City of Laguna Beach history

1928: Presbyterian Church – It was built in the village.

1929: La Casa Del Camino hotel – Grand Opening was January 26, 1929.

1931: Heisler Building (provincial revival influenced style) was built across the street from Hotel Laguna.

1932: "Lighthouse" – The Mediterranean revival-style sewer treatment plant was built along with the venting tower shaped like a lighthouse on the hillside at the mouth of Laguna Canyon.

1933: St Francis by the Sea Cathedral was built at 430 Park Ave.

1934: Laguna Beach High School was combined with the elementary school for the first year (previously, Laguna Beach high school students attended high school in Tustin.)

The third year of the Pageant was on Ocean Avenue near the museum. “The Last Supper” at Pageant of the Masters was presented for the first time in 1935.

1936: The Pottery Shack was started by brothers Van and Roy Childs in two old log cabins at the corder of Coast Highway and Anita Street.

1939: Treasure Island trailer park expanded from 30 to 200 trailers.

1944: Government – New Council/Manager government was started with non-elected rotating mayor from the council.

The peak Cold War years, 1945–60The Truman Doctrine and containmentPostwar domestic reorganizationThe Red ScareThe Korean WarPeace, growth, and prosperityEisenhower’s second termDomestic issuesWorld affairsAn assessment of the postwar era

1946: Bushard’s Pharmacy – Well known drugstore started.

1948: Surf and Sand Hotel was built.

1950: Hobie Alter started his surfboard business and the Brooks Street Surfing Classic soon followed.

He founded Laguna Beach Little League in 1952.

1953: City Hall – Fittingly, City Hall was built on the site of the first home in the village, the Rogers Family's old ranch house and what had more recently been the Women’s Club, with promises to maintain and preserve the large pepper tree in front of City Hall.

A local unit of the Observer Corps was formed to track aircraft along the coastline and stayed active until about 1958.

1959: Hospital – The South Coast Community Hospital, now Mission Hospital, accepted its first patient.

1962: Laguna Beach College of Art and Design was founded.

1965: The genesis of the Sawdust Art & Craft Festival began as a reaction to the nearby Festival of Arts’ (FOA) recent policy to jury in its artist exhibitors and to jury out the experimental artists.

1967: Sawdust Festival and Laguna Art-A-Fair each held their first shows.

1968: The city of Laguna Beach purchased 1,000 feet of beach frontage from various property owners, an area now known as Main Beach Park, which opened up the village directly to the beach.

1970: Worldwide attention was on the 25,000 people who attended a free open-air rock concert in December—The Christmas Concert —in Laguna Canyon by El Toro Road (“Woodstock West”) that lasted several days.

All structures were removed and an open park was later dedicated in 1974.

1975: Animal Shelter built

1982: The Gays – Robert Gentry was elected as mayor and was the first openly gay public official elected in Southern California.

1986: Laguna Art Museum – Reopened after a two year renovation, increasing its space to 20,000 square feet.

1991: Green Belt – Laguna citizens voted 4:1 to tax themselves to acquire land for the future.

1992: Dog Park – The park in Laguna Beach was the first dog park in Orange County.

1995 Aug 22: The Murphy Smith Bungalow, home of the Laguna Beach Historical Society, opens to the public.

1996-02-07: High School Awards – Laguna Beach High School received its first Distinguished School honor.

1999: The first Plein Air Painting Invitational took place.

Three hundred people attended the first day and 2000 the first month.

2003: Farmers Market started.

2006: The award-winning Nix Nature Center opened and is the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park head-quarters and entryway to the 20,000-acre South Coast Wilderness area.

2011: A sculpture incorporating two metal beams salvaged from World Trade Center debris was installed in Heisler Park. “Semper Memento,” by Jorg Dubin, also references the two other sites inextricably linked to the Twin Towers: the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field where Flight 93 crashed.

Constructed at a cost of $3.5 million, it was finished just in time for the 83-year-old premier art exhibit’s opening in July 2017.