Long Beach Landmarks: Long Beach Lighthouses
LONG BEACH HISTORY: PAYING HOMAGE TO OUR LIGHTHOUSES Long Beach is home to the second largest container port in The United States, after the Port of Los Angeles. The Long Beach Port covers 25 miles of oceanfront and brings in an annual $100 billion dollars in trade from its massive cargo ships. Before more efficient and cost-effective navigational tools were discovered, lighthouses were constructed in order to protect mariners and their cargo, lighting their way to shore. Unbeknownst to most locals, there are six lighthouses speckled along the coast of Long Beach Harbor. In the city of San Pedro are the older lighthouses: Point Fermin, Angel’s Gate and Point Vicente. In Long Beach, the more modern: Rainbow Harbor Lighthouse, Parker’s Lighthouse, and the Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse. Of these six, only Angel’s Gate and the Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse are functioning. The oldest lighthouse and first navigational light in the area is Point Fermin. Constructed in 1874, this Victorian-style lighthouse is marked by gabled roofs and decorative cross beams. It’s bright light was blacked out after Pearl Harbor was bombed - for fear the beam would attract enemy ships and planes. It hasn’t been lit since, but has been restored and serves now as a popular historical site. The next lighthouse to be built is Angel’s Gate, a 73-foot Romanesque tower, which was completed in 1913. The tower is attached to a giant concrete slab with its structural steel framework anchoring it in place atop the rocky breakwater. Mariners to this day are guided by the lighthouse’s one-of-kind rotating emerald light. In 1926, the classically-styled Point Vicente Lighthouse was built. Breathtaking views at breathtaking heights, this lighthouse is 67 feet tall and stands on a cliff that is 130 feet above the sea. The structure was fitted with a mesmerizing Parisian Fresnel Lens - five feet in length and known as “the invention that saved one million ships''. Point Vicente was manned by a keeper up until 1971, when it became automated by a remote control. The Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse, nicknamed “The Robot Light”, has been a navigational aid to mariners since 1949. It lays at the end of the breakwater, reaching three stories tall on its six concrete cylindrical legs. They call it “The Robot Light” not only because of its boxy appearance, but also because it is unmanned. When it was built, “The Robot Light” was a momentous achievement in automated navigation and its inception marked Long Beach Port as "America’s most modern port" following World War II. While it might be a departure in the style and appearance of a traditional lighthouse, it’s odd and unsightly structure was built to withstand powerful winds and tempestuous seas. If there are no ships obscuring your view, you can spot the comically robotic lighthouse while standing at the Bluff Park on Ocean and Cherry. Fifth on the list is Parker’s Lighthouse, but don’t be fooled by its name or design. This isn’t a real lighthouse, but an award-winning steakhouse meant to look like one. Built in 1983, this three-tiered building, although not bright enough to guide ships, boasts panoramic views of Rainbow Harbor to its guests. Across Rainbow Harbor is another faux-lighthouse. Undoubtedly the most recognizable of Long Beach’s lighthouses and most traditional in style is the Rainbow Harbor Lighthouse, which is located next to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Built in 2000, this lighthouse stands 65 feet tall on a perfectly manicured grassy knoll in the Shoreline Aquatic Park. Picnic benches dot the pathway looping around the giant white structure, topped with what one would assume to be a very powerful light beam. It functions purely as an aesthetic and symbolic structure, not a navigational one. Also called Lion’s Lighthouse for Sight, this beacon was built as a representation of the Lion’s Club commitment to curing blindness and aiding those who are visually impaired. The club has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide glasses and eye exams to any Long Beach Unified School District student who needs them. While Long Beach’s newest lighthouses don’t function as navigational aids, they pay homage to the lighthouses that came before them and lit the way for the city’s prosperity. Painting by Jamie Tablason
Local Business Highlight: Handy Dandy Brandy
MEET BRANDY WAYNE: LONG BEACH’S LOCAL CRAFT GODDESS AND CUTTING BOARD CREATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE. Many of our clients are familiar with the Handy Dandy Brandy logo, as it is on the tags on the cutting boards gifted to them by The Whipple Group upon purchasing their home. A cutting board is the perfect gift; there is nothing like that moment when preparing a meal in your kitchen and you realize your house is now a home, and you are making memories with that delicious meal in style. Now, let’s visit Brandy Wayne in her workshop. A dozen cutting boards sit clamped in place, drying in the warm sun setting over her backyard in the Bluff Heights neighborhood of Long Beach, California. The boards, which are carefully selected and inspected by Wayne’s meticulous eye, are about to be sanded - they have already been cut, glued, shaped, and routed in her creative sanctuary which doubles as her garage. Getting them impeccably smooth and crack-resistant requires diligent work. Wayne is wearing protective goggles and coveralls that she’s not afraid of dirtying up - and the space surrounding her studio inevitably gets dirty with sawdust billowing all around. “I take the boards outside to be sanded. The sun needs to be out, because between increasing grits in sandpaper, I spray it with water to raise the grain. The sun aids in drying the water off of the surface of the boards.” Wayne begins this arduous process with 100 grit sandpaper, then the board is watered down and dried, a process that takes about ten minutes. She increases to 120 grit sandpaper, which is then watered and dried. 150, watered and dried. 180, watered and dried. 220, watered and dried. 240 (this is the point at which she plugs in her wood burning logo stamp, which takes another 25 minutes to heat up), watered and dried. After using the 320 grit sandpaper, she stamps her lovely logo and uses her final grit, 400. She then, with complete satisfaction, blows off the excess sawdust and oils the cutting board to perfection. Brandy Wayne designs and builds her work with unmatched passion and curiosity. She doesn’t only make cutting boards, but Lazy-Susans, plant stands, cabinets, and even larger items such as a pergola she miraculously constructed in two days. Her talents in carpentry astound everyone around her as she continues to aspire to greater heights in her craft, feeling as though she’s barely touched the surface on what she’s capable of doing in the woodworking world. Her hands are always busy and up for another challenge, constantly looking to work on interesting new projects. The business Handy Dandy Brandy was born when Wayne was laid off from a design job she went into immediately following college. On top of having earned a degree in Design from CSULB, she has a natural knack for creating as exemplified by the many collages that decorate the walls of her woodworking studio. She has always loved collaging, which requires cutting out different shapes, images, and words from various magazines or books and putting them all together to form a new creation. Woodworking seemed to be a natural progression of this hobby, as it requires fitting different pieces together to create a new and more interesting whole. It is not only her background in design, but having the true heart of a creator that allows her to bring to life the fun shapes of her boards including smiley faces, daisies, fish, mushrooms, etc, and the community waits with bated breath for each new design. In fact, they are currently anticipating a new design of hers to be released in a matter of days on her social media account, @handydandy_brandy, which will undoubtedly sell out quickly. Wayne says that her major success is rooted in Long Beach, and that she wouldn’t be here without the entire community cheering her on and sharing her work by word of mouth. This overwhelming support via social media, from other businesses, or at local artist pop-ups allows this lumber queen to not only sell her original work but also continue coming up with new ideas and designs. Handy Dandy Brandy is an unstoppable force, and we can’t wait to see what she creates next. You can learn more about Handy Dandy Brandy and shop her store at her website!
