Taking a break from sharing knowledge about the historical significance of the Bay Street beach and why it is relevant to contemporary times as a docent for the Santa Monica Conservancy at Coastal Cleanup Day 2019 (September 21) in Santa Monica California, Alison Rose Jefferson shows off an advertisement for her new book, Living the California Dream… Photograph by Rodolfo Alvarez.

The Bay Street Beach Historic District was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in June by the National Park Service. This site, has sometimes been called “the Inkwell”. I partnered with Michael Blum of the Sea of Clouds organization to make this NRHP listing become a reality. Soon there will be new informational signage and other interpretational installations about the history of the site. You can learn more about the details of the National Register of Historic Places listing effort here.

Poster board on display at Coastal Cleanup Day 2019 at the Bay Street beach to inform people about the National Register listing of the Bay Street Historic District to celebrate African American beach culture heritage.

My newly made friend, Rodolfo Alvarez, at Coastal Cleanup Day 2019 at the Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica on Saturday, September 21 made this nice photograph of me with an ad for my book, Living the California Dream, African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era (University of Nebraska Press, January 2020). The Bay Street Beach has been a Coastal Cleanup Day site since 2012 and the Santa Monica Conservancy as one of the lead organization’s supporting the day’s activities. At this year’s event we highlighted the new NRHP listing and the knowledge my new book offers about this space as we celebrated and educated people about the site’s African American beach culture heritage while encouraging them to be better stewards of the natural environment and heritage landscape. 

Learn more information here about the oceanfront improvements at the Bay Street Beach Historic District and at other places in Santa Monica to recognized and commemorate the African American experience and contributions to Santa Monica and the Los Angeles, California and the United States. Review the final version of the Bay Street Beach Historic District National Register form here.

Bay Street Beach Historic District map. Prepared by Sea of Clouds for the National Register of Historic Places listing nomination package.