Boards on the beach

ABOVE: An unidentified surfer shooting the pier, circa 1970. This pier was knocked down by a winter storm in 1983, rebuilt, and the present-day pier re-dedicated twenty-one years ago in July 1992. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   "The first use of boards was about 1912 when they used a piece of 1 by 12 board about 4 feet long and pushed off from 5 foot water. This type of board caused many accidents to the stomach area as it nose dived to the bottom causing injury...There were no surfboards on the coast except the one belonging to George Freeth of Redondo Beach and it was a very makeshift one made of several boards with cross p1eces nailed to hold it together."
                                        An Early History of Surfing in Huntington Beach, 
                                       Delbert "Bud" Higgins, surflibrary.org

   The U.S. Open of Surfing is in town and the beach is host to thousands, watching surfing competitions from bleachers, marveling at skaters defying gravity at the "skate bowl" constructed on the sand, and dancing barefoot to live music.  It is a multi-million dollar event, attracting thousands to the beach, with an international following.

   It's sometimes hard to imagine that the original surfers put their toes in the sand here---the original Surf City---a century ago.

OVERLY DRESSED - A fully-clothed crowd at the Huntington Beach pier and bandstand, circa 1914.  One of the top songs of that year, "I'm on My Way to Mandalay," listen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI4ZiOI5HdQ (Photo, Library of Congress)

   Delbert "Bud" Higgins, one of Huntington Beach's first lifeguards and the city's first fire chief, recalls meeting "the Hawaiians" in the 1920s.  Locals had already been playing around with boards in the surf.  Hawaiian surfer George Freeth demonstrated the sport of wave-riding in 1907 at Redondo Beach and was a featured part of the 1914 re-dedication of the pier.  

LOCAL HERO - Irish Hawaiian George Freeth is reported as diving into the "boiling surf" from a Southern California pier, rescuing Japanese and Russian fishermen from crashing into the rocky coast. Freeth taught writer Jack London how to surf in Hawaii, prompting London to write Riding the South Sea Surf for Ladies Home Companion in 1907.  London further glorified surfing in The Cruise of the Snark in 1911. (Image, Los Angeles Herald, December 17, 1908)

LEFT:  Freeth arrived in Southern California in 1907 and his surfing demonstration was a highlight of the Huntington Beach pier re-dedication ceremony in 1914.  Freeth's surfing demonstrations also were a popular event at the Breakers, Atlantic City, and at Coney Island, New York. (Photo, Wiki Commons)

   By the 1920s in Huntington Beach, Bud Higgins and others were enamored with the sport and inspired to make their own boards after meeting "the Duke."  

   "Duke Kahanamoku from Kahaliana and two other Hawaiians came over from Hawaii to make a movie and spotted the surf at Corona Del Mar, surfed there...It was there I first saw their boards, talked to the Hawaiians and invited them to surf the Huntington Beach Pier," recalled Higgins in a personal history he wrote in the mid 1960s.  

   "They visited here on several occasions surfing the west side of the pier. After surfing here they stashed their boards, which were 11 feet long and l8 inches wide," Higgins remembered.  "They said if we should make new boards, they should not be longer then 10 feet." 

   Surfing legend Corky Carroll wrote about Higgins on his blog, "Bud was born in 1908 and became a Huntington Beach lifeguard. He grew up riding what we would call a 'bellyboard' these days, along with body surfing."   Carroll notes the boards crafted in the 1920s were vastly different than what you'll see on the beach today.

CALIFORNIA GIRLS - Girls at the Huntington Beach pier, circa 1930. Today, their granddaughters and great granddaughters surf the pier.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   "They weighed 135 pounds. Obviously these were not all that easy to carry around. You just didn't see guys riding their bikes down to the beach with a board under their arm in those days," writes Carroll.  Surfers holding a board under one arm, bicycling, skating, or walking barefoot to the beach is an everyday site in Huntington Beach today.

   "By Bud's own account, they would wind up using old telephone poles that were weather beaten and had become lighter just to get the weight down to a "manageable" 100 pounds," continued Carroll.  "...these dudes took to attaching metal "nose guards" on their big wood boards to protect them from damage caused by running into the pier. Can you even imagine getting run down by one of these massive board/ships with a big macking metal nose guard? Amazing that they didn't just knock the pier over on the way through."

LEFT: Duke Kahanamoku next to a longboard provides a sense of scale regarding the size of the early boards used in Huntington Beach. Using the wood at hand, the first boards here usually were made of redwood. (Duke Kahanamoku, 1920, Wikicommons)

   Higgins remembered his first attempt at making a board, with friend and fellow lifeguard Gene Belshe in 1927.  They used---what else---California redwood, the lumber available for local home building.

   "We went to the San Piedro (sic) Lumber Company to inquire about lumber. We found we could buy a solid plank of kiln dried redwood 20 feet long, 24 inches wide, and 3 inches thick for $40. We purchased the plank and cut it in two so we would each have a 10-foot board," recalled Higgins.

   The boards absorbed so much water after hours of daily surfing, that Higgins and Belshe put them in a room in the "Saltwater Plunge" used for drying towels, to help dry them out.   He described the boards as being slippery and hard to maneuver, and that getting hit with one meant certain injury, often requiring stitches. 

THE PLUNGE - The Saltwater Plunge was located on the north side of the Huntington Beach pier, circa 1922.  Beach goers could enjoy a swim without worrying about the big waves that later made Huntington Beach famous. (Photo, Library of Congress)

  Higgins confirmed Carroll's account of using telephone poles, "We also found that in the rural part of the city the telephone company had old lines using 4 by 6 inch redwood poles that were weather beaten and light. We traded them for our new planks and made the boards out of the old poles having them planed to thinner planks." 

   As surfing took off along the coast, there were a variety of jerry-rigged boards.  Higgins recalled some "made wood frame works and covered them with metal, soldering the seams to make them waterproof. They sounded like a can bouncing on the pavement when ridden on a wave and were not too successful."

   According to legendarysurfers.com, Higgins is reported to have surfed the Huntington Beach pier "while standing on his head."   Early surfers were allowed to jump off the pier with their boards, to save a little time and effort paddling out.  

   As reported in Historic Huntington Beach's July 4, 2013,  post, one of Higgins' famous feats of daring for the annual celebration was to set himself on fire and dive off the pier.  (We feel compelled to remind those readers who self-identify as knuckleheads: none of these stunts are allowed any more.)

THE ONE AND ONLY - Duke Kahanamoku at a surf contest ceremony near the Huntington Beach pier, circa 1963. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

SURF CULTURE - By the 1960s, surfing had attracted a huge following and a distinct So Cal culture.  Generations of Huntington Beach residents learned as children and continue to surf into their golden years. (Test photos, City of Huntington Beach archives, circa 1963)

 

FIFTY YEARS AGO - Crowds gather for a surfing contest near the Huntington Beach pier, circa 1963. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives) 

   A century after the first splash of boards near the pier, Huntington Beach retains an unabashed fondness for surfers.  Welcome visitors, to the U.S. Open of Surfing.  

   While you're here, visit the International Surfing Museum, stroll the Surfing Walk of Fame on Main Street, and visit the Surfers' Hall of Fame inside Huntington Surf &  Sport, also on Main Street.

Above and below: Opening day of the U.S. Open of Surfing, surfers in the junior men's competition make it look easy.  (Photos courtesy of Mark Bixby, July 20, 2013; https://www.facebook.com/mark.bixby.33)

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN HUNTINGTON BEACH WALKING TOUR STOP #21:  The Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum is housed in a 1935 Deco/Moderne building at 411 Olive Avenue, just a few steps northwest of Main Street.  Walk inland up Main Street from the pier, turn left on Olive and find the Museum a few steps down the street.  Don't be surprised if there is a surf band playing in the parking lot.  Walking tour maps are available at the kiosk at the foot of the pier.

WEBCAM MINI VACATION - Can't visit in person?  View the Huntington Beach pier area on four different webcams at HBCams, http://hbcams.com/

ONE OF THE LAST SURF SHACKS - Now a memory and no longer in its original condition,  The Gordie House, http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-gordie-house.html

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.   

July 4: Our "grandiose" celebration

ABOVE: Ladies liberty, A star-spangled 1908 July 4th float in Huntington Beach.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   A tradition since 1904, the Huntington Beach July 4th parade is billed as the largest west of the Mississippi.  Adopting this day as our own prior to the City's incorporation in 1909, July 4th has featured some pretty spectacular stunts and events.

   Fireworks were a part of early celebrations, the 1905 and 1910 shows known to have been provided by the Japanese community in nearby Wintersburg Village.  The 1905 fireworks show was held on a baseball field in the downtown, most likely the site of Main Street's Triangle Park (which had a field and held night baseball games).  

