Fraser’s Pier Incubator Exhibit – Ocean Park

Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier was a 20th-century amusement park in Ocean Park, California, located between Pier Avenue and Marine Street in a community situated between Santa Monica and Venice in Los Angeles County. It was developed by Alexander R. Fraser, a booster in Ocean Park who had formerly been business partners with Abbot Kinney of Venice, and opened to the public on June 17, 1911. Opening-weekend offerings included “musical and vaudeville entertainment, freak shows, a baby incubator show, refreshment stands, booths of all descriptions, and a diving tank.” The Infant Incubators exhibit showcased the latest in medical technology. Premature infants received free care by trained nurses in an era when such care wasn’t readily available at hospitals.

WOMEN PRAY TO STORK IN FRONT OF THE BABY INCUBATOR CONCESSION
Praying to the stork has b;e ome quite a vogue on the Marine street pier, especially since the Spanish twins arrived at the baby incubators.
Dr. Stork has his shrine erected in front of the incubator building and his likeness in heroic form presides above the heads of those who pay him worship and seek his favor. In plastic grandeur he stands with bill extended upwards as through seeking his burden from the clear skies.
A few evenings ago the nurses at the incubators saw a young women kneel beneat him with hands clasped and extended upwards.
“What do you want?” one of them asked the prayerful matron when she regained her feet.
“I am praying to the stork,” she replied. “In sixteen years of married life he has never visited my home.”
Upon inquiry it was learned that the custom of praying to the stork is common in Holland and other foreign countries where the tall bird is almost reverenced because of the fable connecting him with the arrival of little ones.

— Venice Daily Vanguard, August 21, 1912

The pier was destroyed on September 3, 1912, in a catastrophic fire that spread into the adjacent neighborhood and destroyed six to eight square blocks. The fire was discovered between 4:45 and 4:55 p.m. in the Coney Island chowder house in the Casino building, caused possibly by a defective flue or a poorly extinguished cigarette. High winds fanned the flames and carried burning embers throughout the wooden pier buildings, first consuming the café, then engulfing the skating rink and the dance hall, and then jumping Ocean Front Walk to ignite nearby hotels, theaters, a newspaper office, and other buildings. Neighboring attractions, including Looff’s Hippodrome with its carousel, the Dragon Gorge roller coaster, and the Revolving Grotto, were all destroyed. According to the Los Angeles Times, 700 firefighters from 12 companies fought the fire for a little under four hours.

There was one fatality: H. L. Locke, a 60-year-old cashier at the Casino Café, was apparently overcome by the shock of jumping into the ocean to escape and then being lashed to a life preserver. The incubator babies fared far better. The babies living in the exhibit were all “taken in the metal cases of the Incubators and carried safely off the burning pier.”. A week-old newborn, a pair of Mexican-American twins, and a 14-ounce Japanese-American micro-preemie were among the infants transferred to nearby St. Catherine’s Hospital.

INCUBATOR BABIES SAVED
Soon after the fire started it was seen that the Fraser Pier was doomed and heroic efforts were made to save the lives of the fourteen babies in the “Baby Incubator” on the pier.
Paul D. Howse of Ocean Park, with the assistance of the life guards, rushed into the incubator, wrapped the infants in blankets and metal caskets, loaded them into automobiles and rushed them to Saint Catherine’s hospital in Santa Monica. Not one of the infants appeared to suffer from the impromptu ride. Among the babies was one Japanese girl weighing only eleven ounces.

— The Whittier News, September 4, 1912, article excerpt from page 6

A replacement pier, generally known as the Ocean Park Pier, opened May 30, 1913. The incubator exhibit was rebuilt along with it — attractions on the rebuilt pier included Baby Incubators alongside a Parker Carousel, Crazy House, Breaker’s Café, Roller Skating Rink, Puzzletown, and Mystic Maze. The pier suffered another serious blow when a fire broke out about 1 a.m. on December 27, 1915, during the pier’s mid-winter festival. It destroyed about a third of Fraser’s pier, including the dance hall and much of the Ben Hur roller coaster, likely started by an incompletely extinguished cigarette or faulty wiring.

The 1924 Ocean Park fire destroyed several amusement piers and dance halls on January 6, 1924, burning Pickering’s Pier, Lick’s Dome Pier, and Fraser’s Pier, as well as the Dome Theater, Rosemary Theater, Bon Ton Dance Hall, and Giant Dipper roller coaster. The fire is believed to have begun around 9:30 a.m. in a fish stand at the foot of Fraser’s Pier and burned for about three hours before it was extinguished. The blaze drew an estimated 75,000 spectators from neighboring communities.

In total, the incubator exhibit was a fixture at Fraser’s Pier from its opening day in 1911 through at least the rebuilt pier’s years, surviving one catastrophic fire and a second partial fire — making its longevity all the more remarkable. The pier itself, plagued by fire throughout its existence, remains one of the most dramatic and repeatedly tragic landmarks in early Southern California coastal history.

• Fraser’s Pier – Wikipedia
• Fraser’s Pier Map of Attractions

Last Updated on 04/20/26