ARTICLE/PHOTO ESSAY. From the Half Moon Bay Coastside History Association on Instagram.
Imagine your home or business being washed out to sea.
In 1929, that’s exactly what happened to a Moss Beach restaurant, The Reefs. The Reefs- quite literally built on the sand just in front of the ocean reef- was a bustling tourist destination in the early 1900s.
The last owner, Charlie Nye described it- “When The Reefs was first built, it was built on the sand and there were rows of bathhouses on one side and a dance floor on the other side where they used to have an orchestra. There was a road to the beach and people used to drive down with their horse and buggies. There was a chute we used to slide groceries down from the cliff to the beach.” The Reefs specialized in abalone dishes and the discarded shells decorated the restaurant interior.
Alas, a storm with extremely high tide carried away the dance floor in 1923 and another storm demolished the entire structure in 1929. Today, all that remains of The Reefs is sand.
To read more about this fascinating bit of Coastal history, please check out this link which contains more information on The Reefs by writer June Morrall.
And if you are curious about other historical tidbits, please check out our website.
Photos: HMB History Association, Donate or Volunteer!
Thanks for this article, not as much for Nye’s Reef as for getting me reconnected with the late June Morrall’s website. I had no idea it was still up and running and recommend it strongly for those interested in samplings of San Mateo County coastal history and characters. It is far from complete, but a great and candid resource for bits and pieces from the late 19th century to the early 21st that caught June’s interest. For longer, more connected, articles, June’s book written after her first half-decade on the coastside, “Half Moon Bay Memories” (1978, Moonbeam Press, El Granada, CA), is a treasure for her journalistic stories and accompanying photographs.