierce, that Asilomar would cost the state money to operate, and that Pacific Grove's taxes should pay for it since they were the ones who wanted it saved in the first place. Eventually, a compromise was reached in which the State of California would purchase Asilomar, and the city of Pacific Grove would lease Asilomar from the state and operate the facility. Governor Knight agreed to the purchase and signed the bill.
On July 1, 1956, in a ceremony at Merrill Hall, Asilomar and the property along the coastline – a combined 91 acres – was officially dedicated as a unit of the California State Park System. Representing the YWCA at the event were Mrs. Bartlett B. Heard, who had been instrumental in retaining Asilomar for the use of everyone, and Mrs. Ralph Fisher, representing the National Board. The YWCA had donated $350,000 – one-half of the appraised value of the property – as a gift to the State. Joseph Knowland, Chairman of the State Park Commission, stated: "I have never accepted any gift with greater pleasure."
Many citizens of Pacific Grove had worked long and hard to retain Asilomar as a conference grounds. As a result, the California Department of Parks and Recreation entered into an agreement with a non-profit corporation to administer, operate, and maintain the conference center. The Board of Directors was composed of members of the Pacific Grove City Council. In 1965, when those council members could not give Asilomar the time necessary to properly manage the facility, the Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Mayor of Pacific Grove appointed interested local citizens to sit on the Board.
The year 1959 set the stage for two decades of new, contemporary structures at Asilomar, as part of an integrated Twenty Year Master Plan created by John Carl Warnecke of John Warnecke & Associates of San Francisco. Included in the Master Plan were the buildings designed by Warnecke and the North Woods complex designed and built by Smith Barker & Hanssen of San Francisco. During that same time, the Fireside complex was designed and built by San Francisco architect Clark Davis of Stone, Marraccini & Patterson, and the East Woods complex was designed and built by Smith Barker & Hanssen.
In reference to working with John Carl Warnecke, Asilomar's general manager, Roma Philbrook, stated: "I never set a budget for the architect when planning. I told him to design the very best for the need we outlined. It should be simple but handsome, using native materials. If it satisfied our needs and blended perfectly with the setting and Julia Morgan's craftsman's style, then we would earn the money for it. We tried to build forever as Julia Morgan had. Her buildings demonstrate that good architecture pays."
In 1969, Pacific Grove terminated its lease with the State of California and Asilomar. The State Parks hired a non-profit corporation, the Pacific Grove-Asilomar Operating Corporation, to manage Asilomar. Roma Philbrook continued as general manager. In 1971, Philbrook and the State Parks established a goal to protect the Asilomar environment by acquiring adjacent lands which could extend the characteristics of the Asilomar grounds to the Asilomar/Crocker block, and prevent other businesses and residential properties from competing for space and business. All of the property from Asilomar Avenue to Crocker Avenue, and from Sinex Avenue to Sunset Drive was acquired by the state, increasing the park to 105 acres.
In 1972-73, the state park training center, originally called the Center for Continuous Learning, was built. Years later, it was dedicated to William Penn Mott, Jr. The Fireside lodging and meeting rooms were designed and completed and the Forest Lodge was remodeled in 1982. Almost 30 years after buying Asilomar for its dune ecology, the dune restoration project was started in 1984 to address the problems that had begun when the conference grounds first opened in 1913. Since that time, visitors had been unknowingly trampling the dune plants which held the sands in place.
This weakened the dunes and allowed the sand to blow away. Early efforts to preserve the dunes involved the planting of non-native plants such as iceplant, which only made the situation worse, and the dunes continued to blow away, allowing the pines that were closest to the shore to succumb to the salt spray and wind. After 25 years of successful restoration work, the dunes are now abundant with nature plants and wildlife. The dunes are classified as Asilomar Dune Natural Preserve.
In 1987, the Julia Morgan-designed buildings were designated a National Historic Landmark. The 1980s was a decade dedicated to managing Asilomar's resources, which included a State Park "Resource Management Plan." This Plan not only restored the dunes by eliminating non-native plants and planting native plants, but also created the dunes boardwalk and coast trail in an effort to keep visitors from treading on the sensitive and delicate, newly restored dune environment. (Unfortunately, to this day, many people still insist on walking off-trail, much to the detriment of the dune environment.) In addition, the Plan was designed to maintain the forest ecosystem within the Asilomar park itself.
Glory Days | The Stuck-Ups | The Pirates | End of an Era | Park Purchase