Seal Beach is a quaint seaside community on the northern most border of Orange County. Old Town Seal Beach features shady, tree-lined Main Street, a beautiful beach and the 2nd longest pier in California. Visitors can stroll along several city blocks of Main Street beginning at the pier and enjoy restaurants, gift shops, foreign films, surf, kite and bicycle shops, a tea room and much more.
Seal Beach History
The beautiful seaside community of Seal Beach has been inhabited for over 2,000 years. First occupied by the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians, these gathering tribes worked the land to harvest crustaceans and ground acorns for flour. By the mid 1800s, Spanish and later Mexicans established sprawling “ranchos” which came to be known as the Rancho Los Alamitos. German immigrants bought a section of land along the coast in order to facilitate their rapidly expanding sea trade – Anaheim Landing & Bay. At the turn of the 20th century, the Hellman and Bixby families purchased Rancho Los Alamitos to establish large ranches. By 1904 the Pacific Electric Railway began running Red Cars throughout the newly formed Orange County. The founder of Bay City, Philip A. Stanton received permission to incorporate Bay City in 1915. However, in an effort to prevent confusion with San Francisco, which was also named Bay City, our town was incorporated as Seal Beach.
Stanton was an entrepreneurial sort and wanted to increase the visitors to Seal Beach, so he established the Joy Zone – an attraction for the whole family. The rollercoaster (all wood construction) from the San Francisco Exposition was shipped to Seal Beach. Two pavilions were built and the foot of the shipping pier and a fun park was developed all by 1916. Red Cars fueled a thriving community, bringing in more than 20,000 visitors a week. By the Great Depression, the community contracted, including the closure of the Joy Zone, but Seal Beach was established.
Today Seal Beach is home to nearly 25,000 year long residents – with close to 9,000 in the retirement community Leisure World. Home to our “Mayberry by the Seal” Main Street, robust shopping and vital community events, Seal Beach welcomes you. May you find a home away from home here in our town.
