The new Ship Cafe, now faced the water parallel to the shore, and was built to a larger scale. Many of the ride and concession operators on the old pier leased space on the new pier. The Venice Dance Hall on the pier was large enough for 800 couples to dance on its hardwood floor. Balconies extended around the entire pavilion and its interior was decorated in a Spanish motif. Its oval shaped orchestra pit was placed in the center of a hardwood dance floor 180 feet wide by 210 feet deep. The Kinney Company built an enormous new dance hall. It looked like they would make their May 28th target when their workers went on strike. The rebuilt pier was 1200 feet long and 525 feet wide. By April 15th, the last of the pier pilings was in place and the decking extended two-thirds to the end. Rail-cars of lumber arrived several weeks later in time for workers to begin pile driving. Prior and Church, in charge of the reconstruction of the pier, began removing the burned out ruins in early February.
Two separate bond issues offered by the Kinney heirs were required to finance the rebuilding which took place that spring.
However, despite the fact that the city couldn't afford to lose a season without its chief source of income, financing proved difficult. Thornton Kinney announced, after the disastrous fire that completely destroyed the old Abbot Kinney Pier on December 20, 1920, that a new amusement pier would be rebuilt by summer and would be even better.
The material is copyrighted © 1998 by Jeffrey Stanton. Venice Amusement Pier Venice Amusement Pier
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