The Seal Beach Red Car Museum

It wasn’t all that long ago that Southern California had a comprehensive mode of public transportation system known as the Pacific Electric Streetcar, or more commonly, the Red Car. Running for 60 years from 1901 to 1961, the privately-held system connected Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in one of the nation’s largest network of trolleys, railcars and busses.

Largely running on a standard gauge track powered by overhead electric cables, the sprawling network of tracks ran routes connecting Los Angeles to Covina, Redlands, Corona, Baldwin Park, Torrance, La Habra and Newport Beach. They were efficient and comfortable, giving riders easy access to downtown Los Angeles and neighboring communities.

Photo: The Seal Beach Red Car Museum

The Red Car partnered with another system, the downtown Los Angeles Yellow Car, and met with much success as developers began to construct new communities like Angeleno Heights and Huntington Beach.  Over 900 miles of track made up the network in its heyday in 1920, and everyone used the Red Car.  The history of expansion, ownership and partnering companies is complex, yet amazingly, it all worked.

As the Southern California population grew, officials began to realize the lumbering Red Cars (top speed 14.8 MPH) were not going to meet the demands of traffic generated by all these communities. The Automobile club came up with a proposal in 1930 for an “elevated motorway system” that would replace many of the major Red Car routes. As traffic mounted, the street-bound Red Cars were often delayed.

Sections of the line that were least travelled began to be closed.  The Whittier/Fullerton area lost their line in 1938; in 1940 more closures hit Redondo Beach, Newport Beach, Sawtelle, and Riverside. The freeway system began construction, and when the San Bernardino Freeway began construction to connect to the Santa Ana, the junction area near Union Station in Los Angeles became nearly impassable for the Red Car.

The Red Car’s fate was sealed, and the system steadily declined as it became obsolete. Under new ownership by the MTA, the last car ran the Long Beach run in 1961.

A truncated homage to the Red Car’s is paid at Disney’s California Adventure sporting a streetcar designed in a typical Red Car style.  But to see a real Red Car that actually ran on the tracks, take a visit to Seal Beach, where the Red Car Museum resides.

The museum is small and housed in what was once the Red Car system’s maintenance vehicle, the Tower Car, vehicle No. 1734.  You can find it on Electric Avenue near Main Street, next to the Library. You can watch a video that recreates a ride on the rails, see artifacts, and visit with docents who can show you signs, tickets, hats, pictures and other memorabilia.  It is open the second and fourth Saturdays from Noon to 3 p.m Donations are accepted. Call: (562) 683-1874.

So, Long, Frank Lloyd Wright… Jr.

On the corner of Springdale and Warner in Huntington Beach sits a worn grave marker. 

Nothing too unusual about that.  Orange County has its fill of cemeteries with stone markers. But this one is unique.  It isn’t in a cemetery.  In fact, it sits behind an Arco gas station.

No, it isn’t for the former gas station owner. Or even the owner of the strip mall that sits behind it. And while Google Earth doesn’t drive through every shopping center to capture details, the Google cam car evidently got tipped off to take a special spin past the back of the gas station and get a picture of the marker. There on an otherwise unnecessary little patch of dirt behind the waste disposal cage sits a simple stone tablet dedicated to a bad idea that died on the site.

Everyone knows Frank Lloyd Wright.  Famous architect, writer and educator responsible for over 1000 groundbreaking structures… though if you think about it, every structure has a groundbreaking.   Wright also was a father to seven children, including his namesake, Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.

Lloyd Wright was also an architect, and created many fine structures in Southern California, including the Hollywood Bowl, and Wayfarer’s Chapel, a glass gem in Palos Verdes, and many residential projects that remain today.

But one project faltered, and that brings us to our humble little Arco station in Huntington Beach.  Lloyd Wright took on the design of the Westfield Shopping Center for developer Stanley Fann, which included plans for a 94’ tower to mark the center as a tribute to Huntington Beach’s oil industry.  As you can see in the rendering, above, it was a doozy.

It seems the locals weren’t very keen on the idea of living in the shadow of a towering eyesore. So they rallied together creating a petition to vote the thing out of the plans.  The will of the people prevailed, and Lloyd Wright was run out of town.  It was to be his final work.

Just to pour salt on the wound, Fann erected the marker to commemorate the event. It reads

“In recognition of Lloyd Wright’s 94 foot high sign tower that was to be erected on this spot. It’s defeat is symbolic of the democratic process in which we live. The people did not wish this sign tower to be erected as they felt it was not needed and would blight their community. Their wishes were heard and adhered to by the developer Stanley Fann. 1970”

The Pacific Beach Club

Today it seems unthinkable that any society would condone Jim Crow laws, but California had them, and not so long ago.  Back in the early 20^th century, shoreline areas in California that allowed African Americans access to a beach were extremely limited.  In fact, of the 75 miles of California coastline in Los Angeles County, there were only two beaches available. Santa Monica had an area called the “Ink Well,” while Manhattan beach had, for a brief time, “Bruce’s Beach,” until local merchants more interested in segregation than a steady supply of customers forced the city to reclaim Bruce’s Beach in an eminent domain seizure.

In the 1920’s a group of black businessmen came up with an idea: they would create a resort; a private club for black residents of Los Angeles, but build it along the shores of Orange County, which as yet did not have as oppressive segregation laws as Los Angeles since the area was far less populated.  After some searching, they were able to find and secure property in Huntington Beach, about a mile’s walk from the Beach Blvd Red Line drop-off.

The organization’s Board members were well-credentialed.  It included Frederick Roberts who was the first black state legislator in California.  Joseph B. Bass, was the editor of the California Eagle, and one of the founders of the Los Angeles NAACP,  E. Burton Ceruti, acted as a legal advisor to the group.

The resort they designed was impressive. The Pacific Beach Club they developed included a club house and amenities for 1500 to 2000 people, a bath house, a dance hall, amusement areas, concessions, and even tent housing for camping.  To many, the amenities were far superior to beach resorts found anywhere.

What few people know is that the Pacific Beach Club was built, and advertising in the California Eagle promoting the club touted it as "the beginning of the very foremost step of progress that the colored people have ever attempted." Membership was $50, (lifetime membership as $75) and it was set to open On February 12 (Abraham Lincoln’s birthday), 1926.

But there is no accounting for cowardly hatred. Huntington Beach was in the throes of an oil boom, and many of the wildcatters who came to work the fields had come from the south.  Huntington Beach already had factions of the Ku Klux Klan in residence… right down to two baseball teams.

As Orange County grew, it fell prey to the same racism that plagued the rest of our nation. The city fought the club, making it difficult to get power and water lines installed.  It took a legal fight to get the right of way across the railroad. 

But the worst was yet to come.  Two weeks before it opened, The Pacific Beach Club was burnt to the ground.  A security guard saw the arsonist and later identified the culprit, but no one was ever prosecuted. The Pacific Beach Club was destroyed before it even began.

For the next six months, the California Eagle tried to spearhead a nationwide movement to rebuild The Pacific Beach Club, but they were unsuccessful, and efforts were abandoned the following November.

Today Huntington Beach sports a brand-new recreation area along PCH that includes several major hotels, restaurants, and a beautiful shopping center that welcomes all.  Southern California has come a very long way in the years between.