San Pedro Municipal Ferry Building, Maritime museum in San Pedro, Los Angeles, United States.
The San Pedro Municipal Ferry Building stands at Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard at Berth 84, a Works Project Administration project of 1941 designed by Derwood Lydell Irvin of the Los Angeles Harbor Department. Its Streamline Moderne form is topped by a five-story octagonal clock tower. Since 1979 the building has housed the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.
The building opened in 1941 and operated as a ferry terminal connecting San Pedro and Terminal Island until 1963. Ferry service ended after the Vincent Thomas Bridge rendered water transportation no longer necessary.
The building's name comes from its years as the Municipal Ferry Building, when the double-decked ferries Islander and Ace carried passengers and automobiles between San Pedro and Terminal Island. The museum keeps that crossing alive through models and objects tied to the tuna canneries, docks and shipyards the ferries served.
The building stands at Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, at Berth 84 on the San Pedro waterfront, and the museum entrance is reached on foot from the surrounding harbor streets. The five-story octagonal clock tower makes the building easy to pick out when orienting yourself along the channel.
The building's exterior and interior appear in the 1947 film noir The Street With No Name. Its sister terminal across the channel at Berth 234, also designed by Derwood Lydell Irvin, was demolished in 1972 to expand cargo operations, leaving this one of the pair.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,846 contributors worldwide.