It only took a little over two years and lots of volunteer time and donations to rebuild the pier after its destruction from the winter storms of 1983.
A quarter of a century ago, Seal Beach celebrated:
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
I hope you don’t mind more cracks, debris and structural damage. I thought I had just one more post of earthquake photographs from 1933, but I’ve found enough material for this week and the next two Mondays.
Here’s Reverend and Mrs. Cayne at the Tenth Street refugee tent camp mentioned in last week’s post. You can see the power plant smokestack on First Street behind the tent on the left.
The earthquake shook this Sixth Street off its foundation.
The Lothian House at Ocean Avenue and Second Street sustained serious damage, but it was repaired and still stands today. Those palm trees to the right are much taller now.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back each Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
I still have more earthquake photographs from 1933 to share, but I’m swamped this week. I’ll do my best to post the rest next Monday.
Today’s single image is of the old Seal Beach police department on Central Avenue taken from a vacant lot where the Old Town fire station stands today between 7th and 8th Street.
I was puzzled by this photo when I first saw it. Why were these people dining outdoors across the street from the police station?
My guess — and it’s only a guess — is that this photograph was taken shortly after the Long Beach quake. This is based on what appears to be brick rubble in the foreground and that this was the area in town where the National Guard set up tents for quake refugees from Long Beach. So these diners at the table may have been unfortunate Long Beach residents who have just lost their homes. Another possibility is that this was a Seal Beach family who decided to avoid being indoors when aftershocks hit.
There’s something about that rubble that still puzzles me. Where did it come from? I’ve checked aerial photos from May 1931 and May 1933, and there wasn’t a building on this lot. Did it come from the collapsed building on Main Street? Or is this just a picture from different year with no connection to the earthquake? There’s no way at this late date to know for certain. Like so many times when we try to find a definite answer to a historical question, we’re only led to more questions.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
Bolsa Chica Gun Club and Mud Volcanoes – March 11, 1933
Today is the 77th anniversary of the Long Beach Earthquake, and I’m tossing up a few more bonus images of earthquake damage.
The Bolsa Chica Gun Club off Pacific Coast Highway in the Bolsa Chica marshes is long gone, but it did survive the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake as shown in these photographs taken the day after the quake.
Road between Seal Beach and the Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Pacific Electric Red Car tracks can be seen in the upper left corner. Photo by W.W. Bradley.
Bolsa Chica Gun Club bridge. Photo by W.W. Bradley.
Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Photo from Mr. Merritt.
Bolsa Chica Gun Club. Photo from Mr. Merritt.
Mud volcano on the North end of Seal Beach. Photo by W.W. Bradley.
You can see these and other photos of damage from the March 10, 1933 Long Beach Earthquake at the U.S. Geologic Survey photographic library by clicking here.
Time permitting, I’ll share some more photos of earthquake destruction in Seal Beach (and perhaps an ironic tale of Seal Beach’s sinful past) later this week.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
Thus far, March has brought Seal Beach tsunami warnings, flooding, destroyed piers, and now earthquakes.
77 years ago this Wednesday, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Southern California at 5:54 P.M., killing 115 people and bringing an estimated 40 million dollars of damages and destruction to homes, businesses, buildings and roads.
The heaviest damage was in Long Beach, but Seal Beach was also hit hard on Main Street and, as you can see below in these photographs taken the day after the earthquake, at Seal Beach Elementary School, later renamed Mary E. Zoeter School.
One of the gentlemen surveying the damage in the third picture is Seal Beach school district superintendent, Jerome Hickman McGaugh, one of the truly great personages of Seal Beach history.
McGaugh went to Sacramento and successfully lobbied for funds to rebuild Zoeter school. Bricks from the damaged buildings were used to build a brick wall around the rebuilt school, and it still stands around the Zoeter property today.
Blowing up a portion of a 1931 aerial photo doesn’t give us many details, but it does offer a glimpse of the pre-earthquake layout of Zoeter school.
Shifting tectonic plates couldn’t shut down Zoeter School, but dwindling student enrollment in the 1990s lead to the grades being consolidated at J. H McGaugh School (named after you know who), and Zoeter’s administrative offices were then converted to retail use, leaving the playground for recreational use. In 2007, the remaining empty Zoeter classrooms were razed due to asbestos concerns. The asbestos-free Sun-N-Fun Preschool classroom at 12th Street and Landing Avenue is now the only part of the property still used for education.
Time permitting, I’ll share some more photos of earthquake destruction in Seal Beach (and perhaps an ironic tale of Seal Beach’s sinful past) later this week.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
To make up for not posting an image last week, I’m offering a bonus photograph this week as an apology. This also allows me to commemorate the destruction of the Seal Beach pier on this date in 1983. This aerial shot taken in the afternoon of March 4. 1983 shows the devastating results of the March 2 storm that took out the center section of pier.
