Tag Archives: Beaches
Roosevelt Highway (later Pacific Coast Highway), Santa Monica beach, California, 1938
California State Route 1 runs along pretty much the whole California coast but takes on different names at different stages. In Los Angeles, it’s known as the Pacific Coast Highway, but back when this photo was taken in 1938, it … Continue reading
Trancas Restaurant, 30763 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu Beach, circa 1950
These days, Malibu is a long stretch of expensive beach houses lining the shore, but back in the 1950s, when this photo was taken, it wasn’t much more than a bunch of scattered buildings. Trancas Restaurant, which we can see … Continue reading
Oil derricks crowd Huntington Beach, California, circa 1960s
I don’t know about you, but when I think of sunny days spent lazing on golden California beaches, I’m not picturing a forest of oil derricks chugga-chugga-chugging as far as the eye can see. In this circa 1960s shot, it … Continue reading
A view looking northwest across the lagoon and Coral Canal, Venice, California, circa early 1900s
In this colorized (probably hand-tinted) postcard, we’re afforded a glimpse of how Abbot Kinney originally envisaged his “Venice of America” development. We’re looking northwest across the lagoon and that canal in the background was known as Coral Canal, which was … Continue reading
The 3,800-foot-long Rainbow Pier in Long Beach, California
The aptly named Rainbow Pier in Long Beach, California was actually a breakwater. Opening in 1931, the pier extended a quarter of a mile into the Pacific and was so wide with that vehicles could drive along it. For more … Continue reading
Café Nat Goodwin at the foot of Hollister Ave in the Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California, 1917
If you were looking for a good time in Los Angeles in the mid 1910s, you’d do well by driving to the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica. At the end of Hollister Ave you’d find Bristol Pier, which was … Continue reading
A Plymouth and a Hudson parked on Main Street, Huntington Beach, California, December 1957
This is a scene out of 1950s California if ever there was one. The greaser on the sidewalk is about to saunter past a 1956 salmon and gray Hudson sedan and a green and white 1954 Plymouth. This photo was … Continue reading
Muscle Beach, Santa Monica , California, 1949
From the looks of it, this 1949 photo of Muscle Beach along the Venice boardwalk was taken on a busy summer weekend. Those cafés selling 25-cent jumbo malts, 10-cent snow cones and candied apples and cotton candy now sell $5 … Continue reading
Marathon dancers at Venice Beach, California, circa 1923
The caption to this photo was something like “Marathon dancers at Venice, circa 1923.” But I always thought that the marathon dancing craze grew out of the evermore desperate financial straits of the Great Depression. The girls are all in … Continue reading