Pierpont Beach Flood 1936
Los Angeles developer Frank Meline subdivided the Pierpont Bay area into small lots during the late 1920s, putting in roads, building a pleasure pier and paving Shore Drive along the beach. The lots came with design guidelines for English-style homes, on lanes with English sounding names. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 changed the fate of Pierpont beach forever; lots that had been offered for $2900 per lot suddenly were worth $10. Then, eight years later, two storms – eleven months apart – in January and December 1936 wiped out the pier, bathhouse, boardwalk and Shore Drive. These storms effectively stopped all development in Pierpont until the mid-50s. Between 1925 and 1936,
few houses had been built, and after the storm some were moved to higher ground. Only a handful of pre-1936 houses remain in Pierpont. Today, the area is a eclectic mix of mid-century beach shacks and recent 2.5-story custom homes of every style imaginable, and Shore Drive is a memory beneath the dunes at the end of the lanes.Quoted from the 2009 Ventura Architectural Calendar "Then and Now" available in local shops or by contacting schafphoto@mac.com for prices: http://www.schafphoto.com/
