Gathering at the Pacific House, 1870.

This morning I stopped by the Heritage Museum and enjoyed a walk around their April 9- July 9 exhibit “The Grand Hotels of the North Beach Peninsula.”  I felt like I was visiting old friends — so many familiar photographs of the old hotels of Long Beach and, I’m happy to report, of the Pacific House in Oysterville and the Taylor Hotel in Ocean Park, as well.  The information, too, was well-known — from Lucile McDonald’s Coast Country as well as from many Sou’wester magazine articles and from the extensive files of CPHM.

Bringing it all to life were mannequins in period costumes — so evocative of more genteel and civil times! — and the fabulous carriage, an 1890s “Roof Seat Break” — on loan from the Northwest Carriage Museum in Raymond. If you’ve ever dreamed of going back in time for a weekend get-away, this may be the closest you’ll ever come to it!

Crew of the Alice at the Taylor Hotel, 1909

I have to say, though, that when I read Patrick Webb’s article about the exhibit in the Observer a few weeks ago, I was just a wee bit put off by his statement: “North Beach” was the name that entrepreneurs used in brochures and on maps. But eventually — a story for another day — “Long Beach” won.) Well, maybe more than “a wee bit put off.”   I was sure that the staff at CPHM made no such claim (and I was right!) but I was disgusted with that lack of knowledge about our Peninsula by one of our finest local feature writers.  I can’t imagine how he missed this very basic information about a place he claims to love.

I do hope my readers know better.  But, just in case you might need a bit of review, here is an excerpt from one of my 2013 blogs, “The Long and the North of It:”
If there’s one thing I’ve always hung my Historical Hat on, it’s the official versus the popular name of this Peninsula.  In almost everything I write, I find a way to point out that according to the United States Board on Geographic Names (under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior), our little finger of land is still legally and officially the North Beach Peninsula.  It is only due to a vigorous public relations campaign mounted by the city of Long Beach in the early twentieth century that we are now shown on local and regional maps as “Long” rather than “North.”

Portland Hotel, Long Beach c.1900

…In the  Introduction to Legendary Locals, for instance I point out in the Introduction: The tiny finger of land in the southwestern-most corner of Washington State is popularly known as the Long Beach Peninsula.  Officially, however, it is still the ‘North Beach Peninsula,’ so-named because it stretches northward from the mouth of the Columbia as opposed to the Oregon beaches to the south.   By whatever name, it is an area that gives rise to rugged individualists, independent thinkers, creative dreamers, and innovative problem-solvers.

So, if you happen to see Mr. Webb (or anyone else who may be confused about the official (and legal) name of this sandspit we cherish, please recommend this post!  You’ll be furthering the cause of History, to say nothing of Accuracy in Reporting!