A Tent City Summer – Part 1

In my recent articles in the Beachcomber, I wrote about early highways, Route 66 and auto camping, but in the days before air conditioning and affordable automobiles, scores of inlanders would escape the stifling heat by spending their summers at the beach. Many would rent cottages by the sea but even more would simply pitch a tent along the sand and enjoy the cool sea breeze and camping lifestyle.

These dream cities of summer were a west coast phenomenon. Along the Atlantic coast these “tent cities” – as they were called – were unknown. Thunderstorms, windy weather and hurricanes made them impossible, but on the Pacific coast people could live under canvas the year round. The novelty of these communities attracted people from all over the United States and Europe to the tent cities of Coronado, Avalon and Long Beach. There were at least 6,000 people tenting it along Southern California beaches in July 1901.

“To see the coast from a balloon it would seem as if the camps of an army were pitched upon our shores,” the Los Angeles Times reported (6/14/1901). Three months was the length of life of these seaside tent cities. By the first of July they would be in full swing; the last of September they would have disappeared seemingly into the sand itself.

Long Beach’s first tent city was actually a mile west of the town on the beach near what was called Ashbury Park, just within the city limits (today it would be part of the Port of Long Beach). For years Long Beach had outlawed tenting closer to town, feeling that it discouraged building cottages, houses and hotels.

In Ashbury Park during the summer of 1901, 50 tents were pitched on the sand, and 50 more were back in the grove of eucalyptus trees. Here the camper would find a butcher, baker, milkman, grocer and vegetable vendor walking through the tent city each day offering their products for sale. Good drinking water was provided to the camper free of charge; refuse was hauled away and the streets cleaned every morning.

A fully furnished tent rented for about $18 ($703 in 2025) per month. Summer sojourners could also bring their own tent and furniture and rent vacant lots for about four dollars ($156) a month. Those from the Riverside area came in specially constructed wagons in which they camped for the whole season. The wagons were as comfortable as any tent and formed a picturesque section of the beach village by themselves.

These summer communities were laid out on regular streets, like any town, and miles of plank sidewalks led from the canvas homes pitched on the beach. Each had their own individual style. In some, an additional room or pantry was made by adding a piano box to the rear; in another an extra room made of cheese cloth was attached. Long fishing poles leaned against the walls of some while gasoline stoves and extra cots could be seen lining the front of others.

It was a free, neighborly life. The stiff proprieties that people held in regular city living could not exist in a place where you saw and heard your neighbor going to bed every night and getting up in the morning.

In 1932, Ella Howard shared memories of 1900 Long Beach with Walter Case’s Did You Know That? readers. She remembered traveling to Long Beach by rail, passing acres and acres of barley fields. It was a crop that would grow without irrigation, so was a favorite commodity for farmers. At the rail station campers with baggage of all shapes and sizes, rolled tents, household utensils, tied up in blankets, handbags, market baskets, all brought by the railroad were dumped in a heap at the station.

Howard, here to give demonstrations in domestic science at the Chautauqua, stayed at the Butler Hotel on Ocean Boulevard. It was so noisy with the campers on the beach, horses and buggies and horse-drawn trucks rattling by on the street, that she had a hard time sleeping. Mosquitoes were the biggest problem, especially when the wind blew over the salt marshes, bringing the troublesome insects closer to town.

The flying pests were so bad that horses wore netting over their ears and faces, workmen donned broad straw hats covered with netting drawn in and tied at the neck. Large quantities of crude oil poured on the marshes helped matters, but then there was the sand. Sand was everywhere.

Despite the mosquitoes and sand, six thousand or more people came for the two-week long Chautauqua which opened after the Fourth of July. Many stayed for the four-week Methodist camp meeting and the 10-day Christian Church convention.

The Chautauqua was certainly the biggest draw. It was an open-air university whose purpose was to educate those who could not attend school. It was named after Chautauqua Lake in Western New York, where the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle originated in 1874. Over 150,000 students were enrolled in the four-year self-study course, with nearly 5000 members in California.

It was a school at home, designed for busy people who never enjoyed a college education; it was open to anyone looking for self-improvement. During their summer sessions, the various circles, which spanned the globe, presented lectures and diplomas to graduates.

It was an unforgettable time, Ella Howard remembered − days of sunshine, fun and meeting up with friends – friends who had taken correspondence courses, passed their examinations, and were awarded diplomas in Long Beach, which became known as “Chautauqua City by the Sea.”

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