Where have all the landmarks gone?

JERRY PERSON

When one thinks of the word “landmark,” one conjures up the image of

some famous battle site or where some majestic mansion once stood.

But a landmark can be a piece of ground, a simple building or just

an object that has special meaning. This week we will look at a few

lesser-known landmarks in and around Huntington Beach.

When I was growing up in Los Angeles I can remember seeing small

buildings along the road that were built to resemble something: a

blimp, a chick, Van de Camp’s Dutch windmill, an owl, a chili bowl or

a derby hat.

Most of these simple California icons were built in the 1920s and

1930s, when there were few restrictions and red tape. I haven’t found

any of this kind of fancy architecture here in Huntington Beach yet,

but I am still looking.

How many of you still remember driving up Highway 39 (Beach

Boulevard) and passing the old tepee gas station at Bolsa Street in

Midway City. The old wooden station was built in the mid-1920s and

looked much like any old service station of the time, except that in

back was a huge tepee, twice the height of the gas station.

I’m sorry to say that the station and tepee were demolished to

widen Beach Boulevard on Feb. 3, 1954, and we lost one of our

possible California landmarks.

Our next possible landmark was also a service station, and it sat

at the southeast corner of Beach Boulevard and Talbert Avenue, where

the Weinerschnitzel sits today.

Back in 1922, Harry Groves built a wood-framed gas station when

that part of the area belonged to Orange County. In 1923, Groves sold

the station to C.P. Lambert and for 32 years everyone referred to it

as “Lambert’s station.”

When Lambert died in 1944, the Texaco station was operated by his

wife Alice and her daughter Mary Jean. In 1946, when Alice Lambert’s

son Robert was discharged from the Navy, he ran the station for the

family. In March 1954, the station gave way to progress and was torn

down when Robert built a new and more modern station a little east of

the old one, where he sold Flying A gas for many years.

Robert Lambert would become a city councilman and later mayor of

our town.

In the early years of our city, around 1906, a hitching rack was

installed at the entrance to our pier to accommodate the local

farmers who drove their wagons to the pier, unhitch the horses and

tie them to the hitching rack before going to the beach for the day.

The horse hitching rack is long gone from the pier and the last time

I saw the old step stone, which passengers would walk onto from their

carriages, was in a storage building at the city yard.

Since the oil boom of the 1920s, a series of Standard Oil gas

stations had sat on the north side of the pier entrance. The

Huntington Beach Company razed the minor landmark for a beachfront

development project on April 14, 1967.

Our next landmark is a major one for more than 100 years and is still standing today. The Fountain Valley landmark is known today as

the All Saints Anglican church at 18082 Bushard St., and was then

known as the Country Church of Talbert. This church was erected on

land that had been donated by Tom Talbert.

In the 1950s, it was run by its younger congregation. The pastor

was in his early 20s and the 15- to 20-piece orchestra ranged in age

from 10 to 16, and the older members of the church didn’t mind at

all. Robert Campbell founded the church and Virgil Crawford organized

the church orchestra in July 1944.

Our last minor landmark is a spot where a “minor” event took place

many years ago. On Sunday, Nov. 11, 1923, Huntington Beach Police

Chief Jack Tinsley drove his police car to the corner of Fifth Street

and Walnut Avenue, parked it, and went over to Main Street to check

things out.

At about 6:30 p.m., Emmet Davy, a 17-year-old from Saginaw, Mich.,

was strolling along and spotted Tinsley’s 1923 Hudson unattended.

When Tinsley returned in a few minutes his car was nowhere to be

seen. Meanwhile, at 11:30 p.m., Davy had driven the stolen police car

to the Mexican border.

He had planned to sell the car and use the money to bet on the

horse races in Tijuana, but before he could cross over from San

Diego, border guard Frank Buck spotted the siren on the car and the

special license plate and refused to let Davy cross into Mexico.

After questioning by Buck, Davy confessed to stealing the chief’s

car. At 1:30 a.m., Tinsley received a call from San Diego police that

his stolen car was there.

Tinsley went down to San Diego and brought the young car thief

back to the Orange County Jail.

So if you’re Downtown near Fifth and Walnut, take a look at this

minor landmark site where history says our police chief lost his new

police car.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.