In the 10+ years I’ve been posting daily photos of Hollywood/Los Angeles/Southern California, I’ve never even heard of the structure pictured in this postcard. This was the dramatic entrance to a roller coaster called the Dragon Gorge Scenic Railway, whose huge arch was bookended with two enormous winged dragons. I don’t know if the roller coaster itself lived up to the spectacle of the entrance, but those dragons would have been worth the price of admission, if you ask me. It stood on Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier, which was located between Pier Ave and Marine St in Ocean Park, sandwiched between Santa Monica and Venice beaches. The pier only lasted a year – 1911 to 1912 – and like so many piers before and since, it burned down. (Source: oceanpark.wordpress.com)
Here is a front-on view where we can see the dragons more clearly
And here is a colorized postcard of Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier. I can’t see Dragon Gorge, but it sure looked pretty at night.
Sorry to tell you but Ocean Park is part of Santa Monica. Read the Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier teaser above.
Originally part of South Santa Monica lands within Los Angeles County but not the townsite of Santa Monica. The city borders ended at Colorado and were later extended. A vote to separate Ocean Park failed in about 1900. The Santa Fe railway, which had arrived via extension from Inglewood in 1895, got out and the Los Angeles Pacific moved in. Instead of the destination resort Kinney had tried to start, it drifted back to being just a sector of Santa Monica. The fire of 1912 reduced the entire central zone to rubble, but the bath house building survived. Then they rebuilt. Pier fire in 1924. Rebuilt again.
Thanks, Martin. Absolutely stunning pix. The postcards stood the test of time, and the color is magnificent. Definitely the pier burned down due to careless smokers. Smoking was out of control in those days, shades of the old west. I’ll bet they had “spatoons” placed around the pier, so smokers could spit tobacco! They wanted to keep the place tidy, but at the same time smokers tossed their cigarettes and cigars all over da’ place! OMG.
Debatable. It started in a food area of the Casino Building. Many of these fires seem to be restaurant area problems..possibly due to dirty flues. Pretty hard for tobacco products to start fires unless you’re tossing burning cherries into highly flammable materials. (Matress fires started by people falling asleep, not walking on piers.) Tossed matches could have been a bigger source if the flame wasn’t nixed. How many fires were blamed on marijuana smokers? They were around back then too. Same burning rolling paper, yet nobody screaming murder. How many forests went up because of camp fires left smoldering? Maybe we should ban campers too.
Our fun Dad took us to POP once or twice. I was 5 (born in late 1954). The King Neptune statue was impressive. Dad would have been only 40 years old (an excited kid, but a grown-up from my view). He took me on the roller coaster that went out over the ocean. It had no seat belts, nothing to hold me down. There was a slippery metal bar but it wasn’t close enough. I remember him laughing and thoroughly enjoying the ride. I was very light and didn’t have enough weight to keep me seated. He wasn’t holding me down at all because the ride was so exciting for him. I was terrified of being flung out over the ocean. It was a real possibility. I didn’t have the verbal skills to describe the danger afterwards and no one realized it or took it seriously. That was my first roller coaster ride and my last one until the Matterhorn. I’m 70 now and have always avoided RR rides unless they’re tame.
Wow, Isis! I don’t blame you for avoiding them!