Aquarium Café - North Beach Historic District - San Clemente, CA - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Taken from the NRHP nomination form, "The former Aquarium Café was constructed in 1931 and designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by architect L.C. Smith. This one-story, wood-frame commercial building has an
irregular plan and a complex roof with gabled, hipped, and shed portions. The main portion of the building has an octagonal shape, reflected in a centered, octagonal turret that rises above the roofline. There are multiple hexagonal roof towers, two of which are the most prominent: one on the northwest and the other on the southwest portion of the roof. The roofs all have flush eaves and are clad in red clay tiles. The exterior walls are clad with smooth stucco.

The main entrance is located on the northwest side of the building and is covered by a projecting hipped roof supported on each end by square stucco columns. Fenestration consists of various groupings of wood, multi-light windows. There are also glazed portholes, evenly spaced on each side of the hexagonal tower south of the entrance.

On the south elevation, partially glazed multi-light floor to ceiling window and doors overlook a rear patio. It is enclosed on the south along Calle Deshecha by a glass wall with glass gate accessed from the street by tiled steps.

Alterations

When originally constructed as the Aquarium Café, the building featured saltwater aquarium displays. The building has been occupied by various restaurants including the Anchor Inn, Margarita’s Village, and the Ichibiri Restaurant. Historic photographs indicate alterations occurred to the primary (north) façade. The original main entrance appears to have been through an arched opening fronting on North El Camino Real. This entry was closed off in 1982 and is behind the half-octagonal addition that extends to the sidewalk on El Camino Real. A projecting hipped roof was subsequently added to the building on the northwest corner, and the main entrance was relocated to this area. Historic photos indicate an original, recessed side entry with multi-light French doors facing the parking lot and centered under the gable roof element. This entrance was infilled and replaced with five rectangular, single-light windows, evenly spaced across the elevation. Two wood, multi-light hopper transom windows were retained. The building was rehabilitated in 2019.

During this time, the non-original picture windows were infilled and replaced with two, smaller multi-light windows where the original French doors would have been located beneath the transom windows. The glass wall enclosure of the rear patio was added and rear entrance doors and windows were also reconfigured. Although the building has been altered multiple times for different tenants, the building retains its overall character in terms of scale and massing and materials and retains sufficient integrity to contribute to the district. The exterior retains its primary character-defining features from the period of significance."

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): North Beach Historic District Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] NRHP Historic District Waymark (Optional): [Web Link] Address: 1814 North El Camino Real How did you determine the building to be a contributing structure?: Narrative found on the internet (Link provided below) Optional link to narrative or database: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/19/2021 bluesnote visited it