San Clemente beaches had become such a huge tourist attraction by 1931, that the city council voted to approve the first beach lifeguard service to help prevent any drownings. Just south of the pier was the first lifeguard observation tower which was finished in 1938. This was the legendary Tower 1 on which lifeguards had to climb a ladder over 20 ft. high in order to see the other side of the pier and to assure the safety of the swimmers. Over the years, Tower 1 was replaced many times and was always the busiest tower on the beach.

It wasn’t until the late 1950s that a local police officer, Dick Hazard, would gather a group of local ‘watermen’ to form the first San Clemente Lifeguard Department. Orange County assigned every beach a two-digit call sign and San Clemente became Station 56, which is still used today. 

By 1958, ‘White Box Towers’ were built along the beach. These towers had ramps instead of stairs and the lifeguards were expected to do everything from trash pickup to rescues. Dick Hazard ran his department like the police department with uniforms and equipment inspections and lots of physical training and mock rescues.

By the mid-1960s San Clemente had become a popular surfing beach. There were also fishing boats docking off the end of the pier since Dana Point Harbor didn’t exist until the 1970s. The Gallery Restaurant was at the end of the pier with its huge neon fish sign. The ‘White Box Tower #56’ which is still there today, was built on the pier for better viewing of the entire beach.

In 1967 the city announced that it was going to do a three-phase project including a lifeguard headquarters building, restrooms and a huge three level parking structure at Linda Lane Park. 

The three level parking structure at Linda Lane Park never came about. However, they did build a new Lifeguard Headquarters Building. 

Today, just north of the pier is the current Lifeguard Headquarters Building. Prior to this building there was a garage for equipment. In 1968 the city decided to replace this building with the one that is there today. They hired a local architect named Eric Boucher to design the new headquarters varied offices, a dispatch office, first aid room, locker room, training room and garages. There was much discussion about whether the building should be built in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style. The city fathers decided that the white stucco walls were too susceptible to graffiti and dirt and that the Spanish tile roof would be subject to damage and was more expensive than a rock roof. Eric Boucher suggested the tower, complete with clock, would be the key element so that children playing on the beach would know when it was time to go home.          

The headquarters was built for $75,000. Eric Boucher designed the building to sit directly on the sand and included pilings along the side facing the water. This is why the building has withstood the many storms and sand erosion over the years. In 2019 the City voted to spend $2 million dollars on reinforcing the seawall and remodeling the building. 

During this process, the Coastal Commission required the city to study an alternative for the possible relocation of the building off the sand.

 A New Design?

Early in 2021 the City posted a Request for Proposal for a study to look at the future of the Marine Safety Headquarters and its potential replacement. The City selected HMC Architects to prepare the study and after six months of working with the city, HMC came up with two options. The first would be to replace the existing building with a new two-story facility in the same area. The bottom floor would be considered a ‘soft story’ which could allow water to flow underneath the building. Every year there are incidences where large waves wash into the existing building. It is expected that the ocean will be invading our beaches even more in the future. 

The second option is a very creative use of the existing bluff behind the railroad tracks. This design won the 2022 Design Awards for both the AIA San Diego and AIA Orange County. 

This design concept would place the new building within the hillside. The underground occupiable space would have plenty of natural light and passive ventilation and would be extremely energy efficient. The building would be 87 percent more energy efficient than the average building. The roof of the new facility would become a public plaza directly accessed from the existing parking lot off of Avenida Victoria. Functions such as loading, maintenance and storage, which can be unsightly, would be hidden below grade. The 1968 building would be removed and the public would benefit from all the additional space that is currently the footprint of the building.