I’ve often said that the character and quality of our great city of Encinitas is, in large part, defined by the quality of the people who have made this their home over the generations. One such person is Hillel Schwartz.
The first time I met Hillel, I was a guest at a monthly Encinitas Historical Society Board of Directors meeting at the 1883 Schoolhouse, the oldest standing structure in Encinitas, which is adjacent to the Pacific View Arts Center at the top of F Street.
Since that first meeting, Hillel and I have been indirectly in each other’s orbit because I’ve spent a great deal of time with historical society president Carolyn Cope and board chair Jim Filanc, fellow members of the Encinitas Rotary Club. Hillel shared that he’d been following my historical stories in Encinitas Magazine, while I’d been following his accomplishments as well.
Carolyn told me, “I met Hillel years ago with our Rotary Club, when we would help with the food packing at Del Mar Racetrack for the Community Resource Center. He ran a tight ship, let me tell you.
“He was like the gunnery sergeant, just directing everyone. He was very precise, and if you messed up, he’d yell at you.”
“I always liked Hillel,” Carolyn reflected. “I thought, I like this guy because he takes charge and he knows what he’s doing. He’s an alpha man.”
Carolyn later discovered that Hillel was very interested in the history of Leucadia. “He kept coming by the schoolhouse. He’d ask me all kinds of questions, and if I didn’t know the answer, I’d send him to Fred Caldwell. He kept coming back and asking more questions, and finally I said, ‘You ought to be on our Board.’ He submitted his credentials, and boy, that was the best thing we ever could have done.”
As the archivist, Hillel explained to me that the EHS’s core mission “is to seek out, preserve, and make publicly available the material, documentary, and cultural history of our area.”
“What exactly is an archivist?” I asked Hillel.
“The role of the archivist,” he explained, “is central to the mission. The archivist makes sure that we take care of the materials already in our possession, make them accessible to the researcher and to the public. It also means that we seek out materials, especially those that would fill gaps in the history of Encinitas, not only by seeking out documentary materials, but also engaging in a renovated oral history project.”
Encinitas Historical Society Board Chair Jim Filanc recalls, “Along comes Hillel wanting to bring strength to the core mission of what a historical society should be. Your archives are your source of resources, or the history of your community. And he’s exceeded every expectation.”
When Hillel stepped into his new role, he discovered that “the Historical Society’s materials were not so much in disorder as they were uninventoried. The first thing one does is make an inventory of everything that’s of historical value in your archive. We make searchable PDFs. Eventually, we’ll have a searchable database.”
The work of both archiving and writing history is as much about the present and the future as it is about the past.
Hillel is also leading the Encinitas Historical Society’s “Independence Days” series, commemorating America’s 250th anniversary by exploring the many meanings of independence through Encinitas’ diverse local history. “So far as we can tell, there is no project like this anywhere else in the United States,” he wrote. The free programs continue August 8 and 22, September 12 and 19, October 3, and conclude December 19 at the 1883 Schoolhouse.
“We couldn’t have pulled this off on our own,” Carolyn said. “He has really put our name on the map in the community with this particular series of events. It all started with Hillel just really getting us going.”
“The work of both archiving and writing history is as much about the present and the future as it is about the past,” according to Hillel.
For more about what Hillel does, check out encinitashistoricalsociety.org.
The 1883 Schoolhouse
The oldest standing structure in Encinitas, at the top of F Street.
As It Ran in Print
The original spread, Encinitas Magazine, August–September 2026. Click any page to see it full size.
