Lemonade Day 20: Accidental Tourist - Historic Downtown Long Beach

We're making Community Lemonade in Long Beach.  Come and make lemonade with us!

!  I'm on a 100-day odyssey for community and creativity in Long Beach.  We've got such an amazing city, and I'm a huge fan.  I'm seeking out the creatives and the facilitators of creativity, the art and the locations that inspire art.

I call it .

Today was Day 20 of Making Lemonade. 

Today, I wandered around downtown Long Beach.  I did not find what I sought, but I found a whole lot of history instead.

Lost again, seeking an address I did not find.  It happens.  So, wandering around aimlessly, seeking something to photograph.  I captured some murals, a cool mosaic of Long Beach... some random photos of brick walls.  Then I went over to get a photo of the Recreation mosaic, so well known, and a Works Progress Administration (WPA) commission.

You never know what you're going to find when you wander around Long Beach! 

Gathering at the Recreation mosaic were some folks: Long Beach residents, Folks from Illinois and West Covina.  Other places.  I'd happened upon the monthly architectural tour of downtown Long Beach offered by the Long Beach Heritage  (LBH).  I asked if I could tag along, explaining, of course, the rules of the Lemonade Game.  Goody for me, Sharon the tour guide understood the value of Making Lemonade.

Now, I would like to be able to tell you everything that I saw, but that would take two hours.  I will instead present a few observations and two of the buildings that we talked about.  There were so many.  For the rest?  Well, you'll just have to take the tour.  Signups may be done online at the LBH site.

A Few Observations

Before there was Long Beach there was Willmore City.  William Willmore saw the potential in this oceanfront land, and purchased 6000 acres in the late 1800s.  He called it... Willmore City.  Some beautiful old homes still exist in the area, although they are only a fraction of what existed before.  Unfortunately, Willmore City preceded the train to the area, and eventually failed. 

Willmore City later became part of what we know now as Long Beach.

As we walked around, Sharon pointed out the various types of architecture that are represented in the city.  The variety is quite amazing.  In a few city blocks we saw examples of Spanish Colonial, Art Deco, Beaux Arts, Spanish Baroque, monumental WPA, International style, Victorian, Mediterranean Madness.  I'm sure there were more.

Psychic Temple of the Holy Kiss Society

How could I not write about a building with this name?  It was built in 1905 by Dr. William C. Price, mesmerist, hypnotist, psychologist.  It was the time of magicians and spiritualists.  The time of Harry Houdini.  The bottom of the building was established as retail space, the upper levels had small meditation rooms, with a bathroom at eah end of the building.

The building's next incarnation was that of the American Hotel, a 'flophouse'.  The size of the meditation rooms made it an easy switch from its' original use.  It remained a hotel for some time.

The current owners of the building are working out a plan for the restoration.  They expect to include a restaurant that will go by the name of the building.

The Breakers

Built in 1925 as a resort hotel, the Breakers is now a retirement community. 

Between 1925 and now, it went through bankruptcy (in the Great Depression), survived a significant earthquake (1933 earthquake), became a Hilton Hotel with cottages frequented by movie stars such as Errol Flynn, Rita Hayworth, Cary Grant (the cottages no longer exist), was adorned with machine guns in the event of an invasion (WW II).  There's more.

Today I entered through the lobby for the first time.  There is a fun coin-operated minature amusement park.  Putting a coin into the slot lights up the rides and the train, ferris wheel, teacups and more start moving.  The creator's idea of what the pike might have looked like.  I took a bit of video. It's very fun!  Please note: This is a private building, and access to the lobby is restricted to residents, their guests and those who take LBH architectural tour.

Public access to the Breakers is allowed if you are eating at the Sky Room, or lounging at the Sky Room Bar.  The Sky Room is a great find if you're looking for a place to have a special dinner.  On Saturdays there is usually live music.  For those able to walk up narrow steps, you can make your way to the bar on the upper level.  Even if you aren't going to the bar, you'll want to go up those stairs, because they lead to a balcony area from which you get the best view of Long Beach.  This is especially good at sunset!  If you walk around the balcony to the furthest point from the stairs, you can look down at Seaside Way below and imagine the beach right at the base of the building.

Long Beach apparently had a very expansive sandy area on which folks would ride their carriages.  The land from Seaside Way to what is now the beach is landfill, added in the 1920s and again in the 1940s.

Want more lemonade? 

Things, Tidbits and new Paths

• I've added the Recreation photo and the photo of the unidentified mosaic to the page.
• There is a tunnel that still exists from the Renaissance hotel, under Ocean Blvd and under the property that once held the Jergens Trust building.
• There were so many banks on Pine Street!
• On Pine Street there is a building that was erected as a Masonic Temple meeting hall (once housed ZGallerie).  The Masonic symbol is still on the building.
• The oldest business in Long Beach is a tattoo parlor that is in the Blackstone building on Ocean.
• Farmers & Merchants Bank was established by C.J. Walker.  The Bank is currently run under the guidance of its 5th generation of Walkers.
  

Tomorrow

Hm... Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Need to contact me?  info@handmadepenguin.com

Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for the Belmont Shore Patch and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.