The Huntington Beach baseball team, circa 1910, part of the Orange County baseball league and a featured attraction on July 4.  Huntington Beach's first mayor, Ed Manning, was the team's manager.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   Five years after the first fireworks show, the growing village of Huntington Beach added to local attractions with the saltwater plunge and bathhouse near the pier. 

Notes found in the Orange County Archives.

   For the 1909 celebration, the first year of Huntington Beach's incorporation, the Los Angeles Herald reported the day's events:

• 10 a.m. - Swimming contest, foot of Main Street; prize, bathing suit.

• 10:30 a.m. - Balloon ascension on Main Street in front of the Huntington Beach News.

• 11 a.m. - Exercises at pavilion; orations by Ben F. Bledsoe of San Bernardino, H.S. Hadsall, secretary of Southern California Sugar Company. Music by Fullerton concert band.

• 1 p.m. - Exhibition drill by I.O.O.F. (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) canton no. 18 of Santa Ana, Ocean and Main Street.

• 1:30 p.m. - Foot races, Ocean Avenue; free-for-all 100 yard race, prize bathing suit; girls' race, prize pair of shoes; boys' race, prize suit of clothes; three-legged race, prize value of $2.50.

• 2:30 p.m. - Automobile races on the beach.

• 3 p.m. - Tug-of-war on the beach, Westminster vs. Huntington Beach; prize box of cigars.

• 3:20 p.m. - Saddle horse race on the beach; prize lap robe.

• 3:25 p.m. - Slow mule race on the beach; prize whip.

• 3:30 p.m. - Chariot race, on Orange Avenue, Ballory vs. Bailey.

• 4 p.m. - Launch race, Jigger vs. Peanut.

• 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Concert by Columbia band of Santa Ana, at the pavilion.

• 8 p.m. - Dance at pavilion.  Music by Bannse orchestra.

• 8:30 p.m. - Magnificent display of fireworks on the pier.  Music by Huntington Beach band.

ABOVE: The bandstand near the pier, as it looked circa 1917. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   By the 1930s, the City continued the fireworks show over the Pacific Ocean to provide a safer viewing experience.  However, there was a little hitch now and then, as Harry "Cap" Sheue recalled (the Huntington Beach High School stadium off Main Street is named after this favorite coach).

"Magnificent bedlam": Harry "Cap" Sheue recalls a memorable July 4 fireworks show. (Public Ceremony in Private Culture, Debra Gold Hansen and Mary P. Ryan, from Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II, University of California Press, 1991)

   The City's July 4 committee recalls another exciting feature of Huntington Beach's  celebrations from that same time period, "In the late 1930s, the city’s first lifeguard and fire chief, Delbert “Bud” Higgins had a trick that no one has since imitated."

   "He would don a firesuit, cover his face with petroleum jelly, soak himself with alcohol, light a match and dive in a fiery ball from a 50-foot platform high above the pier into the water below."  

(Editor's note: Do not attempt, this will get you locked up in the hoosegow today.)

Left: Delbert "Bud" Higgins--the City's first lifeguard and fire chief--enjoying his later years as a local celebrity with bathing beauties near the Huntington Beach pier, circa 1940. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)
   
   By the 1960s, authors Debra Gold Hansen and Mary P. Ryan report the Huntington Beach July 4 parade was described in local news reports as "easily the most pretentious and grandiose celebration unleashed anywhere in Orange County."  Thank you, we own it.  

   Happy July 4th!   


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.   

Grunion run time!

ABOVE: The mythical grunion run at Huntington Beach, circa 1940.  Visitors often think we're pulling their leg, along the lines of submarine races in the desert.  Rest assured, grunions are real.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

*UPDATED 2017*

   "Between the Orange County line and Newport Bay the highway is on an embankment, behind which extend miles of shallow tidal channels.  Spongy marshes are dotted with tufted islands of salt grass. White cranes stand solemnly on long legs in the shallow water, or wing slowly across the waste of marshy islands.

   This shore is one of the most frequently visited by schools of grunion, little smelt-like fish of the silversides family that run up on the sand to spawn during spring and summer.  It is the only fish that spawns in this extraordinary manner, and it does so only on Southern California beaches."
                                                                                                    Federal Writers Project, 1941

   Some people run with the bulls.  But here, we prefer grunions.

   At the turn of the last century,  Californians began gathering at the beaches on the nights that spawning grunion swam to shore, a silvery mass of fishyness spread across the sand.  It was such a unique sight, it caught the attention of the the Federal Writers Project, Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs, ("environs" meaning those of us in the boonies outside the City of Angels).

