Carl Schroder Pursued the Quest for a Fishing Pier in Ocean Beach for Decades

By Eric Duvall / P0int Loma-OB Monthly (SDUT) / October 16, 2024

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
—– Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea”

On the day before Halloween in 1936, the front page of The Ocean Beach News carried the following headline: “Fishing pier question again to the front.”

Over 100 people had turned out to hear a representative of the Works Progress Administration discuss a plan to build a fishing pier at the foot of Point Loma Avenue as part of work proposed for Sunset Cliffs Park. The proposal called for the city and county of San Diego to come up with only 25 percent of a $211,000 project.  Plenty of free loot from Uncle Sam!

Did the city jump on that potential windfall? No. Did that deter persistent pier proponent Carl Schroder? No again.

Schroder had first come to Ocean Beach “when the old Cliff House [Hotel] was the only building on the beach.” That was not even in the last century. In fact, since the Cliff House had burned to the ground in 1898, Schroder was already considered an OB old-timer when he was interviewed by San Diego Union reporter Forrest Warren in the summer of 1934. The occasion was the Ocean Beach Pioneers Picnic and Barbecue, which you may have read about in this space.

Schroder was excited to talk to other old-timers about “the need for a good fishing pier here … one of the best fishing grounds around San Diego. People from inland places certainly would patronize such a pier … and deep-sea fishing from a fine fishing pier would be one of the best attractions San Diego could offer tourists and citizens.”

Schroder had set his hook on that dream — something he would reel in tenaciously, but very slowly.

The old fishing bridge

Not that Ocean Beach fisherfolk were without alternatives. The fishing had been splendid — sometimes — from the old fishing bridge across the mouth of the San Diego River from the outset. The span, called the Mission Beach Bridge in OB and the Ocean Beach Bridge in Mission Beach, was originally built in 1915 by early Mission Beach developer the Mission Bay Beach Co.

The bridge carried visitors across the river mouth via the little streetcar Bay Shore Railroad. The sturdy little fishing bridge was one of the few San Diego County bridges that did not wash out in the 1916 Hatfield Flood.  It was brand-new after all.

The fishing was fun and frequently rewarding. Folks fished from each end and both sides of the bridge. Three bait and tackle shops were soon doing business on the OB end of the bridge.

In 1924, the San Diego Electric Railway spent $30,000 to enlarge and refurbish the fishing bridge. The new high-speed Beach Line had been built across the mudflats to Ocean Beach, replacing both the Point Loma Railroad and the Bay Shore line. The bridge had been retrofitted to accommodate the larger, heavier steel streetcars and two lanes of automobile traffic.

The extraordinary triple overpass where Barnett Avenue and Pacific Highway interchange today allowed the Beach Line to cross both the Santa Fe tracks and the coast highway.

The bite remained strong at the fishing bridge for 25 more years.

The ‘steel pier’

Meanwhile, Carl Schroder had continued angling for a fishing pier in Ocean Beach. By 1941, he had convinced San Diego Harbormaster Joe Brennan that the pier would be a great attraction for greater San Diego.

WPA funds remained available, if you can believe that, and Brennan, a creative, can-do public official if there ever was one, had a great idea. The last segment of the SDER Beach Line, the No. 16 La Jolla train, had been terminated in fall 1940. Buses had replaced the electric streetcars. The tracks had been pulled up and the elaborate triple overpass had been torn down.

The harbormaster had developed a scheme to repurpose much of that steel.

In April 1941, Brennan announced that a new fishing pier — a project with a budget of $165,000 — would be constructed at the foot of Del Monte Avenue in Ocean Beach.

“Now that the attorney general’s office has ruled the harbor department has jurisdiction over the property, there will be no further delay,” Brennan declared in June of that year.

The pier was to be 2,000 feet long and 20 feet wide (very similar to the dimensions of the current OB Pier).

The pier “will extend well out into the kelp beds to afford the best sports fishing possible,” Brennan said.

At the time, the pier at the foot of Del Monte Avenue was not yet known as the “steel pier.” It was known as the Ocean Beach Fishing Pier. It was spindly looking for sure, due to being largely constructed of steel streetcar rails! True story. Hey, those rails came at a bargain.

The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 halted pier construction. Steel became a precious commodity and labor became non-existent. Only 200 feet of the pier had been completed. The stub of the pier was slippery and swayed a little, but nonetheless it was well-used.

Construction of the steel pier was never continued following World War II. Several efforts to resume it were unsuccessful. The structure gradually became unstable and the steel pier was demolished in 1951.

Fifteen years would go by before another fishing pier would be built in Ocean Beach.

The San Diego Fishing Pier

In summer 1965, 11-year-old Bobby Crounk had a morning paper route in his neighborhood south of Newport Avenue and west of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. He finished his route by about 6:30 a.m. at the foot of Niagara Avenue.