Long Beach Landmark: Retro Row's Art Theatre
Long Beach Retro Row'sIconic Art Theatre You can't take the Art Deco out of the Art Theatre By Lindsey Goodrow Illustration by Jamie Tableson When the sun is setting in the Retro Row neighborhood of Long Beach, CA, it’s impossible not to gaze in awe upon The Art Theatre, an Art Deco treasure that has been home to film aficionados since the 1920s. The marquee shines brightly like a beacon, it’s warm teal glow attracting the entire community to it. Just shy of turning one century old, The Art serves as an architectural time capsule, still maintaining it’s 1930’s streamlined splendor after all of its renovations and modifications. The single-projector movie house has survived destructive earthquakes, business-crippling recessions, and now a life-altering pandemic. The historical Art Theatre is not going anywhere, and it’s vibrant architectural history is proof of it’s adaptability and resilience. The Art Theatre’s opening night showcased the silent film “The Siren of Seville'' on January 22, 1925. A crowd, dressed in their evening finest, lined up around the Spanish style building, huddling under it’s red-tiled roof and rounded archways. As they entered the theater, they were met with an orchestra pit boasting a large pipe organ, plus 636 seats. The Art Theatre operated peacefully like this for nearly a decade, up until it was shaken by two events: the switchover from silent to sound film and the devastating 1933 earthquake. Any other business might not have been able to survive such catastrophic changes, such as the other dozen single-screen theaters in Long Beach, but the community banded together to rebuild what was destroyed of the Art Theatre. The Long Beach architectural firm of Schilling & Schilling took over remodeling the building, desiring to create a space that signified an ushering into a new era, turning the theater into an Art Deco masterpiece. They transformed the marquee with streamlined signage, constructed glass entrance and exit doors clad in stainless steel and sporting wave-like handles, and put in a clean, geometric-tiled walkway. It was these 1933 blueprint features that the now owners of the theater, Jan van Dijs, Mark and Helen Vidor, and Kerstin Kansteiner continue to uphold. Jan van Dijs and his partners have a track record of renovating historical buildings in Long Beach, such as The Ebell Club. They bought the Art Theatre in 2008 from Howard Linn, who lovingly operated the historical space for 35 years, but had to defer to van Dijs in order to return the theater to it’s previous grandeur. “The theater was not in the best condition”, owner and film-lover Kerstin Kansteiner recalls, “it never stopped operating as a movie theater, but I remember going to the Art in the early 1990s and the lovely former owner would ask if I wanted a blanket because it was so cold and drafty in the screening room”. Just as Schilling & Schilling had done in 1933, van Dijs and his partners made what was once old, new again, and brought life back into the Art Theatre with their renovations. While the theater has the aesthetics of a 1930 movie house, it is up to 21st century code with a state of the art sound system, a modern HVAC system to replace the blankets, an online ticketing system, and organic wine from the concession stand. Photo from The Art Theatre’s Facebook Page The theater industry is constantly shifting, but Long Beach’s Art Theatre continues to grow and evolve in tandem with the city. The local community is here to support it every step of the way, such as when they helped to raise funds to switch from 35mm film projection to digital in 2013. And the theater gives back to the community, having turned into a non-profit organization. The Art regularly works with local schools and other non-profits to support budding filmmakers by bringing their work to a large audience. The Art is unlike any other theater in the area, committed to showing independent, first-run, and documentary films that you will not find anywhere else in Long Beach. It continues to be a community anchor, where people can find introspection, provocative thinking, and a place to always return to. There is something undeniably nostalgic about the Art, and you can really feel that it has withstood the test of time as you look from across 4th Street at it. Smiling faces fill the sidewalk and burst out from the enclosed patio of the intimate wine bar connected to the Art Theatre. A film is about to begin and the crowd buzzes past the ticket office, through the double glass doors, stopping momentarily at the concession stand to grab a bag of hot, buttery popcorn, and excitedly plop down in their seats in the dim glow of the single projector movie theater. The popcorn is sure to pair nicely with the bottle of natural wine that was purchased, corked, and handed over with a few plastic cups to enjoy while watching the film. The loud chatter drops to whisper and a hush as the theater goes pitch black - everyone in the room relaxes and exhales as the opening credits begin to roll.
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