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In 1962, these cottages were replaced with two-story motel style
units. In the 1970s, the public was invited to join the Miramar Tennis
and Health Club, which included beach privileges; Jacques Renon was
installed as lifeguard and security guard. Wearing European-style Speedos
Significant beach erosion was the consequence of the construction of the harbor in
Santa Barbara and groins at Edgecliff and Hammonds beaches to the west (photo
courtesy of Harold K. Doulton Family)
Moon boat races were popular with young mariners
(photo courtesy of Harold K. Doulton Family)
By 1936, Bonnymede, the Hammond family
estate, had constructed a beach groin, and George
Owen Knapp’s Edgecliff had constructed two;
the sand-less western edge of Miramar Beach
lies on the far right (photo courtesy of Montecito
Association History Committee)
the intention of redeveloping the property, managing to tear down several
buildings and place others on blocks before financial reversals caused him
to delay and then abandon the project. Subsequent owners have had no
better luck, and the historic cottage hotel lies in ruin. Miramar Beach,
however, is as popular as ever with sunbathers, swimmers, surfers, beach
walkers, castle builders, sandpipers, and quick-stepping sanderlings.
(Sources: Harold Keeney Doulton’s
I Remember;
David Myrick’s
Montecito and Santa Barbara
; Alexandra Cole’s Historic Resources Report;
Ingrid Armstrong, Stella Haverland Rouse; and the files of the Montecito
History Committee.)
long before the short-lived trend hit California, Jacques became a Miramar
Beach landmark in his own right as he kept the hoi polloi well below the
mean high tide line.
In 1998, Ian Schrager purchased the hotel. He closed it in 2000 with