Addresses
Boat Houses
726 3rd Street
Encinitas, California
92024
Cafe Jack
508 South Western Avenue
Los Angeles, California
90020
Delta Queen Car Wash
981 E. Hamilton Avenue
Campbell, California
95008
Giant Coke Bottles and Ocean Liner Shaped Building
1334 South Central Avenue
Los Angeles, California
90021
Paddleboat Shaped Casino
2100 South Casino Drive
Laughlin, Nevada
89029
Ship Shaped Sushi Restaurant
962 West Foothill Boulevard
Claremont, California
91711
Ship Shaped Structures
For some reason, there are several structures throughout California where the building is designed to look like a ship or a boat. These range from restaurants, houses, and even a car wash and the offices for Coca-Cola! The ship shaped building phenomenon is a form of programmatic arctecture and has appeared in California since at least 1905! Ship shaped buildings can even be found in Nevada, which has a ship shaped casino in Laughlin.
Built back in 1928 in Encinitas, there are two boat houses, called the S.S. Encinitas and S.S. Moonlight. The houses, like boats, have portholes, a bow deck, a galley, two bedrooms, one and a half baths, and an upstairs office surrounded on three sides by windows. They are private homes, and are rented.
Two restaurants down in the LA area have their structures in the shape of a ship. Sushi Maru Seafood, formerly known as Sushi Cruise, in Claremont is a ship shaped sushi restaurant. Cafe Jack is an Asian fusion restaurant in Koreatown in the shape of an ocean liner. Opened in 2007, it has Titanic memorabilia and could be named after either the owner, Jack Shin, or Jack Dawson, the character Leonardo DiCaprio played in the movie.
These two examples of ship shaped restaurants aren't even the first in the LA area. That honor might belong to the Ship Cafe, a restaurant in the shape of a ship, located on a pier in Venice built way back in 1905. It was built to look like it sat on the water, but no part of the restaurant did in fact touch the ocean. It was designed after the Spanish galleon sailed by Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo when he discovered California. It was sadly destroyed in October 1946.
In Campbell in Santa Clara County, you can get your car washed inside a ship! The Delta Queen Car Wash, built in the 1960's, is a replica of a 19th century Mississippi riverboat. And in Los Angeles, the building for Coca-Cola, built way back in the thirties was constructed to resemble a giant ocean liner. The building is outfitted with port holes, planking decks, air horns, and other ship like qualities. Finally, if you are heading out of the state, over in Laughlin, Nevada, there's a casino in the shape of a giant paddleboat, called the Colorado Belle.
