Sunday, July 15, 2007

1.4 - Ocean Club Reflections

LONG BEACH, January 1998 - We had been hit with a midwinter nor'easter at just about the worst possible time: high tide during the full moon. The waters crested in the boulevard dead-ends on most blocks, but because of the winter berm formed at the normal high tide line, most of the water that had run up the beach remained pooled on the shore after the storm tides went down. I had to walk several hundred yards to the west in order to get to enough dry sand leading down to the surf line. Then I trudged several hundred yards back east in order to take the picture.

The building in the foreground is the main lifeguard shack for the city, behind which is the Ocean Club condo, built on the framework and shell of the only remaining structure from Long Beach's heyday, the Nassau Hotel, known to later generations as the Promenade. It stands on West Broadway at
National Boulevard. An interesting note: During 1999 (a year after this picture was made) all the balconies on this building were redesigned and replaced because the originals (which were never part of the 1920s hotel) had deteriorated to a degree that strips of siding were peeling off and blowing down the street.

No comments: