Local civic leaders conceived an amusement park at this site to rival those at Coney Island and Atlantic City. Covering 90 acres from Peninsula Avenue to Burlingame Avenue and from the Bay shoreline to Coyote Point, Pacific City began construction in early 1922 and cost nearly one million dollars. The park featured a 3200-foot boardwalk along the sandy beach, a 468 foot pleasure pier, a white-maple dance pavilion described as the largest in the West, a giant ferris wheel, a roller coaster called The Comet said to be the second largest in the USA and fastest in the west, a colorful Merry-Go-Round, and many eating establishments including the elegant Ocean Wave restaurant at the pier’s end. On opening day, July 1, 1922, 27,000 visitors arrived, and attendance rose to a record 100,000 on July 4, 1922. Later, cold winds, foul odors, sewage, and polluted waters discouraged attendance. By the close of 1923, Pacific City had gone dark and its owners were bankrupt. The dance pavilion survived as a roller skating rink until its demolition in 1946, and the last remaining part of Pacific City, the Pleasure Pier, was removed in the mid 1950s.
