Encinitas Historical Society

The Encinitas Historical Society (EHS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeking out, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating the history and traditions of our area. Through our work, we are committed to fostering a sense of shared identity among the communities of Encinitas, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Leucadia, the El Camino Real corridor, and Olivenhain. 

Our archival holdings are extensive: files of photographs, tubes of maps and posters, boxes of flyers, albums, newsclips and newspapers, oral history recordings and transcripts–much of which we are now digitizing. We also maintain rows of school annuals, research shelves of scholarly studies, and a special teaching library of books that would have been apt to students in a one-room schoolhouse, 1883-1927.

All of this can be found at our landmark 1883 Schoolhouse, the oldest standing structure in Encinitas. Indeed, the Society itself was established in 1981 to save the displaced, shuttered Schoolhouse from an uncertain future. Thanks to the dedication of EHS volunteers and the vision of the larger community, the Schoolhouse was returned to its original site and restored to serve not only as a tangible link to the past but as a vibrant hub for ongoing education, historical investigation, and public engagement.

We appreciate that our 1883 Schoolhouse is located on the unceded territory of the ‘Iipai-speaking Kumeyaay, close upon a village known as Haakuull, an ‘Iipai word meaning “yucca plant.” For millennia, the Kumeyaay people have been part of this land, which has nourished, healed, and embraced them in a relationship of harmony and stewardship. We at the Encinitas Historical Society acknowledge this legacy and the ongoing engagement of the Kumeyaay with North County history, traditions, and prospects.