Overview
About Temple Hills
Temple Hills rises directly behind the village on a single climbing road, Temple Hills Drive, which switchbacks up the ridge and feeds Canyon View Drive, Coast View Drive, Terrace Way, Dunning Drive, San Remo Drive and Thurston Drive. The City of Laguna Beach draws it as evacuation zone 18 and records 627 households inside it. Across 209 acres the assessor counts 590 parcels on thirty-seven named streets, and the city zones 554 of its 589 parcels R1.
The hillside is residential almost without exception, with 33 parcels in residential hillside protection and a little under eight acres of open space preserve inside the boundary. The city's Historic Resources Inventory lists 13 resources here, nine of them filed under the Temple Hills neighborhood. Laguna Beach Unified serves the ridge from four campuses and 2,291 students, with El Morro and Top of the World elementaries feeding Thurston Middle and then Laguna Beach High.
View available homes in Temple HillsHistory
How Temple Hills was built
Joseph S. Thurston named these hills, choosing the name for the inspiration and spiritual strength he found in them, and he set the early history of the town down himself in a memoir, Laguna Beach of Early Days, published in 1947. He was the son of George and Sarah Thurston, who homesteaded 152 acres in Aliso Canyon in 1871 on ground Eugene Salter had claimed and abandoned. Joseph farmed the family acreage, known for its melons, and built a house in the village when he married the schoolteacher Marie Harding.
He bought the hilltop ground in 1919 from George Rogers, who had cut the old Damron homestead into lots, and about eight houses went up on it in the early 1920s. In 1925 he gave acreage at the top of the hills for a park, and the first of the fifteen tract maps over this ridge went on record in the same year; the last of them was filed in 1959. A photograph from 1930 shows steeply pitched Tudor roofs on the tract below a hillside sign reading TEMPLE HILLS, in the manner of the Hollywood sign.
By the Numbers
Temple Hills by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Temple Hills lifestyle
Laguna Beach occupies 8.84 square miles with a population of about 23,000 and roughly six million visitors a year on the city's own count, and provides its own police, fire and marine safety protection.
Beaches north of Aliso Creek close between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.; beaches south of the creek close between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; Thousand Steps Beach closes between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The city permits surfing at Agate, Brooks, Rockpile and Thalia Street beaches. Smoking fines on city beaches, parks and trails run $100, then $200, then $500 within twelve months.
Schools
Schools serving Temple Hills
Laguna Beach Unified serves Temple Hills along with the rest of the city, from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Attendance is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the district before relying on it.
K-5 · 404 students
K-5 · 536 students
6-8 · 524 students
9-12 · 815 students
FAQs
Common questions about Temple Hills
How big is Temple Hills and how is it laid out?
The city's published boundary encloses 209 acres, drawn as evacuation zone 18, with 627 households on the city record. The assessor counts 590 parcels on thirty-seven named streets, nearly all of them reached from the switchbacks of Temple Hills Drive as it climbs from the village. The city zones 554 of the hillside's 589 parcels R1.
Which schools serve Temple Hills?
Laguna Beach Unified serves the whole city from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Elementary assignment is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current one for a specific address with the district office.
Where does the name Temple Hills come from?
From Joseph Thurston, who in 1914 bought the large tract overlooking the village and named it for inspiration, as recorded in the Laguna Beach Historical Society's chronology. Thurston Drive crosses the hillside and the city's middle school carries the same name.
When was Temple Hills built?
Fifteen tracts were recorded over the ridge between 1925 and 1959, starting with three Hugo B. Lindberg maps between 1925 and 1927 and finishing with three William A. Ayer tracts in 1959. Construction concentrated after the war: the 1950s and 1960s together account for roughly half the houses standing today, and about a quarter of structures predate 1950.
What should I know about building on the hillside?
Thirty-three parcels inside the boundary carry the city's residential hillside protection designation, and the Historic Resources Inventory lists 13 resources here, nine filed under the Temple Hills neighborhood. Both affect what can be done to a house and a lot, so take a specific address to the city's Community Development counter before designing anything.