Seal Beach is a coastal city in Orange County, California, United States. It was originally known as Bay City before it was incorporated into Orange County under its current name on October 24, 1915. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,242, up from 24,168 at the 2010 census.
Seal Beach is located in the westernmost corner of Orange County. To the northwest, just across the border with Los Angeles County, lies the city of Long Beach and the adjacent San Pedro Bay. To the southeast are Huntington Harbour, a neighborhood of Huntington Beach, and Sunset Beach, also part of Huntington Beach. To the east lie the city of Westminster and the neighborhood of West Garden Grove, part of the city of Garden Grove. To the north lie the unincorporated community of Rossmoor and the city of Los Alamitos. A majority of the city's acreage is devoted to the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach military base.
History
Indigenous The Tongva village of Motuucheyngna was located in what is now Seal Beach in the area of the Los Cerritos Wetlands. It was part of the greater area of Puvungna, which was a major ceremonial and regional trading center for the Tongva and Acjachemen. Villagers used te'aats to travel out to villages on Pimu (Santa Catalina Island) and other islands off the coast, now referred to as the Channel Islands. In 2003, a burial site of the village was disturbed in a Seal Beach residential development, Hellman Ranch, that was met with opposition from the Tongva.
Anaheim Landing Beginning in the mid-1860s, the eastern area of what is now Old Town Seal Beach became known as Anaheim Landing. A warehouse and wharf had been built on a small bay where Anaheim Creek emptied into the Pacific Ocean. It was established by farmers and merchants in the newly settled town of Anaheim who wanted a closer, more convenient port to ship the wine they were vinting from their grapes, and also to receive shipped items they needed to help build homes, and buildings, in their new town.
For a few years, Anaheim Landing came close to rivaling San Pedro for its volume of shipping, but the arrival of the railroad in Anaheim in 1875 made it easier to ship products via the rails, than by hauling a wagon overland across of soft soil to the Landing. The beaches and surrounding rolling Anaheim Landing had by this time become popular as a getaway from hot summer days. Los Angeles newspapers reported a permanent summer population of as many as 400 and even more on special days.
The landing was also home to a number of fishing boats that plied the local fishing areas. This activity was written about by Nobel-prize winning author Henryk Sienkiewicz in a short essay, "The Cranes." The site of Anaheim Landing is now registered as a California Historical Landmark.
In 1903 Los Angeles realtor Philip A. Stanton, very familiar with the area from his time selling land in Anaheim, and Huntington Beach, and also from representing the local real estate interests of banker (and Pacific Electric Railroad co-owner) Isaias W. Hellman, put together a syndicate to lay out the town of Bayside on the land between Anaheim Landing and Anaheim Bay and the eastern edge of Alamitos Bay.
Real estate development The new town would be situated along the still not-announced Balboa Line of the Pacific Electric, which would run from Long Beach to Newport Beach. As there was already a town called Bayside in Northern California (by Eureka), Stanton's group instead called their new town Bay City. Due to many factors—including competition from other beach resort areas (Long Beach, Redondo Beach and Venice/Ocean Park/Santa Monica), some national financial crises, and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, which sent most investment dollars to the more lucrative rebuilding of San Francisco—Bay City failed miserably as a real estate investment.
In 1913, Stanton optioned the land to real estate promoter Guy M. Rush, who invested in building a renovated pier with pavilions on either side. Rush also re-branded the town as Seal Beach and marketed it via postcards and advertisements around the country. This too failed and by early 1915, Rush had let his options lapse. In 1915 Stanton tried again, arranging to obtain some amusements from the closing San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition and rebuild them as part of new amusement area which would be called The Joy Zone.
As part of this plan, the Bayside Land Company led a campaign to incorporate the town (October 27, 1915) and then had the new city council approve legal drinking in the town. This made it different from the Pike at Long Beach, which was a "dry city." The Joy Zone, a beach-side amusement park built in 1916, was the first in Orange County. It achieved some brief popularity, but the US entry into World War I and the resulting restrictions on rubber and metal dramatically impacted the amusement area.
After the war, Prohibition impacted the town's value as an amusement resort. After 1920, the town's location on two bays, with many inlets to offload bootleg liquor, its small police department, and its location on the county line, allowed it to become a popular place for rumrunners, then gamblers. From 1928 to 1939, the town had as many as six gambling establishments on Main Street. In addition, most of Southern California's famous gambling ships (Johanna Smith, Rose Isle, Johanna Smith II, SS Caliente, SS Tango, Showboat, Mt. Baker) operated off the Seal Beach, just over the line from Long Beach.
