History of the Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse

By John Olguin

At one time Southern California had a regional transportation service commonly known as the Red Car, run by the Pacific Electric Railway Company.  The Pacific Electric Railway Company built a plunge at the end of each of their lines to Venice, Redondo Beach and Long Beach, where bathhouses were added for the convenience of those who came to swim.  In 1932 the last of the bathhouses was located at Cabrillo Beach, at the end of the San Pedro line.  The Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse was opened as a community recreation center built and operated by the Department of Recreation and Parks of the City of Los Angeles.  Before most residents had automobiles, they could take the Red Car, rent a swim suit and towel at the Bathhouse for ten cents, take a swim in the ocean, shower and then ride back home again.  The San Pedro Bathhouse was 26,000 square feet and included a snack bar and a community meeting room upstairs.

The Bathhouse gradually became the site of a museum on marine life.  In 1935 lifeguard Bob Foster placed a card table on the beach in Venice loaded with sea shells and other sea life.  Dr. William L. Lloyd, a retired dentist, was hired by Recreation & Parks to collect and develop a marine exhibit in the Venice Bathhouse.  The collections were moved to the empty Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse and installed in the center room on the lower floor.  Dr. Lloyd learned how to taxidermy birds and prepare lobsters and crabs for exhibit.  The depression was in full swing in the early 1930s so there was little money to develop the museum.  Dr. Lloyd made exhibit displays with shirt boxes and one gallon mayonnaise jars from the restaurant next door.  He would mount fish and invertebrates on glass and fill the jars with formaldehyde.  The museum soon filled the middle room.  In1938 a giant leatherneck turtle was caught and brought into the bath house.  A cast was made of plaster of Paris and was on display for years.  Today that cast has been recast in fiberglass and is still in the courtyard on display. 

In 1937 as a lifeguard at Cabrillo Beach I started to help Dr. Lloyd by cleaning the glass cases, moving showcases or doing anything else required.  In 1938 a fish hall developed by enclosing a passageway.  When Dr. Lloyd turned 70 in 1949 and had to retire, I became acting director plus lifeguard captain.  A women’s exercise class met on the second floor of the bath house once a week.  They played the piano and jumped rope in unison on the hardwood floor.  Downstairs I couldn’t talk to school classes visiting the museum because of the noise, so I arranged for them to move to Anderson Memorial playground, piano and all.  We also experimented with dances for young people and an adult square dance group.

In 1949 we hung a sign that read “Any and all objects pertaining to Maritime Exhibit will be accepted.”  Thus we started the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.  The second floor had an open balcony which we enclosed and made an exhibit hall for ship models and a deep sea diving display.  In the about 1970 plans were developed to move Cabrillo Museum into a new location across the parking lot which would be larger and more appropriate.  This is now the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.  It was designed by Frank Geary, who later designed Disney Hall.  When the move was completed in 1981, the Department of Recreation and Parks wanted to tear down the bathhouse.  The Cabrillo Polar Bears were using the old boat room and storeroom as a locker and changing room.  They organized a committee to save the bathhouse.  As a first step the Cabrillo Polar Bears, San Pedro Bay Historical Society and other friends got the building declared an historic landmark.  Nonetheless, the building was in disrepair until more than $3.5 million dollars was raised for renovation.  The Port of Los Angeles and the City donated $2.1 million and Proposition G funds added $1.5 million. The bathhouse has been beautifully restored and was dedicated on October 12, 2002.  It is used for classes, receptions and meetings.

John Olguin was employed by the Department of Recreation and Parks for fifty years.  He began as a lifeguard and eventually became the Director of Cabrillo Marine Museum.  He is currently Director Emeritus.  He developed San Pedro programs for Whale Watching, Grunion and tide pools.  He has devoted himself to community improvement, including an annual city fireworks display, Thanksgiving baskets for the needy, the Salvation Army and many other causes.  He was chosen as San Pedro’s Citizen of the Century by the San Pedro Rotary Club in 2000.

The website of the Bathhouse is www.cabrillobeach.org .