The Promenade in Seaside, Oregon, looking south from near Broadway

Seaside’s Promenade and the business of a classic beach town

ByDana Whitcomb

Photo: Joe Mabel (on Flickr as Joe Mabel from Seattle, US), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Seaside became a resort early. Ben Holladay, the transportation tycoon, built the Seaside House hotel in the 1870s, and by the turn of the century a rail line from Astoria brought Portland families who arrived by river steamer. The town grew around the idea of the summer trip to the beach.

The Promenade, a 1.5-mile concrete walkway along the top of the beach, was completed in the early 1920s and is still the spine of the town. At the turnaround where Broadway meets the sand stands a statue of Lewis and Clark, marking the end of their trail, near the site where members of the expedition boiled seawater for salt in the winter of 1805-06.

Broadway and beyond

Broadway, running inland from the turnaround, is the commercial strip: arcades, saltwater taffy, bumper cars, souvenir shops and restaurants. It is louder and more family-oriented than Cannon Beach, eight miles south, and that has been Seaside’s niche for a century.

The town also has the largest convention center on the North Coast, which helps fill hotels in the off-season with trade groups, school events and tournaments. Seaside’s transient room tax is one of the larger revenue sources in Clatsop County.

Seasonal swings

Like the rest of the coast, Seaside’s business follows the calendar. Summer weekends and spring break are packed. Winter is quiet, and employers have to decide how much staff to keep through the slow months.

The town also lies in the tsunami inundation zone, and several of its schools were relocated to higher ground east of town. That project, funded by a local bond measure approved in 2016, was one of the larger public investments in Seaside’s recent history.

More in Business