The Walking Tour: Review of our 2012 featured spots in the historic downtown

   In the past year, Historic Huntington Beach has featured a few of the stops on the downtown walking tour, along with other tidbits of local history to make your stroll around town.  We haven't always gone in chronological order, because we tend to wander off (we recommend you wander off the beaten trail, also).  We'll get to spots we missed in 2013!  Here's where we've stopped along the way in 2012.

Visitors Information Kiosk
Stop here first (at the foot of our pier along Pacific Coast Highway) to pick up the printed walking tour brochure.  The brochure offers a map and just enough historical information to make you want to learn more!

The Huntington Beach pier and bandstand, circa 1914.  It didn't take long to figure out everyone likes a long walk on a longer pier. (Photo, Library of Congress)

The Huntington Beach Pier
 The pier has been a fixture on our coast for well over one hundred years.  Each time the Pacific knocked it down, we rebuilt.  Take a look at a century of pier-story at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/huntington-beach-near-pier-and.html

   We've also included some history about the early attempts at pier wave motors and the "Man Angel," the oddest flying machine you've ever seen, "Masters of the Ocean Waves," http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/masters-of-ocean-waves.html

The Pavalon (this photo circa 1946) is no longer.  It was the place to take your date, jump into the saltwater plunge, and dance like nobody's business.

The Pavalon Ballroom
    We included one of the old photographs and a little information about the famous Pavalon in Smoked Fish and the Surfer Stomp, http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/smoked-fish-and-surfer-stomp.html  More to come in 2013! 

Helme-Worthy House and M.E. Helme House Furnishing Co.
   A treasure for many reasons, this National Historic Register site is the legacy of one of Huntington Beach's first families and remains in their ownership.  The 1904 M.E. Helme House Furnishing Co. is adjacent to the 1880s Helme-Worthy House which was moved to the property by mule team in 1903.  Browse the antiques, soak up the history and watch the progress of a historic site undergoing painstakingly careful restoration.  Read more at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-6-me-helme-house.html

The horseshoe courts on Triangle Park, circa 1935.  (Photo by Burton Frasher, Frasher Foto Postcard Collection, Pomona Public Library)

Main Street Library and Triangle Park
   Little Triangle Park once played a role in the early 1900s development of Huntington Beach, providing tent housing for newcomers.  "Cardboard Alley" later became part of the new City's civic center, home to a Horseshoe Club, a Red Cross outpost during World War II, and home to many community groups before it became the City's main library in the 1950s.  Read more at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-12-and-13-main.html and http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/12/saving-history-main-street-library-and.html

Oil Field Beach Cottage
   A significant part of the quality of life of residential districts in Huntington Beach's historic downtown is the collection of eclectic beach cottages and bungalows on Main Street and the surrounding streets.  Many of them have a story to tell. Read more and view some of our other classic bungalows and cottages at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-14-beach-cottages.html

The Beach Court
   The Beach Court was built in 1923 during the early days of the motion picture era, the same year the famous Hollywoodland (now Hollywood) sign was installed in the hills above Los Angeles.  It was an escape for a few celebrities from Los Angeles, including silent film star Rudolph Valentino!  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/09/walking-tour-16-beach-court-and.html 

The Shank House   This 1913 class Craftsman-style bungalow was the home to Dr. George A. Shank, of one of Huntington Beach's first doctors, first City health officer, and member of the City Board of Trustees (predecessor to the city council).  A few steps away is the original city hall and jail that Dr. Shank helped finance.  Today, Dr. Shank's home is a police substation in the historic downtown.  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/historic-walking-tour-19-shank-house.html 

1908 City Hall and Jail
   The original city hall and jail on 5th Street--built in 1908, one year before Huntington Beach incorporated--is now home to HB Top Nails.  What sent you to jail in early 1900s Huntington Beach?  In addition to the usual (horse thievery, murder, allowing your chickens to run wild), it was alcohol (unless you were a licensed pharmacist) and gambling that landed you in the little big house. Read more at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/04/historic-walking-tour-huntington-beachs.html

