Main Street, Huntington Beach
Main Street
in Huntington Beach has, like the city itself as a whole and with its many
parts, has reinvented itself multiple times while still retaining the innate
personality originating from the residents who began flocking to the city in
the oil boom of the 1920’s. Today, Main
Street is equal parts vibrant local scene and tourist mecca, culinary center
and beach pub crawl; a quasi-urban night life within a surf community. There is something for just about everyone
almost all hours of the day, all one needs to do is pull in to town from
Pacific Coast Highway as you near the world famous Huntington Beach Pier, which
serves as a kind of ‘extension’ of Main Street directly into the Pacific Ocean. From the less picturesque 405 freeway, one
merely exits the equally famous and historic Beach Boulevard heading toward the
beach, hanging a right on Ellis Street, and within the span of a short series
of lights you will find yourself engulfed in the Main Street vibe.
One of the
most rewarding aspects of living in Huntington Beach is the direct and
immediate access to this incredibly rich and diverse center of activity one
finds along Main Street. There are about
a solid dozen places with a similar level of active culture and night life in
Orange County, but none with the unique personality for which Huntington Beach
is known. While many generations have
come and gone, each one building on the last, the rugged entrepreneurial spirit
of the oil boomers still echoes in the year round crowds between the stores,
restaurants and overlooking offices on historic Main Street. Put another way, there is no excuse for being
bored in Huntington Beach.
At the turn
of the last century, the area now known as Huntington Beach was called Shell
Beach, but in 1901 the name changed to Pacific City when P.A. Stanton formed a
local syndicate and purchased 40 acres along the beach; 20 acres on each side
of Main Street. As a testimony to
Huntington Beach strong awareness if its own history, Pacific City is literally
resurrecting itself along the Huntington Beach coast, which is the topic of my
previous blog. Stanton’s
turn-of-the-last century motive was to create an “Atlantic City” on the west
coast, and with the absence of casinos, this vision may yet be fulfilled. When one makes their home in Huntington
Beach, one inherits a piece of history as well as an exciting present and
promising future. Contact me, and
together we can find your part of the Huntington Beach legacy.
