A hundred years ago, someone solved a steep walk to the sand with an unusually elaborate staircase. The 60-foot Norman-style tower at Victoria Beach was built in 1926 to connect a home above the bluff with the beach below. The Laguna Beach Historical Society records that practical purpose in its chronology, along with a concrete swimming pool constructed among the rocks just south of the tower.
Its castle-like shape makes the structure easy to imagine as a lookout or a remnant of a much older settlement. However, its familiar Pirate Tower nickname came from a later owner, according to the historical society. Laguna Beach’s own history describes the enclosed spiral staircase and notes that the tower is closed. This is a building to view from the outside, not an interior attraction to tour. The 1926 date also places it in a busy period of local change: Coast Highway opened between Laguna and Newport that year, and Laguna residents incorporated their city in 1927. The tower’s centennial is a chance to look past the nickname and notice the ordinary need behind an extraordinary design.
