San Pedro Walking Paced by Tide, Not the Freeway

Driving into San Pedro from the Harbor Freeway and down Gaffey Street can be depressing. Lined with crass signs and a smattering of unsightly stores and gas stations, the street is a broad, raw commercial strip that, unfortunately, could be anywhere in the Los Angeles area.

Only when you turn left on 6th Street and drive east a few blocks does a sense of this stalwart port community begin to reveal itself. The street is narrower, tree-lined and friendlier, edged with dated, well-scaled if undistinguished commercial buildings; off in the distance is the harbor and its tiara of cranes, and in the air is that refreshing ocean breeze.

Wandering through the unadorned downtown, along the bluffs amid ethnic enclaves and an eclectic mix of mostly modest houses, past the waterfront and its sprawling docks, the kitschy-commercial Ports O’Call complex, a modish marina and a swath of parks and beaches, all the time stopping here and there, one can appreciate the attractive down-home quality of the community.

Now is a fitting time to explore San Pedro, because it is celebrating its centennial this year. Historians may point out, however, that in 1909, 21 years after incorporating as an independent municipality (on March 1, 1888), San Pedro, needing a steady water supply, agreed to be annexed by Los Angeles. Nevertheless, it still remains apart in spirit, paced not by the throb of the freeways but seemingly by the more gentle ebb and flow of the ocean tide.

As part of the centennial celebration, the Los Angeles Conservancy in association with the San Pedro Bay Historical Society and San Pedro Revitalization Corp. is sponsoring a full day of activities next Saturday. There will be a guided walking tour of downtown, followed by the option of attending a screening of a film classic in the Warner Grand Theater at 478 West 6th St., and afterward a reception across the street at No. 479 in the tastefully restored Arcade Building.

The tour is $5, the screening $10 and the reception $20. For reservations or more information, call the Conservancy at (213) 623-2489.

Of course, San Pedro is there for anyone to explore at any time and at one’s own pace. It just takes a little more curiosity and effort. From the street, the Arcade Building certainly does not look too different from its dated neighbors, but inside, down an inviting corridor of black-and-white tiles is a 30-foot-high atrium with a carved stone fountain and edged by a second-story balcony.

It’s the interior that also most distinguishes the Warner Grand Theater. Designed by one of the early masters of the movie palaces, B. Marcus Priteca, the Grand is encrusted in an exuberant Art Deco style. “But the real significance of the theater is that it is still here, with a 1,576-seat orchestra and balcony, showing first-run films and classics, and surviving, sort of,” commented Ray Howell, the Grand’s curator, operator and guardian.

Another architect of note represented in San Pedro is Julia Morgan. Her design of the YWCA Building at 437 West 9th is a low-scaled, informal board-and-batten style of Northern California, and apparently it has been amended a few times since it was built in 1918. It seems quite appropriate to San Pedro.

The no-nonsense Moderne-styled Post Office at Beacon Street between 8th and 9th streets, built in 1935, is of note as a typical period piece. But here also, the interior is more engaging. Decorating a first-floor wall is a 40-foot Fletcher Martin mural that’s done very much in the spirit of the time and place.

Other architectural landmarks in the area include the San Pedro Municipal Building at 7th Street and Harbor Boulevard, a seven-story pile of brick and classically detailed stone, built in 1929 to last.

At the foot of 6th Street is the former Ferry Building, a sleek Streamline Moderne-styled structure topped by a broad tower; its rounded corners hint of the ships in the water beyond. The building now houses the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, which is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Free, but a contribution is appreciated.

A few miles out on Stephen White Drive is the popular Cabrillo Marine Museum, an example of how good programming and exhibits can overcome an indulgent design by architect Frank Gehry. Entrance to the museum, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, is free but there is a $4 fee for parking. A new exhibit is scheduled to open next weekend.

San Pedro has other buildings of note, including a range of housing, a marvelous lighthouse at Point Fermin at the end of Gaffey Street and a few excellent, informal ethnic and fish restaurants; certainly enough reason for a pleasant day’s outing.