Lurline Pier

Cliff House Project
A Program of Western Neighborhoods Project

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Lurline Pier (1894-1967)
(Also referred to as the "Olympic Pier")

The Lurline Pier was located on Ocean Beach between Balboa and Anza streets. It was sometimes called the "Olympic Club Pier" because an intake pipe for pumping saltwater to the old Lurline Baths and Olympic Club pools downtown, hence the two names. The pier lasted until the 1960s and formed the southern boundary of the stretch of beach that surfers still call "Kelly's Cove".

Lurline Pier protected the intake pipe for the downtown Lurline Baths (Larkin and Bush streets, 1894-1936)

"19 Ocean Surf near Cliff House"
Lurline Pier
Reverse: "SUTRO HEIGHTS GALLERY, W. C. BILLINGTON, Photographer" (rev)

(WNPCHP wnp136.01)

close-up

"A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR"

(WNPCHP wnp136.02)

children at play...

sitting on the water filter...

"OLYMPIC SALT WATER COMPANY"
Bancroft Library

"19 Ocean Surf near Cliff House"
Lurline Pier
Reverse: "SUTRO HEIGHTS GALLERY, W. C. BILLINGTON, Photographer" (rev)

"Worden, SF"

Possibly taken from the Lurline Pier
(ebay image - 7/19/2017)

1903c Ocean Beach, Sutro Heights & Cliff House by Billington & Mundy (GOGA 13780.057)
"Pumping Works, Lurline Salt Water Baths"

Post 1907...

Postmarked Feb 23 1917
(reverse)

Image courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke

Glass Negative of Ocean Beach, March 1917
(this close-up only shows part of the image - click for full image)

Lurline Pier, May 1959
Courtesy of Frank Mitchell

Union Oil Company's Natural Color Series of the West (ebay image)

Image courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke

"Way back when I used to fish off of the end of this, they had the wings of that iron gate wrapped in barbed wire to deter trespassers. When you got around that you had to balance on the narrow girders that were coated in uneven creosote. Then there was the occasional wave that would break over the pier. I could see this from my living room window and could spot when the birds were working over schools of Striped Bass." - Dennis O'Rorke (11/25/2022)

close-up of gate