The Pike - Demise of The Amusement Zone

Demise of The Amusement Zone

In the 1970s, the city of Long Beach began redevelopment of the area, expanding into the Pacific Ocean, eliminating the recreational bathing beach by pouring landfill over it. The city had purchased the RMS Queen Mary in 1967 and permanently docked the ship in Long Beach across the mouth of the Los Angeles River from the shoreline area of the Nu-Pike where a new road circled the parking lot and Londontowne shopping-dining complex serviced by a London Double Deck omnibus to Downtown Long Beach. The Nu-Pike was renamed "Queens Park" when the Queen Mary opened to the public in 1971 as a self-guided maritime museum tour on the upper decks and former engine room, hotel utilizing the former luxury staterooms of the mid-decks and Jacques Cousteau's The Living Sea. Focus and attention was further diverted from Queens Park with Shoreline Village and Rainbow Harbor marina, serviced by Shoreline Drive, built to connect to the Long Beach Freeway on even more ocean landfill south of the Pike, as locals continued to call it. Planning for Shoreline Drive and a cloverleaf connection to the new Magnolia Bridge was the excuse to demolish the Cyclone Racer in 1968. Since 1975, the area has been a major portion of the Grand Prix of Long Beach route.

In 1979 the Pike amusement zone was officially closed and demolished. By the time the lease with the city ended, The Pike had fallen into disrepair and most of the businesses had already left. The City of Long Beach then removed the remaining structures. Various plans for development of the area took form over the next twenty years. In 1999, the California Coastal Commission approved a plan for the construction of The Pike at Rainbow Harbor commercial and entertainment complex in the downtown shoreline area. The name is only a nod in reference to the original amusement zone, bathing beach and boardwalk — the outdoor shopping mall bears no resemblance whatsoever to its historic predecessor.