Main Street Post Office
   Seventy-five years after the Pony Express and twenty-eight years before the introduction of the zip code, Huntington Beach opened the doors to the Main Street Post Office in 1935.  It was a big deal.  Specifically, an aspect of the New Deal.  Our Depression-era post office still delivers in the historic downtown. Read more at http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/10/walking-tour-22-wpa-main-street-post.html

The Golden Bear
    Ask a Huntington Beach local about the Golden Bear and watch them get all misty eyed.  They'll tell you stories about the musicians and comedians, about grabbing a beer and having the night of their life, and then stepping outside to ocean air and crashing waves.  It was a soulful little place that put us on the map.  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/historic-walking-tour-27-golden-bear.html

Off the beaten path...
  Among the stops we've included in 2012 are a few off the beaten path, but rich with local history.   Here's a few of the favorites:

Brewster's Ice: Since 1945
Update: Brewster's Ice is currently being remodeled, although some historic features remain. As of January 2018, we await the "new" ice house.

   Before refrigerators were in every home, there was the "ice man."  At the corner of Lake and 6th Streets, Brewster's Ice has been a family-run business for 67 years. They still sell block ice, dry ice, special orders for events, and they deliver in Huntington Beach...just like the "olden days."  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/09/brewsters-ice-since-1945.html

The Gordie House
   UPDATE: Gordie Higgins surf shack was remodeled and no longer looks like this, although the structure is still there.

Who is Gordie and why does the tiny building behind 505 Lake Street bear his name?  If you're a surfer, you might already know.  Gordie Higgins was one of Huntington Beach's first surfboard shapers at a time when boards were actually, well, boards.  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-gordie-house.html

Fire Pits and Beach Camping 
   Visitors to Huntington Beach always comment on the pit fires dotting the beach at night.  It's routine for locals to celebrate birthdays, reunions or ordinary get-togethers with a circle of friends at a beach fire.  It's also a long tradition, dating back a hundred years to when beach living was a necessity.  Read more at http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/05/sea-breeze-auto-camp-circa-1935.html 

   We're now 104-years-old and, well, we're a bit of a character.  Stick with us in 2013....we've got a few more stories to tell as we walk though Historic Huntington Beach.

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Huntington Beach blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.   

Historic Walking Tour #18: Huntington Beach's 1908 city hall and jail

Windowless, brick jail cells with weighs-a-ton sliding doors in the alley between Main and 5th Streets (behind 218 and 220 5th Street).  Walk down the alley to take a look.  The Longboard Restaurant and Pub and No Ka Oi patio dining are across the alley.

   The original city hall and jail--built in 1908, one year before Huntington Beach incorporated--is now home to HB Top Nails.  The 5th Street building is on the Historic Resources Board's Walking tour of Historic Downtown Huntington Beach, and is an example of "neo classical commercial architecture."  The small civic complex served as the hub of city activities during the early years and was used as a polling place for the town's first elections.  Later known as the "Pickering building," 218 5th Street housed Fred Pickering's City Cleaners  in the 1940s.

 

 Top HB Nails in the old city hall and jail complex on 5th Street, #18 on the Historic Downtown walking guide.

   What sent you to jail in early 1900s Huntington Beach?  In addition to the usual (horse thievery, murder, allowing your chickens to run wild), it was alcohol (unless you were a licensed pharmacist) and gambling that landed you in the little big house.  If you were caught making, selling, distributing, giving away or drinking alcohol, you might go directly to jail.  If you were caught gambling on cards, checkers, chess, or bagatelle (a billiard-like game), you might go directly to jail.  

   The alcohol and gambling ordinances were among the first enacted by Huntington Beach's board of trustees in 1909 (alcohol made ordinance #6 and gambling #9).  If you were sentenced, you might pay "up to a $300 fine" (a sizable amount back in the day) and stay for "up to three months" in the jail.  Look at those cells again. 

