“Reflections of Dana Point”
October Arts & Humanities Month Promotes the City’s Arts & Culture
By Barbara Johannes, President, Dana Point Historical Society
In his book, Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana Jr. described our shore when he wrote, “San Juan is the only romantic spot on the California coast.” Published in 1840, his classic journal includes his 1835 visit to the San Juan Point headlands and the Capistrano Bay coast. Dana also described when he and his shipmates became “hide droghers,” tossing cowhides down to the shore below, to be loaded on longboats and rowed to the Pilgrim anchored farther out in the bay. It would be two years after Dana’s death in 1882 when the U.S. Geological Survey would rename the headlands ‘Dana Point’ in his honor.
When did this area become “Dana Point?” Documents in our archives include a 1923 copy of Anna G. Walters San Juan Point Corporation Stock Certificate. A 1924 booklet, Dana Point, California and Vicinity, was published in 1924 and sent to various real estate firms throughout California. The booklet highlighted Dana Point as one of the last natural and undeveloped areas of the coast made famous by Dana’s bestseller. Photos of the newly built Scenic Inn and the extensive scenic trail winding along the bluffs to the beach below were featured, the ruins of which can still be seen from today’s Bluff Top Trail.
Ads in the 1925 Los Angeles Times advertised lots available in Dana Point, Anna G. Walters’ newly built home and ads of free dinners served at the Scenic Inn to interest buyers. During 1924-25, Dr. J.L. Beebe, President, was said to have contacted Hollywoodland developer Sidney H. Woodruff, who was associated with the sign of the same name, now the HOLLYWOOD landmark celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year. Additional investors joined Woodruff’s Dana Point Syndicate, including General Sherman of Western Construction, the Chandlers of the L. A. Times and many more.
The Blue Lantern Fountain Lunch and Gas Station (now Coastal Kitchen) opened in 1927, Woodruff’s first ten homes were finished in 1928, and the installation of the Lantern Streetlights were completed in 1929. While in Italy, Dr. and Mrs. Beebe were inspired with Sorrento’s harbor and a hotel on the bluff with an elevator to the beach. Construction on the Dana Point Inn began in 1930, despite the 1929 stock market crash, to be finished for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The never-completed hotel’s elevator entrance can be seen on Harbor Drive and the hotel’s arches remain on the Bluff Top Trail. The Great Depression and World War II delayed Dana Point’s growth.
After World War II Dana Point became known for the surfing industry and Dana Point Harbor activities. It was in 1989 when Dana Point was joined by Capistrano Beach and Monarch Beach to become the City of Dana Point.
