Los Angeles is a city of eclectic architecture, but this one sure takes the prize. It’s the bath house at Ocean Park, which is the beach sandwiched between Santa Monica and Venice. I don’t know who chose to build it in the Moorish style, but you can bet that everyone knew what it was and where it was. Built in 1905, this photo is from circa 1910—back when going to the beach still meant you didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t show much skin.
Here’s another view. This one is from circa 1920:
This (I suspect hand-tinted) postcard indicates the roof was red:
But this one (by moonlight) has it green, so your guess is as good as mine:
As I understand it, the hand tinting of postcards was done from black and white photos by artists who lived in other parts of the country and never had seen the places they were hand tinting.
Yep, that’s pretty much what I figured.
In many cases, the artists not only lived in other parts of the country, they lived in other parts of the world. Specifically, my understanding is that, prior to World War I, a large portion of the postcards sold in America were made in Germany. So the artists tinting those postcards truly would have had no idea what this building looked like!
By the way, do we know when this bathhouse was demolished? (I’m assuming it was, since it was referred to in the past tense.)
I tried to find out when it was demolished but I couldn’t find a date. Hopefully someone reading this will know.
My favorite photos of this place are the ones that show flags flying from all four of “minaret” towers around the roof dome. Makes the place look so festive & fun. As to the roof color, seen lots of images with dark green roofs & a few with red roofs, so who knows; but the green roofs look better!
This image is a Panoramic view looking south from Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica. The beautiful Ocean Park Bath House, built in 1905, is seen on the left. Amazing! https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_Santa_Monica_3_of_6.html#Ocean_Park_Bath