   By 1916, the City enacted Ordinance 181 to regulate the sale of "second hand" merchandise, such as "motorcycles...bicycles, junk, diamonds...clothing, tools, harness, robes, whips, garden hose, firearms, junk, watches or musical instruments..."  Reading between the lines, we might have had a little problem with stolen goods.

   A couple years later in 1918, the city board of trustees enacted Ordinance 188 regulating the sale of bread, which dictated all loaves of bread "shall weigh, unwrapped, twelve hours after baking, sixteen ounces avoirdupois..."  The penalty for violating the bread ordinance was "not less than ten, nor more than five hundred dollars" and/or by "imprisonment not more than one hundred days."  In other words, if you didn't have enough dough...you get the idea.      

The crime fighting spirit lives on

   On a lazy weekend afternoon a couple years ago, the pedicure chairs of HB Top Nails were filled with locals and visitors.  In rushed a man, who immediately sat down in the waiting area with shopping bag in hand, speaking to no one.  David Nguyen--owner of the salon with wife, Michelle--asked "can I help you?"

   "Yes," said the man, dressed in baggy track clothes.  "How much is a pedicure?"

  David answered and told the man it would be about five minutes and they would seat him.  David turned back to work on my manicure.  I noticed the man pulled off his track pants, revealing shorts underneath.  Normal in a beach town, except that the shorts had a store tag on them.

  I turned to the woman next to me and mouthed, "do you see the tag?"  She looked and I saw her eyes widen.  I found out later, she recognized the tag was from the store where she had just sent her teenage son.  The man pulled off his shorts, revealing another pair of shorts,  also with a tag still on them.  He kept pulling off more clothes.

   The woman next to me started quietly texting her son.  I leaned down and whispered to David who was working on my manicure, "that man has been taking off his clothes and there are tags on them."

 David and Michelle Nguyen, the owners of HB Top Nails in the 1908 city hall and jail building (and crime fighters on the side).

  David--always cool--looked directly at me and nodded.  "Can you excuse me for a minute?" he asked.  From my line of sight, I watched as David discretely strolled out the back door into the alley (next to the 1908 jail cells).  Of course, he was calling the police.  A minute or two later, he walked back in.

   "We can help you now," David told the man.  "Come on back here and we'll start your pedicure."  David helped the man settle into the oh-so-comfortable massaging pedicure chair, sliding his feet in the warm water.  The man relaxed into the chair.

   Within a few minutes, a couple of Huntington Beach's finest walked in the front door and looked questioningly at us.  We nodded toward the pedicure chair in the back of the salon.

   "Sir, can you please step outside with us?"  said the policemen, escorting the man out of the salon in his bare, wet feet.  Just then, a wide-eyed clothing store owner ran in the front door, alerted by the teenage son of the lady next to me.  The clothing in the shopping bag had been stolen from his store.  Busted.

  

    David, returned to continue my manicure.  "Everything is OK," he said, responding to our stares, "It's all OK."  We watched the police officers---two more had arrived---as they questioned the man outside.

   About five minutes later, one of the officers walked in with a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the manicurist who had started the shoplifter's pedicure.  It was David's wife, Michelle.  Confused, she protested, saying she hadn't really done anything.

   "Oh no," said the officer, "this man really wants to pay for his pedicure."  The officers were having a hard time keeping a straight face.  They were wrapping their head around the idea the man thought he could hide out in a salon, and it was probably one of the rare arrests prompted by a pedicure.

    Law-abiding citizens from all over come to HB Top Nails for the friendly atmosphere and distinct airbrush designs.  The bonus is a living piece of Huntington Beach's 100-year-plus history.  HB Top Nails, 220 5th Street, 714-374-4040.  "Walk ins" welcome.  Shoplifters, not so much.

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Huntington Beach blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.