Post #335907 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Mon, Oct 1, 2007 7:54 PM

Over the last year or so, the building housing Dive-N-Surf's corporate offices on 610 N. Catalina in Redondo Beach has been puzzling me. With my "tiki-archeology" eyes opened in the last few years, I recognize it as a classic example of Polynesian-pop architecture of the 60s. But what occupied it back then? It sits right on a wedge of property where Catalina and Broadway meet in South Redondo. The Dive-N-Surf store itself is accross the parking lot and has a Broadway address. Doctor Z and I have vague memories of this building being vacant in the 1970s, but we may be wrong.

Was it a restaurant? A bar? A south-seas or nautical decor shop? Or was it built in Polynesian style for style's sake alone, like almost all of the architecture on the Redondo Beach pier, just a mile down the road? The El Torito restaurant on the pier has similar architecture, even though it was always a Mexican restaurant.

Anyone have any insights on the history of this building? None of my old postcards or matchbooks are any help.