'Coney Island of the West' at Coyote Point was sensational -- and doomed

What began as one of the Peninsula's most anticipated promises, though, ended as one of its colossal boondoggles.

The Tri-City Chamber of Commerce -- serving San Mateo, Burlingame, and Hillsborough -- wanted Pacific City to turn the mid-Peninsula area into a tourist resort to rival anything Southern California had to offer. Under the leadership of Fred Beer, chair of the Chamber, and David J. Stollery of the Howard Estate Company, the amusement would be situated on the northwest shore of Coyote Point, on ninety acres of land, stretching 250 acres into the San Francisco Bay.

Investors from San Mateo and San Francisco counties spared no expense in developing what was touted as the "Coney Island of the West." Millions of dollars poured into the coffers for the construction and enhancement of the amusement park.

The Howard estate sold the land for $100,000. Trucks hauled two thousands tons of white sand from Santa Cruz and Monterey counties to create Pacific City's pearly white beaches. Builders constructed a 3,200-foot wooden boardwalk, stretching from east to west along the newly sparkling sand.

A 498-foot "pleasure pier" reached out into the bay from the midpoint of the boardwalk, while a fabulous fifty-foot entry archway stood along Bayshore Highway at the foot of Howard Avenue. The archway beckoned sightseers to visit the park by the three available modes of transportation: car, boat, or electric rail.

Once inside the archway, the visitor faced a multitude of attractions and diversions from which to choose. A "scenic railway" -- actually a monster roller coaster called The Comet -- towered over the western end of the boardwalk. Promoters called The Comet the tallest roller coaster in the world, and the second-largest in the United States.

A 215-foot naval vessel, docked at the end of the pleasure pier, had been converted into a 750-seat, two-tiered restaurant called The Ocean Wave. Couples waltzed and two-stepped across the maple wood floor of a $60,000 domed dance pavilion, accompanied by Herman Heller's band, under the instructions of dance director C.H. McFadden.

Hot dogs, soft drinks, a ferris wheel, baseball games, concession booths, and amusement rides combined to promise a day of thrills in the sun. In response to the promise, more than one million visitors passed under the archway during the inaugural year of Pacific City.

As a herald to the excitement, an article appeared on July 1, 1922, in the San Francisco Chronicle, which proclaimed that, "with excellent transportation facilities, and a location in a fog-free region, the new enterprise seemed assured of success."

Unfortunately, Mother Nature and Burlingame development conspired against the amusement park.

The first evil omen appeared on July 4, 1922, when more than 100,000 visitors came to Pacific City for the Fourth of July celebrations. By evening, the icy summer wind, which even today torments Coyote Point, swept across the Pacific City boardwalk.

The gale shrouded the revelers in a blanket of wet fog, sending the shivering crowd fleeing from the park. The fog continued to roll nearly every night of the season, and on through 1923.

The bad news continued. Beginning in 1923, some of the bathers began to detect an putrid aroma arising from the Bay waters at Pacific City. Burlingame, developing at a phenomenal rate, apparently had made inadequate provision for the treatment of its waste, and raw sewage from its growing population washed into the Bay just north of Pacific City.

Health officials closed the beach, sounding the death knell for "Coney Island of the West."

Pacific City closed after the summer of 1923, the property sold back to the Howard Family for $188,000 in 1925. The wooden remnants of The Comet finally came down in 1933.

The dance pavilion was converted into a roller rink, until it too closed in 1946. The pleasure pier continued to reach into the Bay until the 1950s.

Today, nothing of Pacific City remains along the public northwest shore of Coyote Point. Instead, a commemorative marker stands just east of the snack bar, reminding the viewer of perhaps the Peninsula's most exciting and spectacular failure.

However, one prominent artifact from the Pacific City era still endures, mounted some two miles to the northwest of Coyote Point. A huge metal archway once spanned the corner of Howard Avenue and El Camino Real, reading "To Pacific City" in electric letters.

After the park closed, the Broadway Development Association purchased the sign. In April of 1927, the association installed the sign at the corner of Broadway and California, with the new words "Broadway-Burlingame" in porcelain. In 1987, the city launched a "Save the Arch" campaign, restoring the arch at a cost of $50,000.

Today, when pedestrians gaze at the famous Broadway-Burlingame arch, they can be reminded of the brief -- but sensational -- history of Pacific City.<