Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox?

Urban exploration outside of the Ozarks area
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crazydrummerdude
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Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox?

Post by crazydrummerdude »

I was reading a book about aircraft manufacturing in SoCal during WWII and it mentioned that the Breakers Building in Long Beach had two AA pillboxes/gun mounts, with one still remaining. Wikipedia says that one remained as of 1991.

Sounds like a good rumor to chase down..
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Re: Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox

Post by crazydrummerdude »

July 13, 1986 LA Times article:
One memento of that time still remains, a gun position on the cupola. It was one of two pillboxes that held machine guns for harbor defense. The guns were removed after the war and one of the pillboxes disappeared, but the other is still there, with its gun-mounting pedestal still intact.
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Re: Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox

Post by crazydrummerdude »

From the Sky Room website:
Fearful of an impending enemy invasion, a concrete machine gun bunker was installed in the red, tile-roofed tower that still remains.
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Re: Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox

Post by crazydrummerdude »

Finally found some pics from inside the tower.

http://www.militarymuseum.org/Breakers.pdf
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Re: Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, CA - anti-aircraft pillbox

Post by crazydrummerdude »

Sounds like it wasn't for anti-aircraft, but for spotting ships coming into the port.. relaying their positions to nearby mortars.

Also looks like there was only ever one pillbox.

http://www.militarymuseum.org/LBFCS.html
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