With gambling being a misdemeanor, the trials were held in the town's municipal court and a Seal Beach jury never returned a guilty verdict, to the dismay of Orange County and Long Beach officials. But circa 1941, with significant pressure being put on the gamblers by State Attorney General Earl Warren, most of the Seal Beach gambling and ships ended. Their absence was soon filled by a former Los Angeles police detective named William L. Robertson.
World War II In early 1944. during World War II, the Navy purchased most of the land around Anaheim Landing to construct the United States Navy's Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach for loading, unloading, and storing of ammunition for the Pacific Fleet, and especially those US Navy warships home-ported in Long Beach and San Diego. With closure of the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Northern California, it has become the primary source of munitions for a majority of the United States Pacific Fleet. The arrival of the Navy catalyzed a growth in population which eventually succeeded in shutting down Robertson's gambling operations.
Surfing has always had a presence in Seal Beach. Newspaper advertisements showing surfers were part of Guy M. Rush's "Seal Beach" campaign of 1913. The town hosted the mainland's first surfing competition—it was at a private gathering of the annual Minnesota Picnic. But its popularity really took off after the war with the arrival of legendary surfer Blackie August, who taught many of the local kids how to surf. August's son, Robert, was one of the pair of surfers featured in the classic surf film, Endless Summer. Local legends Jack Haley and Mike Haley were the winners of the first two national surfing championships.
Mid to Late 20th century
In 1962, Seal Beach opened Leisure World, one of the first age segregated communities in the U.S. that caters to people over 55.
21st century In 2002, a construction crew discovered the remnants of a large Tongva village and burial site while working on a project to construct a new gated community. The Heron Pointe project was picketed by members of the Tongva tribe who successfully mitigated development in the area. The tribal community, alongside the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, has continued to work to preserve the coastal environment.
2011 shooting
The deadliest mass killing in Orange County history occurred in Seal Beach. On October 12, 2011, a mass shooting took place at the local Salon Meritage hair salon. Eight people inside the salon and one person in the parking lot were shot, and only one victim survived. The suspect in the shooting, 41-year-old Scott Evans Dekraai, was arrested without incidentGunman kills 8 at Seal Beach salon. Los Angeles Times, October 12, 2011.California shooting: Eight killed at Seal Beach salon BBC News, October 13, 2011. and charged with eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Prior to the shooting, there had been only one murder in Seal Beach during the previous four years.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it (4.51%) is water.
Climate Seal Beach has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh) with Mediterranean characteristics.
Demographics
Seal Beach first appeared as a city in the 1910 U.S. census which was coterminous with the newly formed Seal Beach Township.
Racial and ethnic composition
+Seal Beach city, California – Racial and Ethnic CompositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)24,02122,51320,37218,58016,81492.48%89.71%84.33%76.88%66.61%Black or African American alone (NH)2622443292553701.01%0.97%1.36%1.06%1.47%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)72485438530.28%0.19%0.22%0.16%0.21%Asian alone (NH)6811,0251,3632,2733,6242.62%4.08%5.64%9.40%14.36%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)3752460.15%0.22%0.18%Other race alone (NH)38152162910.15%0.06%0.09%0.26%0.36%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)xx4275771,091xx1.77%2.39%4.32%Hispanic or Latino (any race)9011,2531,5542,3313,1533.47%4.99%6.43%9.64%12.49%Total25,97525,09824,15724,16825,242100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Seal Beach had a population of 25,242 and a population density of .
The median age was 60.8 years. About 12.2% of residents were under the age of 18, 4.4% were from 18 to 24, 15.7% were from 25 to 44, 24.5% were from 45 to 64, and 43.2% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 80.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.9 males age 18 and over.
The census reported that 99.0% of the population lived in households, 0.3% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.7% were institutionalized. 100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 13,369 households, of which 13.8% included children under the age of 18, 39.5% were married-couple households, 3.8% were cohabiting couple households, 38.7% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present, and 18.0% had a male householder with no spouse or partner present. About 46.5% of all households were one-person households, and 33.9% were one-person households with a resident aged 65 or older. The average household size was 1.87, and there were 6,497 families (48.6% of all households).
There were 14,645 housing units at an average density of , of which 13,369 (91.3%) were occupied and 8.7% were vacant. Of the occupied units, 73.9% were owner-occupied and 26.1% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.9% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.0%.
Income and poverty In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $83,045, and the per capita income was $67,571. About 4.0% of families and 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010 census The 2010 United States census reported that Seal Beach had a population of 24,168. The population density was . The racial makeup of Seal Beach was 20,154 (83.4%) White (76.9% Non-Hispanic White), 279 (1.2%) African American, 65 (0.3%) Native American, 2,309 (9.6%) Asian, 58 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 453 (1.9%) from other races, and 850 (3.5%) from two or more races. There were 2,331 Hispanic or Latino residents, of any race (9.6%).