Quintessential Walking Tour for Summer Days : TOUR

Ocean Park, the southernmost neighborhood of Santa Monica, is the quintessential beach town. Along its wide, milk-white beach, thousands of visitors sunbathe and splash in the surf. Others fish from the municipal pier, ride the Ferris wheel and carrousel, pedal the bike path, stroll its oceanfront walk and roller-skate to Venice.

Yet just three blocks inland, Main Street hosts designer boutiques, art galleries, museums, neighborhood cafes and trendy restaurants. Ocean Park offers something for everyone.

What follows is a self-guided, three-hour walking tour of the neighborhood, including time to graze and gaze on Main Street. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes and sunglasses for this perfect summer walk.

To get to Ocean Park, take Interstate 10 (Santa Monica Freeway) west, exit 4th Street and turn left (southeast). At Pico Boulevard, turn right and then left at Main Street; drive to Ocean Park Boulevard. Metered public parking is available between Main Street and Neilson Way just to the West.

A Seaside Resort

Ocean Park traces its beginnings to 1895 when Abbot Kinney joined Francis Ryan to develop a seaside resort amid a sandy expanse of hills and marshes. The resort grew in 1896 when a local interurban electric railway was extended south from Santa Monica.

By 1900, Ocean Park had grown to a village of more than 200 cottages, boasting its own businesses, post office, race track, golf course, clubhouse and auditorium.

Kinney left the partnership in 1904 to build his Venice-of-America to the south, sparking fierce competition for summer crowds. Positioned between Venice and the Santa Monica Pier, from 1910 to 1930, Ocean Park became the center of the West Coast’s greatest concentration of midways, carnivals and pleasure piers.

Today, little remains along the ocean front of these glorious days, but many of the turn-of-the-century beach cottages still exist and are occupied today.

Begin the walk at the Heritage Square Museum, 2612 Main St. Built in 1894 by architect Sumner P. Hunt for the son of Santa Monica’s founder, this Colonial Revival house has been restored tenderly and features changing historical exhibits, a bookstore and gift shop.

Walk northward on Ocean Park Boulevard. Several nearby murals depict Ocean Park’s character, including one at Main Street of the early 1900s beach resort and two bold murals below the 4th Street overpass, one of sea mammals and the other of the carrousel’s wooden horses coming to life.

Turn right on 3rd Street, noting the “airplane bungalow” at No. 2544, with its overarching tiers of extensive eaves.

Along Beach Street

At Beach Street, turn right, walking past several Craftsman cottages at Nos. 244-250. At No. 237 stands Ocean Park’s oldest house, a small Victorian cottage built around 1885.

Turn left on 2nd Street. The two-story Victorian Hostetter House, built around 1890, is set in a lush garden at 2601 2nd St. At No. 2621 stands Santa Monica’s first church and oldest wood-framed structure, built in 1875 and moved here in 1900. Today, it serves as an artist’s residence and studio. Farther at Nos. 2710-2730, a row of simple turn-of-the-century cottages still provide rentals.

Turn right at Ashland Avenue, walking towards the bay. Cross busy Main Street and Neilson Way and follow the winding walkway to the beach.

Cross Barnard Way and turn left, walking parallel to the bike path. In 1987, Santa Monica completed its re-landscaping of the beach parkway, planting hundreds of palms and wide lawns.

This seaside expanse from Ashland Avenue to Marine Street once was the site of several pleasure piers, most recently Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P.). Built up in 1958 as a joint $10-million venture by CBS and the Hollywood Turf Club to compete with Disneyland, P.O.P. consisted of a labyrinth of arcades, thrill rides, curio shops, cafes and a legendary roller coaster twisting above the sea.

In its first year, more than 2 million beach-goers visited P.O.P. But after years of declining crowds and revenue, the controlling interests filed for bankruptcy in 1967. Abandoned and deteriorating, victimized by fire and vandalism, the park finally was razed in 1975. Now the beach has been reclaimed as open space for public use.

Turn left on Navy Street and left again on Main Street. Only 10 years ago the street was lackluster, lined with mom-and-pop stores and aging businesses. Today, Main Street has become a Melrose-by-the-shore with unique shops, stylish cafes and sidewalks crowded with “wannabes.”

Something for Everyone

As you walk, note the rich variety of businesses, including One Life Natural Foods (at No. 3001), Superior Comics (220 Pier Ave.), the Garden Nursery (No. 2935), Brilliant (orchids and bromeliads at No. 2912), the Buttery (croissants and muffins at No. 2906), Colors of the Wind (kites, pennants, flags and banners at No. 2900), Lakota (contemporary Southwestern artists at No. 2314), and the Ocean Park Omelette Parlor (the area’s premiere breakfast hangout, at No. 2752).

Farther on, you pass B-1 Gallery, Chinois on Main restaurant, Jadis Moderne (Art Deco delights) and Merlin McFly’s Magical Bar and Grill (pub with live magic shows).

Turn left on Ocean Park Boulevard. Ocean Park’s most intact turn-of-the-century neighborhood exists to the north. Its narrow streets, lined with late-Victorian and early Craftsman beach cottages, most with front porches and verandas, evokes a slower-paced time and place.

Turn right on Barnard Way and then veer right on Fraser Avenue. Many of the gabled cottages contain decorative shingles, brackets, brickwork and columns. Wind chimes and porch swings add to the setting.

Pure Victorian Elegance

Turn left on Neilson Way and left again on Hart Avenue. Turn right on Barnard Way and right again on Wadsworth Avenue. Among these residences, No. 151 is unquestionably the grand dame. Its towering front cupola, steep roof, elaborately hewn beams and deep veranda form a portrait of Victorian beach-front elegance.

Turn left on Neilson Way and left again on Hollister Avenue. Horatio West Court at No. 140, designed by architect Irving Gill in 1919, dramatically broke with the Craftsman style with its simplified mix of Mission Revival and Modernism designs.

Cross Barnard Way and walk northward towards the pier.

After passing the gazebo, turn left, walk down the stairs towards the pergola, and continue walking toward the pier.

At 1910 The Promenade stands a five-story, brick-faced, Beaux Arts-style Pritikin Longevity Center, originally built in 1924 as the private Casa del Mar Beach Club.

Farther on, you pass the Art Deco Sand and Sea Apartments at No. 1725, originally built in 1926 as the private Breakers Beach Club. Along its south wall artist Steve Thometz is painting a 132x40-foot mural entitled “Whaling Wall No. 6,” commissioned by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Brains and Brawn

Follow The Promenade northward, pass the public chess tables. Legendary Muscle Beach, with its gymnasts and fitness and physique fanatics, attracted thousands of beach-goers in the area south of the pier from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Walk up onto the Santa Monica Municipal Pier. It’s actually two adjoining piers, the northern section was constructed between 1909 and 1921 by the city of Santa Monica. The southern structure, the Newcomb Pier, was built in 1916 as an amusement center. In its heyday it featured a giant roller coaster, penny arcades and the cavernous La Monica Ballroom, where Big Bands played for 5,000 dancers and 5,000 onlookers, all under its Moorish-styled roof.

Today, the Municipal Pier serves as a playground for every type of urbanite. Walk past the recently restored carrousel, Crown and Anchor Pub, quarter arcades, seafood cafes, souvenir stands and a fortuneteller to view the open-air historical photo exhibit. Then join the fisherfolk and couples at the pier’s end.

Turn around and walk up to the foot of the pier, admiring the sweeping views of Santa Monica Bay.

Turn right on Ocean Avenue and walk inside the new Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel at No. 1700. Constructed near the site of the Arcadia Hotel, the city’s first resort built in 1889, Loews recaptures the feel of beach-front elegance with its “contemporary Victorian style,” five-story atrium, pastel colors and lush landscaping. The 352-room hotel was designed by Archisystems International of Santa Monica.

Duck Into an English Pub

One of the city’s best pubs, the Mucky Duck at 1810 Ocean Ave., is known worldwide as an Anglophile watering hole.

At Pico Boulevard, turn left. Then turn right on Main Street. Stop in Pioneer Boulangerie at No. 2012, a country French and Basque food emporium, as busy as a village marketplace with its garden patios, bakeries, wine shop, cafeterias, deli and Basque family-style restaurant.

At No. 2215, the Main Street Dance and Exercise Gallery opens to the street, allowing live African percussion and Samba music to spill out to the sidewalk.

Stop in Napoleon French Bakery and Cafe at No. 2301, one of Ocean Park’s most popular cafes.

The Santa Monica Museum of Art complex at No. 2429, designed by Frank Gehry, houses the Gallery of Functional Art, now exhibiting a fascinating collection of “chair art.”

Finally, explore the Streamline Moderne Galleria di Maio at No. 2525. Reward yourself with a refreshment at a nearby cafe.