A history of Long Beach,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Long Beach from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Long Beach began when Henry Harrison Tinker bought a land claim from Charles E. Reed in 1880. He platted the town and called it "Tinkerville." Long Beach was officially incorporated on January 18, 1922. From 1889 to 1930, a narrow-gauge railroad called the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company ran up the whole peninsula.
The Long Beach depot was built between First and Second Streets on the east side of the track, which ran north along "B" Street. Two hotels were constructed near the depot by Tinker and later the Hanniman family; the latter was destroyed in a fire on December 6, 1914. The Driftwood Hotel was another common Long Beach destination.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Long Beach’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBreakers Hotel, Long Beach, WA ab…, c. 1903: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Long Beach
See all 1 →Long Beach, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Long Beach is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Long Beach has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Shelburne Hotel in Long Beach, 1.9 miles away.
Long Beach and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Wagon on North Beach, Pacific County, Washington (c. 1892) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.