OB Historical Society

05/30/2026

Before surf videos fit in your pocket, they filled movie theaters. These early 1960s surf film posters advertised one-night screenings that gave local surfers a front-row seat to legendary waves from Hawaii, California, and Mexico. A little surf history from a time when catching the latest footage required buying a ticket and finding a seat before the show sold out.

05/12/2026

For generations, the Ocean Beach Kite Festival brought children and families together to build kites and fill the sky over the beach with color. 🪁

These incredible photos from a 1954 LIFE Magazine photo essay capture the Ocean Beach Kite Festival in only its 6th year, already gaining national attention. Back then, children proudly carried their handmade kites right down the middle of Newport Avenue in the Kite Parade from Ocean Beach Elementary to the beach. Some of you may even remember proudly carrying your kite while walking in the parade yourself.

Since the very beginning, the Ocean Beach Kite Festival has been organized by the Ocean Beach Kiwanis Club and today co-organized with the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club. For many years the festival was led by Marion Miller, lovingly known as the “Ocean Beach Kite Lady,” who famously claimed she had an arrangement with the Man Upstairs because it never rained on Kite Fest while she was in charge.

This year the community will also greatly miss longtime organizer Jim Nickel, who attended the very first Kite Festival at just 5 years old and helped carry on this beloved Ocean Beach tradition.

The OB Kite Festival remains one of our community’s most treasured traditions. It is the oldest kite festival for children and the second oldest continuously celebrated kite festival of any kind in the United States.

Hope to see you at the next Ocean Beach Kite Festival on Saturday, May 16th at Robb Field from 10:00am to 3:00pm and help keep this beautiful OB tradition flying high. 🪁

04/27/2026

Ocean Beach before the flip-flops and coffee shops

Swipe through to see OB between 1905 and 1924, when dunes ruled the landscape and roads were just sand.

04/11/2026

July 2, 1966. Opening Day of the Ocean Beach Fishing Pier 🎣
OB showed up in full force, lining the pier, packing the sand, and turning it into a full-on community moment. Same salty air, same love for this little beach town… just a few more parking spots back then 😉

Photo courtesy of the Digital Archives of the San Diego City Clerk’s Office.

03/26/2026

From the Archives of the Ocean Beach Historical Society

Take a little trip back to the early 1960s, when surf films weren’t just movies…they were events. One night only, packed theaters, live narration, and yes, sometimes even a free surfboard if you got lucky!

03/19/2026

In 1909 D.C. Collier inaugurated the Point Loma Railroad, the first regularly scheduled public conveyance to bring people to Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

03/12/2026

The Newport Hotel, shown here in 1929, was originally built in 1909 shortly after the Point Loma Railroad arrived in OB. The building was first called The Pearl before being renamed The Newport Hotel in 1914.

Today, the historic building is home to Samesun Ocean Beach Hostel (formerly the Ocean Beach International Hostel).

📸 1929 photo donated to the OB Historical Society by Vince Adame, winner of Best Vintage Shot at OB Exposed in 2017.

03/05/2026

The foot of Santa Monica Avenue was not the first home of Ocean Beach’s beloved Merry-Go-Round. Owner and operator Ross Davis brought the carousel from San Bernardino to Ocean Beach in 1916, arriving after the Wonderland attraction had likely already disappeared.

Originally called the Hippodrome, the Merry-Go-Round quickly became one of OB’s favorite attractions and remained so for more than a decade. It was a classic menagerie carousel, featuring an imaginative mix of animals including lions, tigers, frogs, giraffes, geese, and even a dragon!

In 1928, the carousel itself relocated to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, continuing to delight riders there for about two decades. In 1948, it was moved once again, this time to Tilden Park in Berkeley, where it still operates today. More than a century after it first began spinning, the former Ocean Beach carousel remains one of the oldest operating carousels in the country.

Meanwhile, the distinctive circus-tent-like Merry-Go-Round Building remained at the foot of Santa Monica Avenue for nearly forty more years. Over time, the structure took on many lives, serving as a gathering place for the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club, youth groups, and several churches. Later, portions of the building housed a furniture store, beach gear rentals, and the much-remembered Beach Hut snack bar.

By the time the old Ocean Beach Lifeguard Station moved in next door, the carousel itself was long gone. Although historic photos of the building show “Police Station” signage, this referred to its role as both a police substation and the lifeguard station. In the early days, Ocean Beach lifeguards were part of the Police Department before eventually becoming part of Fire & Rescue, and the shared building reflected that history.

The building was ultimately cleared in the late 1960s, making way for the south OB parking lot.

One small piece of history still resides in OB. A Methodist Church sign that once adorned the building is now preserved in the collection of Pat James.

Today, while the building and its seaside carousel days are long gone from Ocean Beach, the ride itself continues to spin at Tilden Park in Berkeley, a small but enduring piece of OB history still going around.

03/01/2026

Where were you in ’72? A quick trip up and down Narragansett Avenue in Ocean Beach California in the early 1970s, courtesy of the digital archives of the San Diego City Clerk’s Office. People want to quibble about the dates of these street photologs, but the project happened over several years and the City Clerk’s office says “c. 1970,” so we do too. There are many more of these - set to music you might have had on your 8-track at the time - on our YouTube channel. Thanks for watching!

A quick trip up and down Narraganset Avenue in Ocean Beach California in the early 1970s, courtesy of the digital archives of the San Diego City Clerk’s Offi...

02/26/2026

If you are lucky enough to spend a day at the beach in OB, you are lucky enough.
Another dive into Ocean Beach Historical Society’s postcard collection.

Somebody from Grand Forks North Dakota had taken a long journey on a train to spend an afternoon at Ocean Beach in 1912.

A surf scene at OB, our first mermaid, and some happy surf-bathers.

Famous Benbough’s Dance Hall and Bath House at the foot of Newport Avenue on the beach, for many decades a parking lot. And, a very high tide a century ago.