When we meet on a video call for this interview, Santa Monica Pier’s executive director and historian James Harris is in his office, a former apartment in the historic merry-go-round building ...

the Santa Monica Pier is the beach's most recognizable landmark. Not only will you see it in countless photos of the city, but you'll also catch a glimpse of it in several films, including ...

Excerpted from "Santa Monica Pier: America’s Last Great Pleasure Pier" by James Harris (Angel City Press, 2024) For more than two decades, James Harris has been the executive director of the ...

The Santa Monica Pier was built to run sewage into the ocean in 1909. The amusement park concept developed in 1916 during the heyday of pleasure piers, which populated coastal towns nationwide.