Balboa Pavilion

The pavilion was bait. The Newport Bay Investment Company, Los Angeles promoters with an empty sandspit to sell, won the War Department's permission in 1905 for a boathouse, bathhouse and pavilion, and finished it to meet the Pacific Electric's arrival on July 4, 1906. Balboa was the Red Cars' southernmost stop, and the lots began to sell. The state's bronze hangs behind a window to the right of the door. A smaller bronze on the building adds what the state's leaves out: the cupola has long served boats as a navigational aid on harbor charts.

What the plaque says

Balboa Pavilion This is one of California's last surviving examples of the great waterfront recreational pavilions from the turn of the century. Built in 1905 by the Newport Bay Investment Company, it played a prominent role in the development of Newport Beach as a seaside recreation area. In 1906, it became the southern terminus for the Pacific Electric Railway, connecting the beach with downtown Los Angeles. The railway's red cars connected the beach with Los Angeles in only one hour. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 959 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Balboa Pavilion Company, Inc., June 1, 1984. Balboa Pavilion Historic building, built in 1905 as the hub of the original Balboa land development as well as the terminus for the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles, restored in 1962 by Ducommun Realty Company. The cupola has long served as a navigational aid and is marker on harbor charts

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Puvungna — 18 mi
  The Acjachemen and Tongva place of creation: twenty-two acres of open ground on a university campus, still not in the hands of its people.
• Terminal Island and Furusato — 23 mi
  Three thousand Japanese Americans built a village here they called Furusato, and in February 1942 were given forty-eight hours to leave it.
• The Port of Los Angeles — 24 mi
  The busiest container port in the country, sitting on ground that was dredged into existence: marsh, then landfill, then Pier 400.
• Point Fermin Lighthouse — 24 mi
  The first light into San Pedro Bay, lit in 1874 by two sisters, dark since Pearl Harbor, on a bluff that is still sliding.

More markers nearby

• Site of First Water-to-Water Flight — steps away
• Old Landing — 1.0 mi
• McFadden Wharf — 1.7 mi
• Crystal Cove Historic District — 3.9 mi