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.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Overhead: A bird's-eye view of Historic Huntington Beach, 1938 - 1968
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.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
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
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 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!
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
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
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 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 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
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
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:
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
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
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.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Saving history: The Main Street Branch Library on Triangle Park in Historic Huntington Beach
"From the beginning the Huntington Beach Public Library has been an illustration of citizen concern for the community and its future generations...some local organizations and the Huntington Beach Women's Club called a mass meeting on February 15, 1909, to form a library association."
History of Huntington Beach Public Library
Huntington Beach received a pre-holiday gift this year with our City Council's unanimous endorsement of the effort to list the Main Street Branch Library on the National Register of Historic Places.
We took a look at the history of this little library--sited in a historic park--in August 2012, 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
Establishing a library was one of the very first acts taken by early pioneers as they set about creating a community. Huntington Beach was a dusty seaside town with unpaved roads, not much of a water or sewer system, and the entire community pitched in with whatever was needed. It was a time of big dreams for the community and for the future of California.
When early residents formed a library association, they enlisted the help of librarians from nearby Long Beach, paying their lunch and traveling expenses. At the time the first library opened in 1909 "there were 338 volumes in the library, 228 were gifts while 110 had been bought new. The new library subscribed to twelve magazines..." (History of Huntington Beach Public Library).
As the community grew, the need for library services grew, eventually leading to the opening of the Main Street Library on Triangle Park in 1952. Today, Huntington Beach is lucky to have a Richard Neutra-designed Central Library, sited in Central Park. This was another effort by the community to create centers of culture and learning for residents and future generations, just like the first effort in 1909 and all those in between.
The effort to list the Main Street Library on the National Register of Historic Places is a call to action for both Huntington Beach newcomers and descendants of our farseeing pioneers. The first step is to enlist the nominating support from the California Office of Historic Preservation.
By January 8, 2013, send a LETTER or EMAIL supporting the historic listing of the Huntington Beach Public Library at 525 Main Street to:
William Burg
State Historian I
Office of Historic Preservation
State of California
1725 23rd Street, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95816
William.Burg@parks.ca.gov
About the Main Street Library on Triangle Park:
The Main Street Library, 525 Main Street, is sited in the original 3.57-square-mile townsite, which contains the National Register-listed Helme-Worthy Store and Residence (http://www.historichuntingtonbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/historic-walking-tour-6-me-helme-house.html), Huntington Beach Elementary School Gymnasium and Plunge (1931), and Newland House (1898), as well as many locally designated and eligible properties.
Five blocks north of Pacific Coast Highway, the property is near the historic site of the Huntington Beach Municipal Pier, surrounded by eclectic residential neighborhoods. As a neighborhood park including a number of nearly ninety-year-old palm trees, Triangle Park (1912) provides the setting for the 9,034-square-foot Main Street Branch Library (1950-1951), a locally designated City Landmark.
The Main Street Library was designed in the "International Style" of early post-World War II period of the Modern Movement. Municipal restoration efforts over the last 30 years have returned Triangle Park to an authentic mid-1920s period, and the park and library remain as both the earliest and latest components of the community's early Civic Center.
National Historic Register criteria for listing include properties that embody a significant contribution to broad patterns of the City's local history, in the area of community planning and development, as well as properties representative of unique architecture.
Established as a recreational park in 1912, just three years after the incorporation of Huntington Beach, Triangle Park became part of the City's early-20th century Civic Center campus. The Library's architecture represents the principles of postwar Modern design and the distinctive characteristics of site-cast, concrete tilt-up construction from the Mid Century period, particularly that of public libraries. The Main Street Library is the work of masters, James Edward "Ted" McClellan, Denver Markwith, Jr., and Jack Hunt MacDonald.
UPDATE: California Historical Resources Commission on February 8, 2013, voted unanimously (7-0) to recommend that the U.S. Park Service list on the National Register of Historic Places the Main Street Library on Triangle Park. As of April 2013, we await word on the national listing.
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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Gordie's House: One of the last surf shacks
UPDATE: In 2012---shortly after this feature was written---the Higgins property at 505 Lake Street sold, including Gordie's tiny home in the alley between Lake and Main streets, at 505 1/2 Lake Street. It has been modernized and no longer retains its historical features or Gordie's name.
Who is Gordie and why does the tiny building behind 505 Lake Street bear his name? If you're a local surfer of a certain vintage, you might already know.
The Los Angeles Times wrote in 1989, Long May They Wave, that "along with lifeguard Gene Belshe, Higgins decided to try to make what is regarded as the county's first homemade board. Kahanamoku suggested that his 11-foot board was too large for the Corona del Mar breakers, so the young locals set out to make two scaled-down, 10-foot boards."
LEFT: Gordie Higgins was one of Huntington Beach's first lifeguards, along with his brother, Bud Higgins, who was the first chief lifeguard. (Photo, SurfingWalkofFame.com)
Bud Higgins is reported to be the first surfer to shoot the pier. Both Bud and Gordie are on the Surfing Walk of Fame Honor Roll (1997). They surfed solely to surf.
"Sweet-faced Gordie Higgins, 75, grew up here when the streets were dirt, the sidewalks wooden and oil--not surfing--was the lifeblood of Huntington Beach," Wride reports.
ABOVE LEFT: Duke Kahanmoku, circa 1920, inspired local boys to try their hand at surfing and surfboard shaping. You can find a statue of "the Duke" on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, near the Pier, and a bust of Duke inside the Surf Museum at 411 Olive Avenue in downtown Huntington Beach.
"As he sits in the heart of downtown, cross-legged on a bench smoking his Dorals, the old man speaks without nostalgia when he says, 'It never will be the old town, such as it was,' Higgins told Wride, who noticed his board-toting soulmates. "The young surfers know it too--the ones who wave at him as they cycle past towing their boards, hollering, 'How ya feelin' Gordie?' "
Wride continued to follow Gordie as he moved to his table at the Sugar Shack on Main Street.
"...Gordie Higgins continued to hold court, blue eyes flashing as various friends stopped to chat. He can remember the days when there were only two cars in the whole town of perhaps 3,500 people. He remembers the tent city downtown where the roughnecks camped while working the oil fields in the 1920s," Wride writes.
"He remembers the saltwater plunge and how people threw pennies into the deep end for him and other divers. He remembers the first gas station in town, the red cars that could get you to Los Angeles in 45 minutes."
Gordie served in the U.S. Navy from 1936 through World War II, surviving the sinking of the carrier Yorktown. After leaving the Navy, he worked a variety of jobs, driving haul trucks, working as a locksmith, always staying close to the Pacific and his Surf City home.
He married, but later moved into the tiny home behind his brother Bud's house at 505 Lake Street, which had been their parents' home.
City historian Jerry Person wrote about his friend, Gordie and his brother, Bud, in 2006 just after Gordie passed away (Huntington Beach Independent, A life lived in our city's golden days). As Gordie got older, Person would "would find him sitting outside on a chair by his front door," ready to talk about the old days. He recalled the bond between the Higgins brothers, who shaped not just boards, but the growing town's culture for generations to come.
"Have you ever seen that TV commercial with those two old guys selling Medicare Part D insurance, and they walk away together?" writes Person. "When I still had a store on Main Street, I have a vivid memory of Bud and Gordie leaving together and walking up Main Street just like those two guys on the commercial."
Editor's note: The home of Bud Higgins, 505 Lake Street, and Gordie Higgins, 505 1/2 Lake Street (alley) was sold to a new owner in October 2012 and its historic features, along with Gordie's name, are gone.
All rights reserved. No part of the Historic Huntington Beach blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
A look back -- 1915 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.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Vintage Halloween
Halloween once was a night where party goers attempted to look into the future. Here's what you might have been doing on Halloween night at the turn of the last century, as described by the newspapers of the day.
The game of Snap dragon
Raisins, citron cut into dice, candied ginger, a few bitter almonds, sliced, and crystallized fruits are spread on a large silver or stone china platter, set on a marble table. Turn down the lights and collect the company about the dish before pouring in enough brandy to cover the fruit. A match is then applied. Each person must, in his or her turn, try to rescue a bit of fruit or nut from the blue flame. "A tentative drag is more apt to burn the fingers than a quick, resolute snatch, and there is also the danger that the former method may bring the liquid fire over the side of the dish."
One's lot in life is prefigured by the nature of the item picked. A raisin signifies comfortable competence and contentment; citron, wealth; candied ginger, a peppery wife or husband; bitter almond, trouble and vexation; apricot, an amiable consort; a candied cherry, a voyage across the seas; a bit of pineapple, social success.
Roasting chestnuts
This may be done on the hearth of an open fireplace, on the top of a stove or on a hot shovel held over the grate. Two chestnuts are named and laid together on the heated surface. If, in burning, they lay contentedly side by side, the omen is favorable. If one hops away or refuses to ignite, the parties designated would do well not to attempt to join their fortunes.
Cabbage stalks
Cabbage stalks are pulled from the garden by the young people in the dark, or if there is a moon, with closed eyes. Each must honestly bring to the light that which he or she first lays hold of. If much earth clings to the roots, the holder will have wealth; if it is bare, poverty. A healthy, well-made stalk promises a handsome partner for life. A bite cut from the top of the stalk indicates the temper of said partner. Some are sweet, some sour and a few bitter.
Each "fair owner," after inspecting and tasting hers, cuts her initials on the stalk and all are laid on a table with a cloth cast lightly over them. The young men are now admitted and draw in their turn. If a dance is to come off in the evening, each young man dances the first set with the girl whose stalk he has drawn.