   The Federal Writers Project observed beach goers in the 1930s used "all sorts of improvised equipment--small nets, kitchen sieves, sink strainers, window screens, baskets and what not" to catch the slippery, tiny fish.  The "crowds of amateur fisherman (would) bring picnic suppers and build bonfires on the sand" as part of the night's expedition.

California Grunion (Image, Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Game, 1985)

   More regulated today to prevent overfishing, grunion running remains a beloved Southern California beach culture tradition.  For many, it was the first nighttime adventure that allowed them to stay up past bedtime.

   That was the case for Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman, who remembers as a child it was a big deal to be at the beach at night.  Her family called it "going grunion hunting" or "grunioning" and warmed themselves at a fire pit on the beach.

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 "I remember living in La Mirada  and taking night time trips as a child  to catch grunion at Huntington Beach State Beach.  We just grabbed them with our hands. My mom fried them in corn meal I think...They were crispy."
                                                    Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman

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   Grunion running occurs at night, shortly after a full moon.  No grunion "taking" or catching is allowed during April and May, to protect the peak spawning season.  However, observation is allowed during those months.  Come June through August, the midnight run starts again.

   To put another spin on this, the Los Angeles Times once told readers "forget Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's famous roll in the sand. Grunions are once again flinging themselves on California beaches" (California's grunion have voyeurs running to the beach, Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1994).   

   Like sea turtles, grunion head for the sand to lay their eggs, allowing the ocean to push them onto the beach.  With each wave, there are a few seconds to catch a handful of grunion before they wash back out to sea.  Grunion runners literally dash back and forth like sandpipers to catch the dancing, flipping fish.  You will be a sandy, salty mess by the end of the night.  

ABOVE: A bit of light sets the silvery grunion aglow at the Bolsa Chica State Beach. (Photo courtesy of David Carlberg, Huntington Beach resident and author, 2009)

   David Carlberg, a Huntington Beach local and author of Bolsa Chica-Its History from Prehistoric Times To The Present, recalls a night he and his wife, Margaret, witnessed a grunion run at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

   "We wandered up and down the beach for about an hour and not a grunion in sight. About to give up when about midnight, as if a gate was opened,  the beach near the north side of the inlet suddenly glittered with thousands of spawning grunion," recalls Carlberg.  "The spectacle extended over several hundred feet along the beach and lasted for at least a half hour, then it faded as quickly as it appeared. Since none of us had a fishing license, all we could was watch."

   For many, running with grunion is enough.  Catching them is akin to catching the greased pig at a country fair.  For those who catch a few, they'll be warming up a frying pan sometime after midnight.  The traditional preparation being a dusting of cornmeal, salt, flour, and into a fry pan with a little hot oil.

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   "College days at CSULB, a group of us went down to the beach on a bright evening with little surf. I lived in Seal Beach with a roommate and we wanted to see if the grunion tasted good so we headed to the beach with a few friends. We had buckets and scooped up the little buggers by hand, I probably had 2 or 3 cups full. Went back home and got out the fry pan, a little oil, salt & pepper and we cooked them...they are very small and very boney, don't think they will catch on as a meal from the sea."
               Huntington Beach resident Karen Jackle, advising visitors not to expect a big meal out of it.

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   Cookbook author Marion Cunningham writes about World War II-era grunion runs on Orange County's coast (Grunion Hunter's Delight, Los Angeles Times, 1998), "We would wait for hours on the beach, sitting around our fires, drinking beer--or the popular drink of the day, sloe gin--and eating potato chips. When we were lucky and the grunion came--it always seemed to be around midnight--they shimmered silver in the moonlight, almost as if they were dancing on the beach."

   "We would walk into the shallow surf with a bucket and capture lots of grunion in no time," continues Cunningham.  "By 2 a.m., the grunion had disappeared and, wet and tired, we would return to the house with our buckets full of grunion. I would fry them right then, and we would eat them with French bread and salad."
 

ABOVE: The bluesy Grunion Run by Frank Zappa, The Hollywood Persuaders, circa 1963.  Listen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8FAiXLVPOU

   If you're not into bare-handed fishing and after-midnight meals, not to worry.  Grunion running often is a "...good excuse for us to have a beach party and social activity...with the fish being an interest but not a major quest" notes an online site.

