Building piers along the Pacific shore was a very popular thing, which is a little surprising because nearly all of them caught fire and burned to the ground (or to the water, as the case may be) at one time or another. But it’s not often that we can catch a glimpse of one California’s piers in the middle of being destroyed. This was Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier at Ocean Park Beach (which is between Santa Monica beach and Venice beach) which was destroyed by fire on September 3, 1912. This is a remarkable photo so I can only imagine what it must have been to witness it in person.
Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier on fire at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, California, September 3, 1912
The vulnerability of great wooden structures to fire makes the survival of the Hotel del Coronado all the more remarkable. Thanks for posting this photo – it’s quite spectacular (and awful).
The position of the photographer should be around where the Hotel Arcadia had been until just a couple of years prior. This whole section was again redeveloped starting in 1911 with another hotel going up. Don’t let it be said there weren’t always spectacular sights to behold from this area. I saw Gypsy Boots and his bed of nails under the S.M. pier.