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Located on five acres of oceanfront property in Santa Monica, California, the first-rate public beach facility serves as a popular site for recreation, tourism, and relaxation. The Annenberg Community Beach House is the site of many company parties, family reunions, and other events. There are also paddleboard rentals, volleyball courts, surf lessons, and event spaces you can reserve through its website. If you’ve never been, the Annenberg Community Beach House is a special place.
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Davies, a movie star, was a pre-eminent Hollywood hostess; she and Hearst reigned as virtual royalty, hosting film luminaries and heads of state. This structure, the guest house, is all that remains of the once palatial estate. Tours of the house are led by knowledgeable docents who share stories about Davies’ life at the house.
Planning an Event at the Beach House
Carefully restored, the North House is set within gardens and terraces that create a series of outdoor rooms. A sculptural installation in front of the house by artist Roy McMakin relates to feelings of tradition and domesticity. A waterfall masks the highway sound in this space between the guest house and the Event House. The guest house accommodates community uses and didactic exhibits about the site's history. Beach activities are supported by a small building that supplies umbrellas, chairs, boogie boards and other beach paraphernalia. Beach volleyball courts are available for public use as well.
Transforming a Private Beach Manor into a Public Paradise
Yes, you can go to this beach and spend little to no time on the sand. You can purchase passes on the day of your visit on a first-come-first-served basis starting an hour before the pool opens. Guest services will start a waitlist if passes sell out. The pool at the Annenberg Community Beach House is open to the public and accessible with a pool pass.
This grant money allowed the city to build the new public Beach House. A team of architects and builders rehabilitated the Marion Davies Guest House and the marble swimming pool. They also constructed new, modern facilities—including changing rooms and family-friendly amenities like the splash pad, playground, and boardwalk, which is a great feature for the stroller-pushing crowd. When the beach club suffered damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the City of Santa Monica sought to repurpose the property as a public beach facility, but officials had trouble securing funding. In stepped the Annenberg Foundation chairman/president/CEO Wallis Annenberg, who supported the transformation of the property into a sustainable, accessible, public recreational center with a beachside pool. The facility offers classes, community events, and group activities including volleyball, yoga, and paddle-boarding, and it hosts countless conferences, weddings, parties, and social events throughout the year.
Annenberg Beach House Set for Reopening - SM Mirror - Santa Monica Mirror
Annenberg Beach House Set for Reopening - SM Mirror.
Posted: Tue, 08 Jun 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Beach House grounds are open daily, including the playground, splash pad, beach area, courtyard, view deck, and volleyball courts. You can also take a sunset swim (adults only) on select evenings during the summer. The historic pool and deck area, with restored tile mosaics and stone paving, is within a landscaped enclosure below the beach level. Facing the pool is a freestanding white colonnade that defines the location and scale of the mansion's façade. The footprint of the huge structure is delineated on the parking lot behind the Pool House. Behind the colonnade, a series of 14 concrete pillars, each 30 feet high,[2] is the new Pool House with changing rooms, restrooms and built-in cabana areas lined with wood stained in colors taken from the pool tile.
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A neighbor and friend’s studio wasn’t too far from her, Thomas Ince’s, Inceville. Admission to the Annenberg Community Beach House is free. $10 for adults, $4 for youth (ages 1-17), and $5 for seniors (60+). On Mondays, excluding holidays, families can visit for half-price. The swimming pool is open seasonally; however, throughout the year, there are Pop Up Pool Days when the pool is open.
Annenberg Community Beach House415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90402
The beach house was sold to a hotelier, and once they couldn’t turn a profit, it was donated to the city to cut their losses. This was when the Annenberg Community Beach House was born. Marion’s beach house was famous for its costume parties. Sometimes, with little notice, Hearst’s people would call costume departments from area studios, like MGM, and a few hours later, truckloads of period or themed costumes would arrive to outfit famous guests. These included a long list of Old Hollywood who’s who, like, Marlene Dietrich and Charlie Chaplin. William Randolph Hearst discovered Marion Davies when she was a Ziegfeld Follies girl in New York.
The roles she took were period pieces that were more in line with his tastes. Hearst Castle and the beach house might as well have been the film sets with their opulent Renaissance interiors. She wanted to be a comedian instead of the lady of the manor; in her off times, she was notoriously funny. The property was sold to the State of California in 1959, continuing to operate as the ever-popular Sand & Sea Club under a concession agreement.
Parking rates vary depending on the month, but are generally $3/hour and either $8 or $12 per day. A variety of special events are held throughout the year including classes (such as yoga, youth and adult volleyball, and swimming), lectures, and more. Be sure to check the website for upcoming events, dates, and fees where applicable. It’s one of the best things about Summer in Los Angeles, and since Summer is right around the corner, it’s time to plan those family trips to the beach. You’ll find everything you need to know right here, from parking to dining to special activities, in our Guide to the Annenberg Community Beach House.
From the beach we are directly east of County Lifeguard Tower 4, north of the Santa Monica Pier and south of Will Rogers State Beach. If you do, I share interesting stories on substack–as well as new and updated posts. Research for this post came from a tour of San Simeon, the book Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara, and of course, the on-site museum at the Annenberg Beach House. If Los Angeles’ past interests you, please check out my Hollywood time travel post about The Egyptian and Yamashiro. These are my Annenberg Community Beach House tips for those who do not like beaches.
The Davies estate featured a mansion of 100-plus rooms and an ornate marble swimming pool. As with many Hearst projects, the vision of architect Julia Morgan provided a cohesive grace to the rambling estate. Once a hot spot for Old Hollywood, the Annenberg Community Beach House is now a favorite destination for many SoCal locals. The five-acre oceanfront estate sits next to Santa Monica State Beach and offers guests a historic swimming pool, a splash pad and play area for kids, an art gallery, and a boardwalk leading down to the water. In 1947, Joseph Drown purchased the property from Davies and converted into Oceanhouse, "America's Most Beautiful Hotel," along with the Sand & Sea Club, a limited-membership beach club.
The mansion's original pool was rehabilitated by the Annenberg Foundation and opened to the public on a fee-for-entry basis in 2009. One of the mansion's original guest houses also still exists and is used for events. The Annenberg Community Beach House property has served as a vibrant cultural and artistic hub in Santa Monica for nearly a century.
Members of the public should not come to the Beach House if experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms or under a quarantine or isolation order. Public spaces will provide instructions for safe distancing, but the public’s support in being mindful of COVID-19 best practices, including frequently washing hands and using hand sanitizer, is appreciated. Originally developed in the 1930’s by William Randolph Hearst for actress Marion Davies, the property was the site of an elegant 110-room mansion designed by architect Julia Morgan. The estate hosted a wide range of stars, including Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Gloria Swanson.
For the next 30 years, the site was a popular private beach facility called the Sand & Sea Club, a place Wallis Annenberg remembers visiting in her youth. When Marion lived at the beach house, the Pacific Ocean was a few steps away from the pool. In the years after the house was sold, the city of Santa Monica slowly extended the breakaway and filled in a few hundred yards of the ocean, creating the beach you see today. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that Marion was Hearst’s mistress. She was part of Hearst’s public life and was photographed with him often. When Hearst died in 1951, his family disowned Marion, leaving her alone to live out the rest of her life in Los Angeles.
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