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   "When we were all about 18 or 19 years old, we would go down to the beach with our boyfriends.  They had buckets they would put the grunion in, my girlfriend and I would grab a handful of grunion, run down the beach and let them go!  They would get so mad at us! We had some great times!"

                       Barbara Haynes, Chair, Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board,  describing her teenage "catch and release" method.

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LEFT: Several episodes of the 1970s television show, The Beverly Hillbillies, featured episodes about grunion runs.  New to California, in The Grunion Invasion, the Clampetts gear up to fight Grunion, who they believe to be an invading enemy.    

   Huntington Beach author and columnist Chris Epting recalls being at the beach on the same night as fellow writer David Carlberg, when ..."all of a sudden, a motto change from 'Surf City' to 'Grunion City' seemed like it might be in order" (On the grunion hunt, Huntington Beach Independent, June 11, 2009).

   "Driving past the beach the day after the (grunion) run was surreal," recalls Epting, author of Huntington Beach: Then and Now (Arcadia).  "If only those joggers and bike riders knew what had been there just several hours before; swimming, slithering and spawning, while most of the city slept."

  Epting offers some tips for first-time grunioners: "Dress warm.  Wear shoes you don’t mind getting wet.  Bring a flashlight, but try not to use it until you know that the grunion have arrived. They will shy away from light and noise."  Remember, this is a romantic night for the grunion.  Epting's beach guide suggested looking for an isolated, gently sloping beach.

ABOVE: Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach, just north of Huntington City Beach, offers an organized grunion run with beach parking.  (Image, www.parks.ca.gov)

   If you want to take part in a Historic Huntington Beach right of passage,  Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach offers an organized grunion run with California State Parks.  

GRUNION RUNS schedule for 2017 can be found on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Grunion#28352306-2017-runs

   State Parks asks you meet at the Lifeguard Headquarters at Bolsa Chica State Beach for a presentation first.  Park before 9 p.m., before the parking gates close.  You must have a California fishing license. 

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One more advantage of running with grunions vs. bulls: they fit in the skillet.  In 2011, the OC Weekly "Stick a Fork In It" blog posted some recipes for grunion that reflect Southern California's diverse cuisine, from fish sauce to tacos, http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/06/five_recipes_for_this_years_gr.php

It's historic! Main Street Library and Triangle Park listed on National Register

   We're 104-years-old and getting older everyday.  And now, one of our treasured local landmarks has been recognized for its contributions and place in the history of Huntington Beach.

   On April 16, 2013, the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service announced the Huntington Beach Public Library on Triangle Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

   Within days of the City's incorporation "some local organizations and the Huntington Beach Women's Club called a mass meeting on February 15, 1909, to form a library association."  There weren't many paved streets, we were still trying to install lighting and telephone service, but at the top of the agenda for the community was the establishment of a public library. And so it began in a borrowed wooden building, with a rocking chair, a few lamps and the community's first collection of books.

   The Huntington Beach Public Library on Triangle Park became the City's sole library in 1951, sitting atop one of our oldest parks--once the site of early 1900s baseball games, horseshoe tournaments and checkerboard chats.   It is spot #12 and #13 on the historic downtown Walking Tour.

   Since the opening of our Main Street Library, our nation has witnessed the Civil Rights Movement, the Korean War, the release of the Beatles and Billy Holiday's first LPs, man walking on the moon, the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, eleven presidents, the birth of Rock and Roll, the birth of Rap, the invention of the Internet, Facebook, Youtube, texting, WiFi, and Twitter.  Our little library was there for the introduction of Marshmallow Peeps, Tang, old Coke, turducken, Watergate salad, New Coke, California rolls, Classic Coke, Tofurkey, Smart Water, kale everything, deep fried Twinkies, the demise of the Twinkie, and Kogi BBQ.

   Through all the cultural and social changes, it's always been about the books, the open sharing of information, "...the one secular institution which encourages self development as an aim." (Josiah P. Quincy, 1875)

   Congratulations little library!  Well done.
 