Fairy boats
Halve English walnuts and clean out each side. Melt enough white wax to fill as many shells as there will be persons present at your party, and stir in a few drops of perfume. Have ready short lengths of coarse cotton cord, loosely twisted. Hold a bit of the cord upright in the middle of each half shell, and pour in enough melted wax to fill it.
Launch the spice lamps in a tub of water, and light the wicks, naming each for a guest. To set them in motion, jar the tub lightly. If two boats approach one another, touch and continue the voyage in company, the owners' lots will sometime become one and the same. If one sputters and soon goes out, the owner will have a brief troubled career. If two jostle and interfere with each other, those whose names they bear will quarrel. Should a boat refuse to quit the wharf or return when pushed out, its namesake is indolent and lacking in enterprise. Those that burn longest, predict the length of days.
And, of course, ghost stories. It's not All Hallows Eve without ghost stories.
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.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Walking Tour #22: The Main Street Post Office, Born in the Great Depression
Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? song lyrics, Yip Harburg, 1931
Sometimes, a post office isn't just a post office. You might walk right by our historic downtown post office without giving it much thought. It's worth a closer look.
The country was digging its way out of the Great Depression. The stock market dropped 89 percent (it would take more than two decades to recover to the 1929 level). Banks failed. Unemployment rose to 25 percent by 1933. Unhappy with President Hoover, people gathered in "Hoovervilles" (makeshift shantytowns), flew the "Hoover flag" (empty pockets turned out), kept warm with a "Hoover blanket" (newspaper), and drove a "Hoover wagon" (a car towed by a horse because the owner couldn't afford gas).
In 1933, came the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Post offices sprung up in small towns around the country, supported by the New Deal's Civil Works Administration and later Works Progress Administration. It was an effort to create jobs and stimulate local commerce. When your town was selected for a New Deal post office, it represented hope.
LEFT: The cornerstone on the Main Street Post Office. (Photo, October 2012) All rights reserved. ©
The building's architecture is considered a "restrained" style, with the minimal ornamentation preferred by the U.S. Treasury Department at the time. Simon also designed the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C.
From tiny Yerington, Nevada to the Village of Haverstraw, New York, to the growing town of Huntington Beach, the New Deal post offices often represented the first federal building in rural communities.
LEFT: The Main Street Post Office, officially called "Beach Center Station." (Photo, October 2012)
RIGHT: Dedication ceremony in 1935. (Photo courtesy of Stockteam.com)
In 2009, we learned our historic Main Street Post Office was considered non essential by a struggling U.S. Postal Service. It is one of 100+ post offices in California listed on a closure list in 2011.
"Retaining all its architectural integrity to the present day," reports the California Preservation Foundation, "the Huntington Beach Post Office is one of the last historic structures left on Main Street and is a local landmark."
In Eureka! The Postal Service finds gold in California, the Save the Post Office blog notes post offices are a key element of livable, walkable downtowns, "Historic post offices are highly prized by their communities. They anchor the downtown area, help local businesses, enable people to walk to the post office, and elicit pride of place. People may complain about the long lines, but they love their grand old post office."
Evidence of post office love? Inside the Main Street Post Office lobby on an October afternoon is a poster with finger-painted handprints from Mrs. Taylor's first grade class at Peterson Elementary School proclaiming, "Hands Down Our Main Street Post Office is the Best!"
The Save the Post Office blog continues, "California has fourteen historic post offices that have been sold, put on the market, or planned for sale — the most of any state in the country...using fifty years old as a rule of thumb for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, over a hundred California post offices are eligible and 24 are currently on the Register."
A list of California's historic post offices can be found at http://www.savethepostoffice.com/eureka-postal-service-finds-gold-california At 77 years old, the Main Street Post Office is considered eligible for listing on the National Historic Register (some on the List are younger).
This is another piece of Americana worth seeing. If you're visiting Huntington Beach, drop your postcard to those back home at our Main Street Post Office. For locals, if you haven't visited this historic post office in a while, time may be running out.
Directions to walking tour stop #22: From Pacific Coast Highway, head two blocks inland on Main Street; our historic post office is at the northeast corner of Main Street and Olive Avenue.
LEFT: Photo posted in 2009 on O.C. History Roundup, OCHistorical.blogspot.com.
BELOW: Photo taken October 2012. The same two bicycles parked in front.
*Editor's Note: To view the Santa Paula, California post office---our identical twin---see http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/projects/santa-paula-post-office-santa-paula-ca/
A thought-provoking editorial on post office closures, Who owns our downtown post office?, can be found in The Berkeley Daily Planet at http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2012-07-13/article/39999?headline=Who-Owns-OUR-Downtown-Berkeley-Post-Office-News-Analysis---By-Gray-Brechin
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.
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