Pierpoint Landing, Long Beach history

Decades later I can still smell the fish, feel the sea breeze and hear the seals barking at Pierpoint Landing.  Located at the end of Pier A, it operated from 1948 to 1972 as a sportfishing, eating and entertainment venue.

My uncle worked in one of the fishing shops there and we could walk behind the counter, look at the different lures, squirming at the slimy bait, daring each other to touch it.  There were picnic tables near the seal tank where we would take our paper containers of fried shrimp out and try to keep the seagulls away from our lunch.

Going there was always an outing, and we usually went with my grandmother.  I know there were coin-operated rides there, but I can't recall anything specific.  My favorite part, after the fried shrimp, was watching the seals in the seal tank.  We could feel them fish, purchased from a small concession.

When I do a Google search on Pierpoint Landing, it says it was once the largest sportfishing operation in the world, with more than 2,000,000 fisherman going through there a year. 

The first time I visited the Long Beach Aquarium, I was so excited to see the sign for Pierpoint Landing and childhood memories came rushing back.  I walked over to the building with the Pierpoint Landing sign, but there was nothing familiar about it.  I subsequently found out that it's just another sportfishing company that took the name and is not even in the same location (which might explain why nothing looked familiar).  The original Pierpoint Landing is now part of Long Beach history, with the area taken over by containers and cranes in the Port. 

Who else remembers Pierpoint Landing?

Iowa by the Sea

As a very young girl I remember going to Recreation Park in Long Beach for the annual Iowa State Picnic.  There were signs hung on 99 trees, for each of the 99 counties in Iowa.  People could gather to talk about the cornfields, the weather, Iowa Hawkeye football and maybe run into someone they knew.

We would gather at the Woodbury County sign, as my mother was from Sioux City.  You would write your name on a tablet attached to the tree to see if anyone you knew was there.  The picnics had stopped by the time my husband and his family located to Southern California, otherwise we might have met as little kids, instead of as college kids.  His dad was from Riceville, in Howard County.

With the oil industry, the navy shipyards and the port, many came here from the Midwest in the 1940's and '50's to settle and make their living.  The California weather didn't hurt either.  Many of the Long Beach neighborhoods we know today were built during this boom:  Los Altos, Plaza, Carson Park, South of Conant, the Whaley homes of La Marina Estates. 

Long Beach has a rich history of welcoming migrants and immigrants.  It has morphed from "Iowa by the Sea" to "International City" over the last 60 years.  Long Beach is now the 7th largest city in California and home to the second busiest container port in the United States.

Even as a large city you can still get that small town, Iowa by the Sea, feel within the neighborhoods.  There are neighborhood associations, people have banded together to preserve their areas by getting a designation as an Historic District, there are neighborhood block parties.  It's one of the things I love most about living here, the feeling of belonging, regardless of where we came from before we found our way here.

Long Beach for me

Welcome to my blog about Long Beach and the surrounding area.  I am passionate about this area and look forward to sharing stories and observations with you.

My credentials to write about Long Beach? 

I was born in Long Beach, in St. Mary's Hospital at 10th and Atlantic.  My paternal grandmother worked at St. Mary's at the time.  In fact, my parents met there while my mother was volunteering at the hospital and my grandmother wanted her to meet her son.  My parents were married in St. Anthony Parish on Olive Avenue.  My mother graduated from Wilson High School here in Long Beach, as did my nephew, 60 years later.

My father worked at Douglas Aircraft on Lakewood before joining the Orange County Sheriff's Office.  My mother worked for McDonnell Douglas Automation for a while in the 1970's.

Both of my brothers were born at Community Hospital, just above the traffic circle.  My maternal grandmother was a nurse there.  I'll have a story about my two grandmothers, both nurses, who worked in two different Long Beach hospitals.  One of my brothers graduated from Long Beach State aka CSULB.

Although I moved from Long Beach when I was just 5 months old, to a brand new house waaaaaay far away in Westminster, I lived here again from 1996-1998.  At that time I rented a house in the South of Conant neighborhood.  In 2005 my husband and I purchased our home in the La Marina Estates neighborhood, where we still live.  I'll tell you about the neighborhoods of Long Beach later, too.

I am a REALTOR(r) focusing on the East Long Beach/West Orange County area and I know Long Beach.  I'll be sharing bits of history, local school stories, anecdotes and just some rambling thoughts on life here.

I look forward to hearing back from you.