|
DANA POINT
By Dennis Kaiser
DANA POINT, CA-Those who walk out on the pier in Dana Point Harbor
may not realize how the structure is related to a dream that was
never fully realized. The first pier was built decades ago, long
before the Harbor was constructed 30 years ago. In those days,
the harbor was known as Stillwater Bay. The pier was the only
structure that was actually completed by early Dana Point developer
Sidney Woodruff.
Woodruff was famous for developing Hollywoodland. The last four
letters were later dropped and the rest is, as they say, history.
In Dana Point, Woodruff was developing homes based around the
lantern theme for the streets along Santa Clara Boulevard. Above
the harbor, however, was to be his masterpiece, the Dana Point
Inn. The luxury hotel was to have such amenities as an elevator
to bring guests to the beach below the cliffs. Once on the beach,
Woodruff envisioned people enjoying aquaplaning, baths with a
salt water plunge, a yacht club, boat moorings and the pleasure
pier for fishing expeditions.
When the depression came, Woodruff was not able to complete his
grand hotel. Only the pier was finished. Remnants of the partially
constructed hotel are seen in the arches behind the Admiralty
condominiums. (And in the cemented-up opening down at the bottom
of the cliffs in the Harbor, where Woodruff's elevator was supposed
to deliver his guests. Ironically, the hotel's bar - really
a speakeasy - was designed to accommodate 1,500 patrons, while
the hotel could only accommodate 200 over-night guests; at a time
when alcohol was illegal, at the height of Prohibition. Dana
Point On-Line Editor) Woodruff, however, set the standard still followed today as the Harbor still contains a fishing pier near the site of the original pier. SOURCE: Excerpted from the 24 June, 1999, issue of the Dana Point News, from an article entitled, "Dana Point Yesterdays: Pleasure Pier." Reprinted in the public interest. |
RETURN TO MAIN INDEX |