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| Balboa Pier, festooned with American flags, circa 1906 |
The Newport Bay Investment Co. established the town of Balboa in 1905. But they didn't complete construction of the iconic Balboa Pavilion, the first Balboa Pier, and the Balboa Hotel until just days before the grand opening of the Pacific Electric's Balboa trolley line, on Independence Day, 1906. All three new features were intended to draw tourists and potential investors to the fledgling town.
On the day of the celebration, 1,200 people visitors arrived via the trolley, nine packed Southern Pacific passenger trains, and 500 carriages. Every boat in the bay was rented, many went swimming, picnickers camped on the beach, throngs promanaded along the new walkway between Newport Beach and Balboa, and there was dancing until midnight. Well into the next morning, bleary-eyed revelers were still being stuffed into cars for the trip back to Los Angeles.
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| Crowds throng the Balboa Pier, July 4, 1906 |
Since then, the Balboa Pier has been used as a fishing pier, as a dock for launches taking fisherman to and from fishing barges, as a grandstand or finish line for various nautical races, and as a pleasant place to stroll. It's seen many repairs and improvement over the years, including a total replacement in 1921 and another after the hurricane of 1939. The first Ruby’s Diner opened on the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach in 1982.
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| Balboa Pier, 2013 (Photo by author) |
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