Click on the image for a larger view
This same storm also wiped out Island Esther, a man-made island that Chevron Oil had built three-quarters of a mile from the Seal Beach shore in 1965. A Coast Guard spokesperson told the L.A. Times that “about all that’s left is the makings of a good fishing reef.” Chevron would later convert the remains of Esther into an oil platform raised 50 feet above the water. You can find an amazing shot of a swell breaking over Oil Island Esther on March 1. 1983 and more dramatic photos of pounding Seal Beach surf at Surfline.com.
What many people don’t remember today is that the pier had already lost a big chunk earlier in the year during a big January 27 storm as shown in this photograph.
During this period, I worked at The Bookstore on Main Street. I remember walking to work along Ocean Avenue to Main Street after the January storm and encountering a growing crowd at the base of the pier gathered to view the damage firsthand. Some of the crowd were locals, but most of them were out-of-towners drawn to Seal Beach by on the scene television reports from local news personalities. The remaining portion of the pier was unstable and vulnerable to the rough waters smashing into the beach, and there seemed to be a sense of eager anticipation of more destruction from much of the crowd.
I felt an instant stab of visceral resentment towards the crowd and what I perceived as their gleeful enjoyment of the devastation. How dare they turn this loss into a vulgar party? This was my pier! How many times had I walked that pier with friends, family and dates? And now it was gone, all gone. What was mere spectacle to them was very personal to me and anyone else who had lived in Seal Beach. It was a beloved part of our lives, and now it was mostly rubble and debris scattered along the beach.
Today I’d like to believe I’d be more understanding. Look at that picture. It was a spectacle, and it’s not fair to blame people for wanting to experience the thrill in person.
Soon after the March 2nd storm, the tv news vans and reporters left, and the crowds went with them. The Seal Beach community quickly came together to raise funds for the rebuilt pier that still stands today (in spite of some minor damage and the occasional fire).
I still miss the old pier, though.
———————————-
Addendum: Here’s an extra image of the damaged pier taken from the west parking lot by Libby Appelgate.
If you have any fond memories of the pier that you’d like to share, we invite you to leave a comment.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
After this weekend’s tsunami scare, this week’s image serves as a reminder that coping with flooding has been a proud tradition of living in Seal Beach for years.
Click on the image for a larger view
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
These four photographs provide an almost 180 degree glimpse of Anaheim Landing take from the Pacific Electric tracks ninety-six years ago.
This shot faces north towards where J. H. McGaugh Intermediate School will be built in about forty years. The dock just left from the center was a familiar Anaheim Landing landmark for years.
The photographer turned a bit to his right to give us a nice shot of some homes along the shore of Anaheim Bay. These homes would either be destroyed or moved into Seal Beach when the Navy took over the bay in 1944. Note the man in suspenders taking a break in the sand.
A little more to the right to show some more homes and the marshy area that will someday become the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge.
And finally a view towards what would become the Surfside Colony and Sunset Beach.
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
The Pacific Electric’s Newport line was crucial to the development of Seal Beach and the coastal cities of Orange County down to Newport Beach. The Pacific Electric red car trolleys once ran along Electric Avenue through the city for most of the first half of the 20th century. A second line came across the bridge from the Long Beach Peninsula on Ocean Avenue and turned down Main Street to join the main line at Electric Avenue.
Here’s an eight minute portion of a Pacific Electric training film from 1914 posted on YouTube. It’s best to keep in mind that this film was originally made to instruct PE employees how to do their jobs and not entertain. Still, it does offer an interesting glimpse into what it was like to ride on a red car in 1914.
This video was taken from an 8mm film compiled by Interurban Films, a specialty film company that compiled railroad footage into film collections for rail fans. Interurban Films was founded and run by the late Bruce Frenzinger, one of the founding members of the Seal Beach Historical & Cultural Society and a driving force in the initial acquisition and restoration of the Red Car Museum back in the seventies. The next time you visit the Red Car Museum, toot the train whistle in Bruce’s honor.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
We’ll be viewing various images of Seal Beach piers over the next few months, but this week we’re looking at what is probably the first image of the original pier built in 1906. Unfortunately, the image only exists as a poor low resolution reproduction in a Bay City advertisement in the March 13, 1906 Los Angeles Herald.
The tiny caption for the photo reads, “THIS IS AN ARTIST’S ADVANCE SKETCH OF THE NEW PIER NOW BEING BUILT AT BAY CITY. THE PIER WILL BE 1500 FEET LONG WITH SAFE, AMPLE FACILITIES FOR LOADING PASSENGERS.” Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be any of the idealization or design for reproduction you normally see in advance artwork advertising new construction. The pier also seems extremely short for sketch promoting its 1500 foot long length. Frankly, this looks like a photograph to me. What do you think?
