In March 1933, the La Cresta Women’s Club was founded with a membership of 32. In the beginning, members of the La Cresta Women’s Club were very active in helping circulate petitions to get the La Cresta streets oiled, the park improved, did charity work, and later sponsored the building of the La Cresta Clubhouse. They accomplished much in the way of civic improvement. 

In 1939, the Clubhouse was built by residents of La Cresta at what is now 113 North Park Drive. Land for the clubhouse was provided by the Cornelius family. It was the main meeting place for the new community. The flooring in the clubhouse was later replaced with maple that came from the Crystal Palace Dance Hall at Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, CA. Martin Ettel, Mr. Dikerhoff, and Barney Cornelius went down to Pacific Beach, removed the nails from the flooring, loaded the boards, brought them up the hill, and laid them in the clubhouse.

The La Cresta Women’s Club federated with the county in 1940, incorporated in March 1945, and amended on October 5, 1950. To support the clubhouse and to support the community, the Women’s Club sponsored barn dances, fall festivals, spring garden shows, and bingo. Barney and Dollie Cornelius officially granted the land for community use to the La Cresta Women’s Club on July 8, 1946 for the consideration of $10.

Over the years, the clubhouse has been used by many organizations for the betterment of Crest. In 1951, the clubhouse was the home of the Crest Library, consisting of two shelves of books, until a small building was built behind the clubhouse. A  Sunday school class sponsored by the Wesleyan Methodist Church branch also utilized the clubhouse.It is difficult to follow the trail of ownership by the various organizations.  The tax records show the Crest Women’s Club as owners in 1970 while the La Cresta Country Club, Inc. appears on the tax records in 1976. In the early 1970s Gilbert Mastri, president of the Crest Civic Group, was approached by the La Cresta Women’s Club and asked if the Civic Group would take over the responsibility for the La Cresta Clubhouse. The Women’s Club members were growing older and tired of the responsibility of having to raise funds to pay for insurance and taxes on the building. On February 1, 1971, minutes of the Crest Civic Group reflect that the lease contract for the clubhouse had been signed on December 8, 1970 by the Women’s Club and money had exchanged hands. To confuse matters just a bit more, the Crest Civic Group incorporated in 1989 and changed their name to the Crest Community Association but kept the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation of the La Cresta Country Club.  That is how the records remain to this day.  So while you were recently attending an activity at the Crest Community Association, in reality you were really visiting the La Cresta Country Club!

In the 1970s, the Crest Civic Group had the fiscal responsibility of the clubhouse. To support the clubhouse, they started sponsoring horse fun shows. The Crest Civic Group was originally organized in 1945 for the purpose of advancing improvement efforts for the Suncrest/La Cresta communities. The organization was originally called the Crest Civic League.

Under the guidance of Phil and Debbie Goettsch and the Civic Group Board, the building was updated in the 1990s to include a bathroom, hot water and septic, a new roof, and many additional improvements since the clubhouse was in a state of disrepair.  The clubhouse continued to serve as a meeting place for community activities such as spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts, Camp Coyote, as well as a meeting place for the scouts, the local garden club, horse groups, Crest Fire Safe Council, Kiwanis, and town hall meetings.  The original La Cresta Clubhouse remained in use until it was burned in the 2003

The Crest Clubhouse was one of the victims of the 2003 Cedar Fire. On October 24, 2004 a ground breaking ceremony took place with Phil and Debbie Goettsch once again leading the com-munity in a fantastic volunteer effort. The building, like most structures in Crest, was underinsured.  However, with existing insurance and monetary assistance from Supervisor Dianne Jacob’s office, Crest Kiwanis, and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a beautiful, unique timber frame structure came to life. The building was obtained from Cascade Joinery out of Bellingham, Washington.

The roof structure was a timber frame with a tongue and groove wood ceiling. The timber frame was scheduled for delivery on October 31st and installed in the beginning of November 2005.

The roof and timber frame were built in Washington State, disassembled, and then transported to Crest where the assembly started all over again. As the roof was lifted into the air, Crest residents came to take pictures of the event. Workers quickly raised the walls to fit under the roof. Phil wanted everybody to have a good time as well as enjoy the experience of creating a community building.  He told the crew that he wasn’t going to shave or cut his hair until the building got “final.” Good thing his hair grows very slowly.

Phil asked for volunteers and donated items everywhere he went. He was great at getting volunteers from Palomar College; over 90% of our volunteers came from there to help. No one knows for sure how he did that; maybe a project grade? Phil also managed to get the most amazing items donated. Because of his talent, we have a valuable building built for less than half the cost if we had contracted the work out. The highlight of the 4th of July, 2006 activities was the stream of people entering the new CCA Community Clubhouse to check out the progress.

July 7, 2008 was a big day for Crest as we celebrated the dedication of our new community clubhouse. The Goettsch family and all volunteers can be proud of their accomplishments. There were about 200 people attending the festivities and County Supervisor Dianne Jacob presented CCA with a proclamation which is now hanging in the new building. The new sign for the clubhouse was crafted by resident Glen Weischedel, whose grandparents, Alma and Glen Miller, were early settlers in Crest.