Sunday, July 30, 2006

The Huntington Inn

I went to the Postcard & Paper Show in Santa Ana today, and this postcard of the Huntington Inn was the best item I found. The Inn was built on the north corner of Ocean Ave (PCH) and 8th St. in 1903. It got a new lease on life in the 1950s as an Elk's Club, but was demolished in 1969. Today, a motel (also called the Huntington Inn) can be found on this site.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Huntington Beach entry signs

According to The Huntington Beach Wave, the new entry signs for the City of Huntington Beach (now under design review) will be the first in over 100 years.

Nope. Sorry.

Here's a fairly common postcard image, showing an entry sign in the 1940s. There was also variant of this sign that read, "Huntington Beach - California's Finest Bathing Beach" that was standing as recently as 1952.

And can we count the giant neon "Huntington Beach" sign that hung from double arches at Main and Ocean (PCH) in the 1930s? No, it wasn't at the city's border, but you could read the thing from Long Beach on a clear night.

I also remember large horizontal wood signs with the classic Cold War-era "HB" logo on them. I know there was one on PCH on the northwest side of town, and I vaguely remember another one on Brookhurst St., near Garfield Ave.