P.A. Stanton is Philip Stanton, one of the founding fathers of Seal Beach, and we’ll be also be seeing much more of him in the next few months.
The early newspaper stories and ads about Bay City are perfect examples of Southern California boosterism in the first decade of the 1900s as shown in the following examples from the Los Angeles Herald charting the progress of Bay City pier construction in early 1906.
——————————-
PLEASURE PIER AT BAY CITY
Contract Let for Extensive Improvement at Attractive Coast Resort
Another new pleasure pier is about to be added to those providing enjoyment for Southern California and coast resort visitors. Contracts have already been let to Mr. Mercereau for building a 1500-foot pier at Bay City. This will be the longest pleasure pier in Southern California, the one at Long Beach alone excepted, and Mr. P. A. Stanton, the agent for Bay City, says it will be completed by June 1. (trading and sidewalking of all streets In Bay City not so improved is now in progress. The proposed new hotel of sixteen rooms and a large dining room together with several store rooms on the ground floor, will be constructed at the corner of Main and Central avenue. Plans have already been drawn for this building.
Several handsome new houses are also under construction or planned for early building. Early Inquiries of home, seekers or investors for Bay City lots presage an early and active season for the Southern California beach resorts. – Los Angeles Herald, 4 March 1906
Los Angeles Herald, 1 April 1906
About $28,000 will be expended in building the 1500-foot pleasure pier, the new hotel and store building and for other improvements at Bay City. – Los Angeles Herald, 5 May 1906
Los Angeles Herald, 6 May 1906
PLEASURE PIER AT BAY CITY
Passenger and Freight Depot to Be Erected by the Pacific Electric Company
The first carload of lumber for the 1500-foot pier at Bay City Is on the ground, and the contractor promises to complete the structure within thirty days. The new two-story hotel and store building at the corner of Main street and Central avenue Is well under way, and the passenger and freight depot to be constructed by the Pacific Electric company Is planned for the coming Summer. When contracts now being carried out are completed, over $28,000 will have been expended for street cement work alone In Bay City. – Los Angeles Herald, 6 May 1906
Los Angeles Herald, 20 May 1906
BAY CITY IS BOOMING
Long Stretch of 1500-Foot Pier Is Built— Bath House Open for Business
Rapid progress is being made on the new 1500-foot pleasure pier at Bay City. It already extends eight hundred feet into the ocean, so that the aspect of the water front is materially changed. The pier will be completed within thirty days. The new hotel and store building is about half done and the bathhouse at Anaheim landing is open for business. Although it is still early, P. A. Stanton reports a lively inquiry for lots at Bay City, and predicts a lively season. – Los Angeles Herald, 20 May 1906
Los Angeles Herald, 27 May 1906
The reduction in the round trip rate to Bay City has stimulated public interest in that enterprising beach resort and the improvements now being made foreshadow a busy season. The new 1500-foot pier will be completed in a few days; the hotel is nearly ready for the plasterers and the street improvements well under way. No definite date has been set for beginning work on the new Pacific Electric station, but it in hoped that it will be built during the coming season. – Los Angeles Herald, 27 May 1906
Sales Active at Bay City
A residence building boom is adding to the gayeties of construction at Bay City, where a new 1500-foot pier and a hotel and store building are approaching completion. Mrs. Dwight Whiting, of Los Angeles, has let the contract for a handsome two-story cottage on First street; W. J. Edwards has ordered plans drawn for- a two-story home to be located at Central avenue and Second street: Dr. V. J. Nance will build a two-story cottage at Fifth street and Ocean avenue, and John L. Plummer is preparing to build on Fifth street. This makes four two-story cottages started or planned within a week past.
It has leaked out that Phil Stanton has evolved a plan which is to make Bay City “the best lighted city on the Southern California coast.” This is a pretty big contract, and the outcome is awaited with considerable interest. The Bayside Land company has a habit of carrying out its promises. – Los Angeles Herald, 3 June 1906
Los Angeles Herald, 17 June 1906
Long Pleasure Pier Completed
Dr. H. I. Nance, of 1834 West Twenty-ninth street, has just signed a contract for the erection of a six-room cottage on the corner of Fifth street and Ocean avenue, Bay City, and work will begin Monday. This is the fifth good sized cottage to be started or contracted for within two weeks. The 1500 foot pier at the foot of Main street Is now fully completed and is much frequented by anglers, pleasure seekers and cottagers. Work is progressing on the new hotel. P. A. Stanton reports a largely increased inquiry for Bay City property since warmer weather set in. – Los Angeles Herald, 17 June 1906
We’ll share more historical pictures and photos of Seal Beach as the year progresses. Be sure to check back every Monday for a new Seal Beach image.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
