North Shore Beach and Yacht Club, Maritime museum in North Shore, California, US
North Shore Beach and Yacht Club is a museum building near the northeastern shore of Salton Sea, featuring modernist architecture by Albert Frey with clean lines and functional exhibition spaces. The structure displays the design language of its period and provides areas for collections and community events.
Construction of the Albert Frey-designed club and motel began in 1960, and both opened in 1962 as part of a $2 million development on the Salton Sea's northeastern shore. The marina became one of Southern California's largest, drawing over 1.5 million annual visitors in the 1960s. A 1981 flood destroyed the jetty, closing the club by 1984; Riverside County restored it, and it reopened in 2010 as the Salton Sea History Museum and Community Center. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The club's name comes from the North Shore community on the Salton Sea's northeastern bank. Developers Ray Ryan and Trav Rogers marketed the sea as "California's inland sea", drawing crowds that in the 1960s topped 1.5 million a year, more than Yosemite. The building appeared as The Boat House in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V.
The site is open to visitors and offers tours of the exhibition areas with information about the region's maritime history. Parking is available on-site and the building is fairly easy to reach from the main road.
In the 1950s and 1960s, famous entertainers like Jerry Lewis, The Beach Boys, and the Marx Brothers docked their boats at this yacht club. The presence of these celebrities made it an important gathering place for the entertainment industry of that era.
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