Read more about the history of the Main Street Library and Triangle Park, Historic Walking Tour #12 and #13: Main Street Library and Triangle Park, http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-12-and-13-main.html and Saving History: The Main Street Library and Triangle Park, http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/12/saving-history-main-street-library-and.html

A clean sweep: the broom factories

In a "housewives' manual," the San Francisco Call advised  sweeping carpets with "plenty of salt in the fight against moths."  Gearing up to sweep the house was a major chore.  (Image, San Francisco Call, October 15, 1905)

An advertisement from the 1926 Orange County, California, Directory, touts the "superior brooms" being made in Huntington Beach, one of the City's early businesses. (Image, Fullerton Public Library)

   "Hezekiah Thompson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1864, and while a youth he learned the trade of broom maker."     ~History of Henry County, Missouri, 1919

   We may not give much thought to brooms today.  However at turn-of-the-century Huntington Beach pioneers were setting up homes, contending with dirt roads and Santa Ana winds.  Men like Hezekiah Thompson saw an opportunity and the business of brooms  became part of Huntington Beach's early manufacturing economy.

Brooms were a serious item in every household, as noted in this letter-to-the-editor complaining about broom prices.  (Image, Los Angeles Herald, April 20, 1910) 
  

The La Bolsa Station for the Southern Pacific and Pacific Electric rail lines, near the broom factories outside the Huntington Beach downtown. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives).

   Hezekiah Thompson was running a thriving broom factory in Missouri, when he decided to sell his holdings and move west.  Hezekiah's sons--Walter and Benjamin Thompson had followed him in the broom trade but remained behind in Missouri--continuing to operate a successful family manufacturing business.

   Setting up house in Long Beach, Hezekiah took advantage of available industrial land offered by the Huntington Beach Company, near the Holly Sugar Company, Pierce Home Cannery, and Pacific Oil Cloth and Linoleum factory.  A key advantage for the Beach Broom Co. and the other businesses in the area was the proximity to the La Bolsa Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

     Nearby, the proprietors of the Pacific Broom Company---J.A. Van Winkle and William C. O'Connor---set up shop.  The Southern California Panama Expositions Commission reported in 1914, the Huntington Beach broom factory employed fourteen people with an annual production of $180,000.   

   Van Winkle and O'Connor planted four acres of broom corn (sorghum) near their factory to see if it would grow in Huntington Beach, to save shipping it from the east.  In New York, broom corn was selling for as much as $280 per ton, also prompting Northern California farmers to try their hand at growing broom corn.

Left: One of the Rube Goldberg binding and sewing contraptions that helped automate broom making, circa 1917.  With this equipment, it was possible to turn out 50 to 100 brooms per day.  (Image, Brooms, Brushes & Handles, Vol. 20, 1917)

   By 1917, 53-year-old Hezekiah Thompson retired from the broom business; his partner H.A. Bowman bought out his interests and continued to run the broom factory.   

   Reviewing an industry magazine that same year, Brooms,Brushes & Handles (1917), there are reports on broom production in various parts of the country, and countless advertisements for broom handles--from bamboo to maple--broom machinery, and broom corn for shipment.  Manufacturers worried about broom corn shortages and labor shortages due to World War I.

   Also by this time, portable vacuums were becoming more widely available.  The earlier versions of the vacuum were large machines, carted on wagons and parked outside a house, with vacuum hoses running into the home's windows from the street.  Cleaning the house was an event that required planning.

An early newspaper feature, The Woman Behind the Broom, advises ladies how to protect their health and beauty while sweeping.  The first prototype of the portable vacuum was issued a patent in 1908, but it wouldn't be until 1919 that portable Hoover vacuums were found in more homes.  (Image, San Francisco Call, February 27, 1910)

   Early Orange County historian Samuel Armor reports in his 1921 History of Orange County that the Beach Broom Factory in Huntington Beach was producing $40,000 worth of product, the equivalent of over half a million dollars today.

A Huntington Beach broom factory near present-day Garfield Avenue, circa 1910.  Fire was always a concern with dry broom corn.  On February 4, 1918, the Huntington Beach Board of Trustees approved a resolution for the fire department to answer calls outside city limits, directing staff to send a copy of the resolution to the Pacific Broom Company.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

Tips for broom salesmen from Brooms, Brushes & Handles, Vol. 20, provided rules for physical, mental, moral, financial and social health. (Image, Brooms, Brushes & Handles, Vol. 20, 1917)

   The number of broom factories peaked nationwide around 1919 and their number continued to decline through the 1930s.  By the 1960s---when Huntington Beach lost its broom factory in a fire---the domestic broom business was declining due to synthetic broom bristles, imported brooms, and the vacuum.

In the early 1960s, Huntington Beach still enjoyed a good broom, the local Lions Club selling them as a fundraiser. Lions Clubs around the country continue the tradition of broom sales today. (Source: City of Huntington Beach archives, City Council minutes, April 15, 1963)

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.