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Ocean Beach, San Diego, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ocean Beach (also known as O.B.) is a beachfront neighborhood of San Diego, California.
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Ocean Beach is located on the California coast. Approximately a 7-mile drive from San Diego, O.B. is south of Mission Bay and Mission Beach and west of downtown on the Pacific Ocean at the western terminus of Interstate 8. Specifically, the OB community is bounded on the north by the San Diego River, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by Froude Street and West Point Loma Boulevard, and on the south by Adair Street. It includes three residential sub-areas, namely North Ocean Beach (north of the mid-block between Santa Monica and Saratoga avenues), South Ocean Beach (south of Niagara Avenue), and The Hill (east of Sunset Cliffs).
Earlier names for O.B. include Mussel Beach, Mussel Beds, Medanos (Spanish for 'dunes'), Palmer's Place/Ranch, and Palmiro's.
Ocean Beach has three schools (Ocean Beach Elementary, Sacred Heart Academy, and Warren-Walker), multiple churches, an international hostel, a public library, and the convenience of a U.S. Post Office. The main street of business is Newport Avenue (off of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard), with antique stores, and restaurants, coffee houses, bars, bike and surf shops up and down the street. The street is part of one of the city's Business Improvement Districts that helps out communities. Local organizations include the Ocean Beach Town Council, the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association,the Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation,the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Beach, the Ocean Beach Antique District and the Ocean Beach Historical Society[1].
Local events include the Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cookoff in late June, a jazz festival at the foot of Newport in late September, the Ocean Beach Christmas Parade in early December, and the Ocean Beach Kite Festival on the first Saturday of March. Also, two blocks of Newport Avenue are open to only foot traffic and bicycles for a farmer's market each Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. Newport Avenue, the same center of town present in 1900, remains the hub today.
The Ocean Beach Municipal Pier, built in 1966, is the second-longest pier on the West Coast, measuring 1,971 feet. The pier, which includes a restaurant and bait shop, is located at the south end of the beach and is available to the public for walking and fishing. A concrete walkway spans most of the length of the one-mile beach.
The northern end of OB's waterfront is known as Dog Beach, alongside the canal that empties into San Diego River. It has been set aside specifically for leash-free pets and their owners 24 hours a day.[2]
Ocean Beach was given its name by developers Billy Carlson and Frank Higgins in 1887. They opened the real estate firm of Carlson & Higgins and proceeded to develop Ocean Beach.
The pair developed the Cliff House, a resort hotel, and subdivided the area into lots. To drum up business for their subdivision, Carlson and Higgins organized a variety of promotional activities, including mussel roasts (thus the early names of "Mussel Beach") and band concerts. Despite their efforts, the development did not do well, because it was 2-1/2 hours by carriage from downtown San Diego. They rented a locomotive, but by that time, the boom ended and the development was put on hold. The Ocean Beach Railroad, launched in April 1888, was a casualty of the economic decline. Passengers could take a ferry from San Diego to Roseville in Point Loma to ride the train to the Cliff House. Later, Higgins' partner committed suicide and the Cliff House burned down from a fallen chandelier in 1898. Carlson sold the Ocean Beach development to an Eastern financier, and its development would wait another 20 years for permanent rail service -- trolley cars -- to arrive, carrying riders from Ocean Beach to Old Town. A wooden bridge, built in 1914 across the San Diego River flood-control channel between Mission Beach and Ocean Beach, was demolished in January 1951, thereby cutting off through traffic to Ocean Beach from the Mission Beach and Pacific Beach communities.[3]
But Carlson and Higgins were not the first to file a subdivision map in Ocean Beach. Theirs was filed with the city on May 28, 1887, according to research done by librarian Rhoda E. Kruse.[4]. Earlier, on April 22 of the same year, J.M. DePuy filed "DePuy's Subdivision" on 15 blocks in the northern portion of OB.
The northern end of Ocean Beach was once dominated in the early 20th century by the Wonderland Amusement Park, which opened on July 4, 1913 and was constructed on the sand at Voltaire and Abbott streets. It boasted a large roller coaster, dance pavilion, large menagerie, roller skating rink, merry-go-round, children's playground and 22,000 lights outlining the buildings. Wonderland was a popular attraction until 1916, when most of it was washed away by high tides. Some of the bungalows built as tourist accommodations atop the cliffs on either side of Niagara Avenue are still in use as businesses and homes[5].
While a few chain businesses moved into Ocean Beach in the 1990s and early 2000, the economy of Ocean Beach is still primarily dominated by small independent businesses.
Since 1964 the Ocean Beach Hotel [6] located at the foot of Newport and the Pacific Ocean has been family owned and operated. The current owners purchased the hotel in 2002 and have completed a full remodel.
In 2001, Starbucks rented property within the community. A grassroots effort attempted to block Starbucks from opening in Ocean Beach, including printing bumper stickers that read "No Corporate Whores On O.B. Shores."
Shortly after that, the historic, single-screen movie house The Strand Theatre -- which opened to screen talkies in 1924 in the middle of town -- was converted into a Wings, an East Coast chain selling beach apparel.[7]Beginning in 1977, The Strand was the only venue in San Diego showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a “midnight movie” where the admission was just $1.25.[8] The theater was designated a historic building by the San Diego Historical Resources Board in December 2003.
- Ocean Beach Community Development Corporation
- Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association
- Ocean Beach History
- Ocean Beach
- City of San Diego Life Guard
- The OB Rag, Ocean Beach Alternative News and Opinion
- Ocean Beach, San Diego, California is at coordinates Coordinates: