Pier Groups Struggle to Rebuild Surf City Landmark

The End Cafe has been gone for some time, ripped off the Huntington Beach Pier by a storm 18 months ago. And while the 76-year-old, landmark pier--California’s longest--still reaches into the surf, it has been closed to the public since July 12, 1988.

But a grass-roots fund-raising drive and aggressive city lobbying for money have resulted in the hope that the pier will be rebuilt by late summer, 1991.

Finding the money has proved difficult, however. The city hopes to raise up to $9 million from federal, state and county government agencies, plus another $1 million in “major donations” from businesses and developers who stand to benefit from a rebuilt pier.

About $2.5 million of the total has already been raised. Of that sum, Huntington Beach has committed $1.6 million, most of it to be spent on design and consulting work before construction, which is scheduled to begin by April, 1990.

While Huntington Beach leaders have been rallying financial support, the number of beach-goers in the pier area has dropped by up to 40%, city officials said. Merchants who benefit from beach traffic say that closing the landmark has been the hardest blow to business, which has also been affected by redevelopment construction across Pacific Coast Highway from the pier.

In January, 1988, the pier that people recall when they think of Surf City suffered severe wave damage. Six months later, Fluor Daniel Corp. of Irvine, hired to size up repairs for the concrete landmark, instead concluded that it is structurally unsound.

Without notice, Huntington Beach officials closed the pier at 3 p.m. the same day, denying many fishermen and beach-goers a final stroll.

Among them was Ella Christensen, 76, who for 37 years sold bait, beer and sandwiches from her three shops on the pier. Whether Christensen will return to her former home away from home is unknown, but she is not holding her breath and is keeping busy sewing, reading and managing real estate investments.

“I’m just getting used to being a has-been,” she said last week, fingering a pearl strand during breakfast. “It took six months to see as how I got the shaft. That finally sunk in. It’s taken the last six months trying to get over it. Not sure that I am yet, either.”

City Adminstrator Paul Cook said advance notice might have triggered an unsafe stampede onto the pier for a final beer and hot dog at Neptune’s Locker, Christensen’s briny pub overlooking the waves.

In the days that followed, Christensen’s customers berated the Huntington Beach City Council for leaving her in the lurch after decades of good service. They suggested that the city bolster crossbeams at the inland end of the pier so the 300 feet up to the water line could reopen. While Christensen’s Tackle Box near the end of the 1,830-foot pier would still have been shut, her Captain’s Galley sandwich shop and Neptune’s could have reopened.

However, city leaders balked at the expense.

The City Council appointed design and fund-raising panels, which are making progress. Reconstruction plans have been approved by the council. The landmark is expected to be rebuilt of concrete at about the same length, with public restrooms, sandwich and bait shops, and a restaurant at the end.

County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder promised $250,000 from county harbors, beaches and parks funds; the city hopes to get $750,000 more from the same sources.

Perhaps most encouraging, said Richard Barnard, assistant to Cook and a fund-raising panel member, a groundswell of community work has reaped about $100,000. Grant deeds sold for $25 each netted each buyer his or her name on a one-foot-square parcel of the future pier. A seniors dance raised $14,000. Students selling bookmarks, buttons and iron-on patches raised another $6,000. Beach parking fees have been raised by $1 per car to raise about $100,000 during two years.

“The support in the community has really been impressive,” Barnard added. “It just shows a lot of interest at the grass-roots level for the pier.”

Ron Schenkman, a marketing consultant who is chairman of the fund-raising panel and a former Huntington Beach mayor, said the group has identified several government agencies that may kick in money. Two bills designed to pay for repairing state piers may also help the city.

But there have been no promises. Gov. George Deukmejian last week deleted $1.5 million from the state budget that Huntington Beach officials hoped would help pay for the pier, but Schenkman said that does not preclude asking for it next year.

If the pier is rebuilt by next summer--and some say that is dubious--it is still uncertain whether Christensen would win the bidding to run any of the businesses on it.

She is free to try but seems almost weary at the thought. She owns a Santa Ana condominium, a home in Joshua Tree and other land.

“Real estate isn’t my fancy either,” she said. “I’m not well heeled, but I’ve got sufficient to get by on.”

The uprooting a year ago has left her bitter. But the woman whom devoted lifeguards and police officers called the Queen of the Pier is still drawn to the fishermen and the shore.

Not lately, though. “Nah,” she said, standing at the base of the pier. “Nothing down here for me anymore. I’m thinking maybe I’ll go to college.”