Every morning, he would sit on his bike for 10 or 15 minutes trying to mentally log what had transpired the day before. There was plenty going on at the bottom of Niagara in those days. Bobby was watching the Ocean Beach Pier being built day by day.

“It was really interesting and exciting to me to see all that work being done every day,” he told me. “I knew it was a big deal, but I really didn’t realize at the time how lucky I was to be able to watch the pier take shape like that. Construction went on for about a year, and I think it was a very difficult project, but I really looked forward to stopping every morning to see what was going on.”

Sadly, Bobby Crounk passed away recently. He was a wonderful guy and a great friend.

The San Diego Municipal Fishing Pier, colloquially and forevermore known as the OB Pier, was a remarkable project that had been a group effort.

It should be noted that a couple of previous early-‘60s pier proposals were scuttled due to disapproval by the Navy. One proposal was vetoed due to its proximity to the Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL). But Carl Schroder, thinking his time might be growing short, had secured some able assistance.

Schroder won the support of Peninsula Chamber of Commerce officers Tom Ham and Chuck Bahde. Bahde had significant influence with a friend, Congressman Bob Wilson. City Councilman Ivor DeKirby became a strong ally and helped the group apply a little pier pressure on another very powerful partner, Gov. Pat Brown.

The project, to be built at the foot of Niagara Avenue, was finally approved in 1964. The initial budget was $700,000 for what was projected as a 2,500-foot pier.

The budget was soon expanded and the plan scaled down. In November of ’64, a bid by San Diego general building contractor Teyssier & Teyssier was accepted by the city. Architects Lykos and Goldhammer, working with structural engineers Ferver and Dorland, designed about a 2,000-foot pier in early 1965.

Carl Schroder, Tom Ham and J.R. Smith with the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce raised an additional $30,000, which was matched by the city of San Diego to add 180 feet to the south end of the pier, which is how it ended up so nicely and OBishly asymmetrical.

The opening of the pier on July 2, 1966, was the beginning of a three-day event. A big parade began the festivities with Gov. Brown and Mayor Frank Curran as dignitaries.

The governor cut the ribbon and cast the first line from the new pier. He came up empty and after five minutes handed his rod to another angler.

Also fishing from the pier that first day was the father of the Ocean Beach Pier, 86-year-old Carl Schroder.

Talent shows, a sandcastle contest, a barbecue, a surfing demonstration, music, dancing and other merriment continued over the weekend. The Civic Luncheon at Gregg’s Steak House on Bacon Street featured a performance of the original song “Happiness is Ocean Beach” by vocalist Chester Hanson, who composed the tune with lyrics by Lee McCumber. I am sorry I missed that.

Everyone who has lived locally or even visited Ocean Beach seems to have a pier story. Margaret Bateman told Pier Fishing writer Ken Jones that “as a small child, my friends and I always would go to ‘our’ pier. It was always an adventure to walk or run to the very end. … It seemed so very, very far for us. It was so new and amazing to us. … We loved it!”

Matt Martinez began surfing at the south end of Ocean Beach in 1964 when he was 10. His Little League coach was none other than industrial designer and pier facilitator Chuck Bahde.

“That gave me kind of an insight into the construction of the pier,” Martinez told me. “On the opening day, at age 12, I was standing in line with my fishing pole when they opened the gate to the public for the first time.”

Martinez threw out his line near the restaurant and “I actually caught my first ocean fish! It was a small yellowfin croaker. I was thrilled beyond words. For whatever reason, I slept with that fish under my pillow that night.”

His mom did not feel the croaker was quite that special and the fish soon became fertilizer in the backyard garden.

The next pier

Fifty-eight years later, Martinez is the project manager and principal structural engineer for Moffatt & Nichol, the prime consultant for the city of San Diego’s Pier Renewal Project.

The OB Pier now finds itself at the end of its service life, closed permanently due to storm damage and nearly six decades of wind and waves.

What’s next? A year and a half into the pier renewal process, the fifth public engagement meeting, or workshop, is planned for noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Liberty Station Conference Center, 2600 Laning Road, Point Loma.

“We will be describing the [new pier] design and how we got there,” Martinez said. “It will again be a very interactive meeting so people can have a better understanding of what is proposed.”

For a peek at the design or to catch up on the process, interested folks can visit the city’s Pier Renewal Project website at sandiego.gov/cip/ocean-beach-pier-renewal.

And remember:

The wide world’s finest fishing pier
Lures a host of anglers here.
Sportsmen, if you want some fun,
Here’s the best beneath the sun.
Happiness within your reach,
When you live in Ocean Beach.

— Lyrics excerpted from “Happiness is Ocean Beach” by Lee McCumber

Eric DuVall is president of the Ocean Beach Historical Society. Membership in OBHS, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is $25 annually. Visit obhistory.org.