The pier on Santa Monica beach has had several incarnations over the years—mostly because piers would all too often catch fire—but this photo goes back to the day when the first one (that is to say the first concrete one and therefore impervious to fire) opened to the public. It was creatively called “Pier Day” and the first Angelenos were able to stroll its length on Thursday, September 9, 1909. And the US Navy’s Atlantic fleet was there to greet them. I sure hope Septembers back then weren’t as warm as they are these days, because these people are all dressed up in their full-body Victorian wardrobe, which, let’s face it, wasn’t known for being comfy.
Tony V. says: “The present Santa Monica pier is actually two adjacent piers built at different times. The long, narrow Municipal Pier was constructed in 1909. In 1916, the short, wide Pleasure Pier (also known as the Looff Pier) was built adjacent to it. The Merry-Go-Round, and the amusement park were all built on the Looff Pier. Today, the two piers are known by one name, but each pier’s construction and history are different.”
Here’s another view from the same day:
This is roughly the same view in February 2015 (which is the most recent time the Google Maps Streetview machine visited the pier, which surprises me.)
Love those photos with the Navy ships in the distance; you don’t really see many vessels out in the water whenever I’ve been there.
I like the recent photo, too, with the carousel building that’s in one of my favorite films, The Sting, both exterior and interior with the carousel itself. I’d read that the only reason it’s still there is because it was in the film. At one point in the ’70s it was going to be torn down.
I liked your comments about their dress and the weather. One time I tried searching to see if there’s some sort of database where you could find out what the weather was at any given location on any particular date and I did not find anything to my satisfaction.
I haven’t tried this yet but it looks like it could be what you’re looking for: https://www.wunderground.com/history
Unfortunately for the sake of this post, their database only goes back as far as 1930.
One of the images on Calisphere or W&P looks down the coast to this pier and gives a dating of circa 1920. However, there are two naval vessels visible off the end of the pier which might match up to this 1909 event. Most of these visits were already moved to San Pedro after that time.
Great pictures. As usual everything looked better, to me, back in the day.
The styles, artistry, cars. Oh to be able to time travel..