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Tag: Seal Beach City Hall

  • Robin Fort-Lincke RIP

    I’ve just received the heartbreaking news that Robin Fort-Lincke passed away on April 4th. If you’ve enjoyed any of the programming on SBTV3, including the televised feeds of the Seal Beach Christmas Parade or city council meetings, you’ve seen examples of Robin’s work. She touched many lives and earned the respect and affection of anyone she worked with. She was the heart and soul of SBTV3.

    The Celebration of Life for Robin Fort-Lincke will be on Thursday, April 27 at noon in the Grace Church of Seal Beach at 138 8th Street Seal Beach on the corner of Eighth Street and Central Avenue in Old Town.

    It seems fitting that Robin’s life celebration services be held across the street from the old Seal Beach City Hall building where the SBTV3 facilities are housed. Robin loved working in that building and shared many of the images and facts that she had collected about the place for the blog, including the architectural renderings featured in this post for February 14, 1929 and some of the research and images in this October 28, 1929 post on the dedication of the then-new city hall.

    I first got to know Robin when we both served on the Seal Beach Centennial history committee. Robin was a behind-the-scenes sort of person, a refreshing quality when so many egos and personalities insist on being the center of attention.

    Robin typically standing in the back of a group photograph

    This was not shyness. Robin was deservedly proud of her accomplishments and not afraid to share her point of view. She was about the work, not the glory. She had to deal and interact with a variety of personalities in her work, and Robin will always be a role model to me for the patience and equanimity she brought to those interactions.

    She was a great supporter of this blog and preserving Seal Beach history in general. I remember with great fondness all the hours I spent with Robin in the SBTV3 offices and studio discussing Seal Beach history during the centennial celebration and on our many phone calls after I left Seal Beach in 2016. And I could always rely on Robin for the latest Seal Beach news and gossip.

    I will miss her greatly.

    — Michael Dobkins

  • August 15th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1949, the Seal Beach City Council passed what was described by the Los Angeles Times as “an ironclad anti-gambling ordinance.” 

    There was already a city ordinance against gambling on the books, but the new ordinance was designed to close loopholes in the previous ordinance. This followed a failed city initiative to allow poker rooms in Seal Beach that was voted down by Seal Beach voters in July 1949. 

    The city council meeting was packed with a charged crowd as Mayor Frank Shufelt, councilmen F. O. Brostrom, Albert R. Leonard, Emil F. Jacobsen, and Oliver L. Bowers voted unanimously to adopt the new ordinance. Richard Steyling, chairman of the Seal Beach Civic Improvement Association, the organization sponsoring the ordinance, told the Long Beach Independent that the new ordinance would ban virtually every type of game of chance from Seal Beach.

    Well, that settles that.

    Aug_15_1949_gambling_ban_headline

    Of course, nothing was settled. The battle between gambling interests and anti-gambling forces would continue in Seal Beach well into the next decade.

    – 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.

    This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.

  • February 14th In Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1929, the Seal Beach City Council awarded the contract for a new city hall to architect W. Horace Austin after considering preliminary plans presented by local architects.

    Austin’s plans included a fire station, a police station, a city library, offices for city staff, and a second story assembly room for public meetings. Austin himself would supervise the Spanish style construction as soon at the city closed a deal to purchase the future city hall site.

    W. Horace Austin was a prominent architect in the area during the first half of the Twentieth Century, and many of his landmark designs still stand today, including Wilson High School, the Press-Telegram building, the downtown Farmers & Merchants Bank, and the Long Beach Airport.

    And, of course, the old Seal Beach City Hall, still located on the corner of Eight Street and Central Avenue today. It was officially opened and dedicated eight and a half months later on October 29th, 1929. City bureaucracy move faster in those days.

    – 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.

    This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.