Scenic Pier in Pacifica
Saturday, July 11th, 1987“Where Are You Going Sunday?” was the bold headline on a large display ad that appeared in The Chronicle 80 years ago.
Under photos of Ocean Shore Railway Company’s steam locomotive and coaches filled with smiling passengers, readers were invited to “appreciate the beauties of Edgemar. . . . Come prepared to be convinced and Edgemar will win you!” it promised.
Edgemar is still a great place to go. If you don’t recognize the name, Edgemar is part of Pacifica, which also includes the old Ocean Shore Railway stops of Pacific Manor, Vallemar, Rockaway Beach, Linda Mar and Sharp Park. This blanket also covers what used to be Salada and Brighton Beach, which combined themselves into Sharp Park in the 1930s after Honoria Sharp donated 480 acres for a park to the city of San Francisco.
Recently, Pacifica has been creating a beachfront promenade leading to the Rev. Herschell Harkins Memorial Pier, a free municipal pier better known as the Sharp Park Pier or Pacifica Pier. Now, during the gray whales’ southern migration, is a great time to walk out on this 1300-foot-long fishing pier. Fishermen have reported seeing the great grays swim past so close “you could smell their fishy breath.”
Plankton, which thrives on the clean water from the 1100-foot-long outfall pipe of Pacifica’s elegant tile-roofed sewage treatment plant, attract the whales. It also attracts small food fish that bring Dungeness crab, cancer magister, salmon and sometimes bonita.
So take along your fishing tackle or crab traps if you are a fisherman. Wear your warmest jacket, gloves and hat, but leave your dog at home. Dogs aren’t allowed on the pier. Then head south from San Francisco about 5 miles along State Highway 1.
Take the Francisco Boulevard off-ramp, turn right on Paloma Avenue and look for a place to park. Since 1957, this has been Pacifica. Before that it was Salada, with Edgemar immediately to the north. Salada took its name from Laguna Salada, the saltwater lagoon which is surrounded today by Sharp Park Golf Course.
Walk west on Paloma toward the beach. Pacifica Planning Commissioner John Lucia, who conducted me on this walk, says a fresh breeze is blowing through Pacifica since nearby Sweeney Ridge has come into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
The fine old cypress trees, which were planted along the street in 1907, are now protected. In the past, property owners or street pavers tore out trees indiscriminately. Today they must apply for a permit and undergo a hearing on each tree.
Notice the Wavecrest Apartment building, which Commissioner Lucia describes as “a remnant of the poor planning of the 1960s.”
“There was a time,” he said, “when the City Council was about to allow all of Pacifica to be covered with such stark and unimaginative cracker boxes.” Today, Pacifica cherishes its more historic single-family homes, such as No. 15 Paloma, which was an old farmhouse.
Pacifica planners would like to see the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, now for sale, become a hostel, bed-and-breakfast inn or restaurant. When you reach the southeast corner of Paloma Avenue and Beach Boulevard, notice the classic collection of flotsam and jetsam adorning the garden.
Cross Beach Boulevard and you are at Sharp Park State Beach. According to the local Coastal Land Use Plan submitted by Pacifica to the California Coastal Commission in 1979, the seaside trail ultimately will link all of Pacifica’s communities and reach a string of well-planned coastal access points.
Last November, the trail took on greater importance when the California Recreational Trails Committee officially registered its support to the State Coastal Conservancy for the border-to-border California Coastal Trail, in which the Pacific Promenade would be a link in the designated San Mateo County North-South Trail Corridor.
As you walk, if you can take your eyes from the spectacular offshore show the winter ocean often provides, observe the architectural mix of old farmhouses, late 1920s beach cottages, 1960s apartments and new houses under construction.
At Santa Maria Avenue, look east to locate a flag on its standard at 170 Santa Maria Avenue. Built in 1914 as the San Pedro School House, it became the Pacifica City Hall.
When you reach Salada Avenue, look uphill to the east to see “McCloskey’s Castle” on the slopes of Milagra Ridge. Built in 1906 by H. H. McCloskey, attorney for the Ocean Shore Railroad, it became infamous as “Chateau Lafayette,” a Prohibition-era speakeasy.
During World War II, it became a Coast Guard Station. Now it is again a private residence.
Look about you as you walk. Sharp Park’s 18-hole municipal golf course, which has been described as “The Poor Man’s Pebble Beach,” lies ahead. On your right, the broad bay is loosely defined by Mussel Rock at the end of Thornton Beach two miles north and by Mori Point, about a mile to the south.
When you reach Santa Rosa Avenue, you are at the pier and at a convenient bait and coffee shop with public restrooms on its south side. Stroll out on the pier for a look back at the beach and a different view of the crashing waves.
Whales like the south side of the pier, possibly because the water may be a little warmer where the plankton feed. Spanish arches identify the sewage treatment plant on shore whose long outfall pipe divides at its western end like the fingers on a hand. The treated effluent is reputedly clean enough to drink.
Linger as long as you like, enjoying the Pacific at play. The pier is open 24 hours a day, every day, and when you are ready to call it a day, you are sure to come back refreshed by the wind, waves, sunlight and passing clouds. You may have watched a fisherman haul in his catch, hauled in some crabs yourself, or, if you’ve been lucky, you may even have seen a whale “sky hop” in a dramatic leap.
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(1) From Pacifica’s pier, you can watch the waves break all the way to Mori Point and scan the seas for migrating whales, (2) A fisherman on the 1300-foot-long pier waited for a bite / PHOTOS BY FREDERIC LARSON/THE CHRONICLE
Scenic Pier in Pacifica
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
January 11, 1987
Author: MARGOT PATTERSON DOSS
Estimated printed pages: 4
Caption:
SEE END OF TEXT
Caption:
PHOTO (2), MAP
Edition: SUNDAY
Section: SUNDAY PUNCH
Page: 6
Column: THE BAY AREA AT YOUR FEET
Index Terms: ANIMALS; HARBORS; BAY AREA
Copyright 1987 San Francisco Chronicle
Record Number: 421400