Bay Street Beach Historic District | |
Location | Roughly bounded by Pacific Ocean, Ocean Front Walk from Vicente Ter. to Crescent Bay Park, Bicknell Ave. extending into ocean |
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Coordinates | 34°00′23″N 118°29′31″W / 34.00639°N 118.49194°W |
Area | 53 acre |
NRHP reference No. | 100004116 |
Added to NRHP | June 26, 2019 |
Bay Street Beach Historic District (also known as the Inkwell) is a historic beach in Los Angeles County.[1]
The beach was a place of recreation and leisure for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. The beach was located at Pico Boulevard and two city blocks south of Bicknell Street,[2] near Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church .[3][4] In 1922, the Santa Monica Bay Protective League was organized to attempt to fence the beach to exclude African Americans.[5] In 1927, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People challenged restrictive covenants at Manhattan Beach, south of Santa Monica, which were overturned by the Supreme Court of California .[4]
Alison Rose Jefferson and Michael Blum documented the history of the district. In 2008, Santa Monica officially recognized the district.[3][6]