Bali Hai Apartments, Stockton, CA (apartments)

Name:Bali Hai Apartments
Type:apartments
Street:Pershing Avenue
City:Stockton
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:

This large stone moai was the lone tiki on the grounds.

I noticed the pictures of the Bali Hai were unfortunately no longer posted here so I'm posting these two of the Moai that I took at the start of my Golden tiki expedition in September.

I found this 1962 phone book add the other day. After checking all the phone books from 1958 to 1985 this is the only graphic add for the Bali Hai found. Note that it says it is owned and developed by Alex Spanos. Now a Billionaire and San Diego Chargers owner.

Happy Hunting!
Abstractiki

I dug up this bit of info from the Stockton newspaper "The Record". Note the Bali Hai Moai in the picture.

Record Graphic

By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Staff Writer
October 21, 2007 12:00 AM

"There are some peculiar things in this town. I realized this when compiling last week's "Seven Wonders of Stockton" story. These oddities are the leftovers of that story, too quirky to fit any category.

Yet they are unique parts of the city - and more fun to talk about than the mortgage meltdown. So here goes: The Seven Oddest Things in Stockton.

Bali Hai head
Developer Alex Spanos got his construction career off to a tiki start with the Bali Hai Apartments. The complex boasts a South Seas motif with palm trees, lava "luau pit" and, solemnly guarding the entrance, a two-ton stone tiki god. A bit of Easter Island in the Central Valley."

David, the fact that you did not mention the OTHER carving...

...in that grouping leads me to believe it is an American Indian totem pole, but I cannot make out the caption. However, its an example that looks very Tiki to me, and it is noteworthy that two of the seven "oddities" in town mentioned by the paper are primitive art sculptures. :)

that also immediately caught my eye upon seeing that totem! turns out it belongs to the alaskan tlingit indians.

here is the remainder of the article. (nice find by the way!)

Tlingit totem pole
Alaskan Tlingit Indians cried foul in 2000 when this seven-headed totem pole, which stood in Victory Park for decades, was taken down. The Tlingits protested that the pole was sacred, a cherished part of their heritage, and it must come home. But they never came to get it. The city, for its part, doesn't want to throw it in the chipper for fear of further offending the Tlingits. So the totem pole lays outstretched in abandoned Firehouse 5, seven years and counting, its heads grimacing at the heavens in frustration.

Pixie Woods Volcano
Built in 1972, the volcano in Pixie Woods kiddie park belches smoke when triggered by remote control by the Captain of the Pixie Queen riverboat or the engineer of the train. Now Ron Farnsworth, an artist who worked for Hollywood and Disneyland, is giving the volcano an extreme volcano makeover. It'll be more of a South Seas volcano, with orange lava, black-glittering slopes, tropical vegetation, and a waterfall. The tiki god would approve.

Mummified cat
In its Ancient Arts Gallery, The Haggin Museum displays a grotesque pickled pet. Dedicated to the cat-god Bast, the ancient preserved puss is sitting, tightly wrapped in linens, with its head painted black and red kitty-cat ears daubed on. Stay, kitty. Good kitty.

Stupid Blinking Stoplight
When Weberstown Mall opened in 1964, city traffic engineers planted this stoplight in the median out front of main entrance. Then, deciding it was not needed, they just set it on a pointless "yellow blink." The stupid blinking stoplight has stood there ever since, with nary a red or a green in 43 years.

California Street necropolis
Hundreds of deceased inmates of the 19th-century Stockton State Asylum lie buried beneath the buildings along North California Street. An expedient Stockton judge officially declared the graveyard empty in the 1950s so the land could be rezoned, sold and developed. It's not empty. Managers of area offices can truly boast they have hundreds of people under them.

Electric Avenue
At the western edge of Brookside, the abrupt edge of the city, Brookview Drive terminates in a strange parkway. A walkway meanders for a bush-lined block beneath high-tension power lines to the levee at Tenmile Slough. It's a nicely landscaped path to nowhere. At the end there's a bench at the base of a high-tension tower for those who like to sit beneath 160,000 volts. In the summer, tomato trucks roar across the levee, and the scene goes from unusual to Felliniesque.

Recently I discovered that the Bali Hai apartments took about 9 months to build and cost about 200,000. The apartments have 24 units and all had grass cloth and wood paneling inside. They were designed by A. G. Schofield in Fresno California and Spanos gave them their name.

Back from a fresh dig and found these pics! Also found that the Moai was made special for these apartments and was 4000 lbs! Notice the deterioration that has occurred sine 1961.

I love these apartments! I drive by them everytime I am out thrifting but have yet to remember my camera to pull over and take some pics.

The Moai looks rad in person--even if he has aged some over the years.

Such a shame that more of this area in California doesn't have these sort of places tucked among the Starbucks and Wal-Marts.

Great shot of the Moai and the model posing by the gate! I would love to see that in its original quality! But we are lucky that any record of it exists, kudos to your tenacity and diligence.

Thanks bigbro, you will be happy to know that i have purchased the rights to publish an awesome photo (with watermark) of the Bali Hai and Moai shot shortly after the place opened for business. I also purchased the rights to an awesome photo of Mini skirted and booted girls performing at the Islander. I have uncovered more but cant afford to buy them all right now. I will be posting the photos in a few days when I receive them.

I found this great photo of The Bali Hai apartments at the Bank of Stockton Archives. The information Sheet is to arrive shortly by U.S. Mail so i'll update this post with that info later. This photo was taken right after the Bali Hai was built. Notice that there is no Outrigger Apartments to the Right!

Also Urban Archeologist's, note that old banks sometimes have big archives of old photos but they will charge you $$ for them.

photo courtesy of Bank of Stockton

Happy Hunting!
Abstractiki

Wow, it's really cool to see these apartments in a nearly pristine state, instead of with 40 years of dilapidation on them.

Awesome.

Update on the Bali Hai. The Stockton Cultural Heritage Board approved the Bali Hai and Outrigger apartments as Structures of Merit. See the full story on the Outrigger thread.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5865&forum=2&start=15&22

I just realized that I never got around to taking a full set of pictures of this location. I will have to plan on doing that.

Tonight I found this old photo of the Bali Hai Moai on the AG spanos company website. Judging from the tree growth on the left I think it is probably taken in the 1970's.