What to See in Redondo Beach - Top Sights and Attractions

The Redondo Beach pier is located in Redondo Beach, California and stretches out into the Pacific Ocean. The pier has been rebuilt and altered by storms and redevelopments. Its official name is "Municipal Pier," and it has also been called the "Endless Pier." Earlier versions were known as "Pleasure Pier" and "Horseshoe Pier."

The pier started out as a disjointed group of wharves near the end of the 19th century but evolved into an interconnected structure after a series of storms and demolitions throughout the 20th century. The pier area used to be heavily crowded with tourists and locals during the 1970s, but began to decline after the nearby Seaport Village project failed and went into bankruptcy in 1982.

In 1988, the pier was severely battered by two winter storms, and on May 27 it burned to the waterline due to an electrical short circuit (the fire was so large that a SigAlert was announced for the San Diego Freeway several miles away). The pier's modern reinforced concrete version was completed in 1995 and has brought back the appeal to Redondo Beach's business district ever since.

Subsequent attempts to resuscitate the area's popularity have been challenged by the need to comply with the California Coastal Act requirements as interpreted and applied by the Coastal Commission and the failure of the city to develop a plan residents are willing to support. While the Redondo Landing portion of the pier has been revitalized by its leaseholder, the remainder of the pier and south end of harbor remains in limbo. The City approved a 524,000 project with mall developer CenterCal (additionally, a new 272,000 sq ft parking structure was included in the project), but that project was stopped by a successful CEQA lawsuit, a citizens’ initiative, and an appeal to the Coastal Commission. When residents won the CEQA lawsuit, the judge directed the city to rescind the approvals of the EIR and Coastal Development Permits for the project. The judge also banned the City and CenterCal from advocating for the project in front of the Coastal Commission. As a result, both the City and CenterCal withdrew their application for the project just prior to the Coastal Commission hearing on the citizens’ appeal of the project. Residents had also placed “The King Harbor CARE Act”, subsequently named “Measure C” on the ballot as the city approvals of the project looked imminent. Measure C passed despite an expensive campaign funded by CenterCal and opposition from a majority of the City Council. Measure C was designed to prevent zoning interpretations that led to the size, massing and impacts of the CenterCal project. Measure C became law when the Coastal Commission certified it without change.

Today the pier and south end of the harbor are in limbo awaiting the action of city council and the resolution of a lawsuit filed by CenterCal. CenterCal’s lawsuit is based on purported violations of a lease agreement approved by Redondo’s City Council just 35 days before the Measure C election.^[1]

Pier in Hermosa Beach, California. The Hermosa Beach pier is located in the Southern California community of Hermosa Beach. It extends into the Pacific Ocean.

In 1904 the first pier was built. It was constructed entirely of wood even to the pilings and it extended five hundred feet out into the ocean. The pier was constructed by the Hermosa Beach Land and Water Company. In 1913 this old pier was partly washed away and later torn down and a new one built to replace it. This pier was built of concrete 1,000 feet (300 m) long, and paved with asphalt its entire length. Small tiled pavilions were erected at intervals along the sides to afford shade for fishing and picnic parties. A bait stand was built eventually out on the end. Soon after, about 1914, an auditorium building was constructed; it has housed various enterprises and at present the public rest rooms, the Los Angeles Lifeguard Service, and the local branch of the LA County Library occupy rooms in the building. This pier is municipally owned.

The pier's frontage has changed in appearance over the years and electric train lines used to run along the coastline.^[2]

City in California. Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,506 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area; it is one of the three Beach Cities. Hermosa Beach is bordered by the other two, Manhattan Beach to the north and Redondo Beach to the south and east.

The city's beach is popular for sunbathing, beach volleyball, surfing, paddleboarding, bars, cycling and running. The city itself extends only about 15 blocks from east to west and 40 blocks from north to south, with Pacific Coast Highway running down the middle. Situated on the Pacific Ocean, Hermosa's average temperature is 70 °F (22 °C) in the summer and 55 °F (13 °C) in the winter. Westerly sea breezes lessen what can be high summertime temperatures in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the county and help keep the smog away 360 days of the year.

A paved path, called The Strand, runs along Hermosa's beach from Torrance Beach in the south approximately twenty miles north to Santa Monica. The Hermosa Beach Pier is at the end of Pier Avenue, which is one of the beach community's main shopping, dining and entertainment areas.^[3]

The Old Salt Lake was used by the Chowigna Indians who dug up salt from the bottom. Old Salt Lake was in what is now Redondo Beach, California. In 1856 Henry Johnson and lawyer William Allanson purchased the Old Salt Lake land and built a salt evaporation pond to make and sell salt. The site of Old Salt Lake was designated a California Historic Landmark on Sept. 6, 1941. On December 15, 1854 Manuel Dominguez sold 215 acres of the Rancho San Pedro for $500 to Los Angeles businessmen Henry Allanson and William Johnson. Johnson and Allanson also built a boiling house with 48 wood fired kettles to make salt faster than the evaporation pond. Johnson and Allanson exported much of the salt produced by transporting it 10 miles overland to the Port of San Pedro. Spanish Missionaries also dug up salt from the lake in the time of Spanish missions in California. The Salt lake was a large pond that was 600 by 1800 feet, it was fed by a natural spring. Johnson and Allanson shut down the salt works in 1862 and sold it to businessman, Frances Mellus. Frances Mellus ran the Pacific Salt Works at the site until 1881. In 1881 Liverpool Salt Works at the Salton Sea, a rival company, purchased Pacific Salt Works and the closed. The lake was 600 feet from the Redondo Beach sea shore at an elevation of about 10 feet. In 1955 a granite marker was put up at the site on Harbor Drive near the AES electricity power plant. In 1901 the fire boiler were removed and the buildings were abandoned for almost 20 years, in 1924 all structures at the site were removed. Southern California Edison built the south Bay power plant on the site in 1948. In 1998 AES Corporation purchased the power plant. In the 1700s, the Chowigna bartered salt from the old Redondo Salt Lake with other tribes. Their village by the lake was called "Onoova-nga", or "Place of Salt." The Chowigna were relocated to missions in 1854, when Manuel Dominguez sold the 215 acres of land.^[5]

Apartment building in Redondo Beach, California. The Diamond Apartments are an apartment building located at 321 Diamond St. in Redondo Beach, California. Built in 1913 by Harry Meacham, the apartment complex was the first commercial building in the surrounding neighborhood. Architect Lovell Pemberton designed the Classical Revival building. The first floor of the building held commercial space; early businesses in the building included a furniture store, a laundromat, and a paint store. Developers demolished all but three of Redondo Beach's downtown commercial buildings in the 1960s, leaving the apartment complex as the city's second-oldest standing commercial building and the oldest which has maintained its historic integrity.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 26, 1992.^[6]