Building Safety Improves After 1913 Tragedy

On May 24, 1913, 38 people died and 200 were injured in one of California’s earliest disasters. It occurred when the Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach collapsed during the first Empire Day celebration in the state.

It had been a British national holiday, celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday, the name changed to “Empire Day” following her death in 1901. The day was memorable, but not as originally planned.

Following a parade, as hundreds marched onto the pier to the auditorium, tragedy struck. A rotten 4 x 14-foot girder broke, tumbling people to the sand and water below. Ironically, a new building code had just passed on May 20, 1913 – Long Beach’s 1913 building code.

The new code was a step forward, with regulations for owners to repair or replace structures deemed unsafe. New construction rules were also put in place. It had been a hard fight getting consent. Realtors and contractors fought it, but once adopted bribes to building inspectors and other city officials got many plans not up to code approved.

When Vern Hedden took over as city building inspector in 1921, he could not even find a copy of the 1913 building code. On Nov. 27, 1923, he told the Press-Telegram, “Imagine enforcing a building code of which there were no printed copies.” It had been out of print since 1918. (If interested, a copy can be found in the May 30, 1913 Daily Telegram).

For two years, he and his department worked on a new code. The 225-page Long Beach document, divided into 14 sections, was adopted in Long Beach on Nov. 27, 1923. It was considered complete in every detail, embodying the best standards enforced in leading American cities.

But all were not happy with the new rules and regulations, which called for changes, including demolition of hazardous, older buildings, if the structures were not upgraded to newer standards.

Concessionaires on Long Beach’s Pike Amusement area, were sure the added costs and restrictions would put them out of business. Perhaps it was these disagreements that caused Hedden to resign in February 1924. He cited insufficient pay for all the work he performed and went back to private practice.  In 1925, he was hired to rebuild Santa Barbara following the city’s June 29, 1925, 6.5 magnitude, earthquake.

“Santa Barbara is not suffering from an earthquake, but from the faulty building practices which were in vogue there, with no municipal inspection or rules of any kind,” Hedden said in an interview in the Aug. 8, 1925 edition of the Press-Telegram. He added anything built under the existing Long Beach building code would stand as much of a temblor as the one that hit Santa Barbara.  “Those buildings in Long Beach which have been erected under the provisions of the existing 1923 code would escape such an earthquake with not more than 10 percent damage.”

Hedden was well respected both as an architect and builder. While working on the Long Beach building code, Hedden was elected vice president of the California Building Inspector’s Association. The aim of the organization was to prepare a uniform building code for the entire state. His efforts paid off. The Uniform Building Code (UBC) was approved in October 1927.

On March 10, 1933, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake killed 115-120 people (52 in Long Beach) and created $40 million ($968 million in 2024) in damages. It extended over a larger populated area than Santa Barbara.

Unfortunately, the Long Beach code did not apply to schools. More than 230 schools in the quake affected area were either destroyed or damaged.  However, the earthquake signaled the need for action. Thirty days after the earthquake, the Field Act to govern the planning, design and construction of public-school buildings was passed.

The act mandated that building designs be based on high-level building standards adopted by the state and enforced by independent review and inspection.

Hedden returned to Long Beach and volunteered to inspect quake damaged buildings. His engineering firm, Sibert and Hedden, was instrumental in building and reconstructing many city structures. He later became chairman the Long Beach Planning Commission, continuing to help revise the Uniform Building Code (UBC).

As tragedies happen, such as the Palisades and Eaton fires of January 2025 and the November 2024 Camarillo fire (in which my sister-in-law lost her home), new building ordinances are being planned.

California adopted the UBC in 1927 (with revisions printed every three years), but in 2006 transitioned to its own state building code – the California Building Code (CBC), based on the International Building Code (IBC).

California law requires cities to adopt the CBC. However, local jurisdictions can make changes to the CBC, but these amendments must be adopted by ordinance and justified based on local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions. This is what the City of Long Beach did by updating construction ordinances in the Long Beach Municipal Code.

Effective Jan. 1, 2023, all Long Beach projects must comply with the 2022 Edition of the California Building Code and the Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) to receive approval from the Long Beach Community Development Department. The next update will be the 2025 CBC, which is anticipated to be published in July 2025 with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2026.

I hope the city remembers Vern Hedden. Without his planning and perseverance in helping create building laws, wild fires, earthquakes, floods and other disasters may have been even more tragic. The 78-year-old structural engineer passed away May 4, 1966, in Long Beach. He is buried at Forest Lawn.

Claudine Burnett is a retired research librarian who has written over 10 books on Long Beach history as well as numerous journal articles. For more, visit her website www. claudineburnettbooks.com.