The Boat Houses of Encinitas

I saved this image quite some time ago… simply because it made me smile. I have enjoyed the pleasure that accompanies imagined scenarios attached to it each time I see it. I have envisioned all sorts of commentary and conversation by an endless supply of conjured characters encountering this far-out-of-the-ordinary pair of structures. The “Boat houses of Encinitas” have entertained me a great deal… but I finally had to find out the story behind their existence. And I share that story with you now.

It seems that there was a most frugal and creative individual incorporated in the person of one Mister Miles Minor Kellogg, of Encinitas, California. In the period encompassing the 1920’s and 1930’s Mister Kellogg was energetically involved in what is, in this twenty first century, popularly known as recycling. He had an acute eye for bargain-priced, pre-used materials that his skills as a versatile builder and enterprising businessman could transform into some new creation to satisfy an envisioned need. This was demonstrated when his hotel building became infested with bats. Mister Kellogg solved that problem by removing the top floor of the building. Then, with a supply of perfectly usable lumber liberated from the hotel, he set about constructing a silent movie theatre next door to that same hotel.

So it was not surprising that our Mister Kellogg saw the demolition of the Moonlight Beach Bathhouse in 1925, as the source of a fresh supply of right-priced building materials. But timbers used in the construction of the low-ceilinged bathhouse were not suited for use in a traditional building with requirements for higher ceilings. Mister Kellogg’s lingering interest in the sea coupled with his recollection the time spent working on low-ceilinged ships on Lake Michigan gave birth to inspiration. There you go then! The obvious destiny for the bathhouse lumber was a resurrection as a boat… or boats. Hence his creation (with the after-school assistance of his young son, Miles Justin Kellogg) of the SS Moonlight, and the SS Encinitas… or what we now know fondly as “The Boat Houses of Encinitas.” Both were “launched” with their sterns to, and a block away from, the sea in 1928 and are, to this day, the most photographed scene in the Encinitas area.

A lovely (and fun) example of what can be done with the materials that Life gives us.


IMAGE through the gracious courtesy of Jon Sullivan, PDPhoto.org