True Tale of 'Captain Gus' and the Old Palm Beach Pier

By Bob Davidsson
        Today, two fishing piers extend more than 900 feet out to sea in Palm Beach County, but for 44 years they were joined by an older and longer oversea platform - the "Palm Beach (Rainbo) Pier".
        Lake Worth's "William O. Lockhart Municipal Pier," named in honor of a former pier master, and the Juno Pier, a county-owned facility near Juno Beach Park, attract more than 275,000 fishermen and visitors annually to their 20-foot-high nautical fishing decks.
        The Lake Worth Municipal Pier opened in January 1960. After the structure was decimated by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, it was rebuilt at a cost of $3.4 million. It reopened and was  dedicated under its new name in 2009.
        The Juno Pier opened in 1949. It was originally privately owned and operated. The pier was destroyed by the Thanksgiving storm of 1984. Palm Beach County rebuilt the 990-foot pier at a cost of $2.5 million in 1999. Pier services are leased by the county.
        The 1,005-foot "Breakers Pier" was the first structure built on the island in 1895. Captain J.D. Ross was commissioned by railroad tycoon Henry Flagler to build a pier and breakwater extending east from the Breakers Hotel and out to sea.
        Flagler's vision was to use the pier as a "Port of Palm Beach" for his "Palm Beach-Nassau Steamship Line." For a short time, the pier was connected by rail to Flagler's East Coast Railroad.
        The project failed and pier was used solely by a few coastal vessels at the turn of the 20th century. The Breakers Pier was severely damaged by the 1928 hurricane and soon after demolished. Today; sections of the pier can still be seen on the Breakers Reef, offshore of Palm Beach.
        The Palm Beach Pier opened in 1925 as "Rainbo Pier," part of a privately-owned sports fishing and swimming complex located at the east end of Worth Avenue in the Town of Palm Beach . Today, standing near what was once the base of the pier, is the city's Clock Tower.
        The Palm Beach Pier was demolished in 1969. A Florida State Historical Marker, resting on a concrete pedestal, was sponsored and placed near the pier site in 1991 by the Palm Beach Board of Realtors.
        The bronze marker reads, "Erected and opened to the public in 1925, the pier extended 1,095 feet out to sea. For over 40 years, it was a favorite town attraction, featuring a coffees hop, cocktail lounge, tackle shop and fishermen's lockers."
        "A series of successive storms and hurricanes gradually eroded the structure," the historical marker records, "causing it be removed in 1969."
         Missing from the historic marker is the true story of the legendary creator and owner of the Palm Beach Pier and its adjacent bathing center - "Captain Gus" Jordahn.

'Captain Gus' Jordahn: A Man of Vision and Action
        Peter Gustav "Gus" Jordahn, the son of a Danish father and Swedish mother, was born April 10, 1881 in Kolding, Denmark. As a youth, he chose a military career and served as an officer in the Danish army.
        After his discharge from the army, he became a seaman. His life-long love of the sea, together with his military background, earned him the nickname "Captain Gus".
        Captain Gus emigrated from Denmark to the U.S. in 1904. He passed through the Ellis Island immigration station in New York harbor with a life savings of just $72 in his pocket.
        He worked as a lifeguard on Coney Island for several years, where he became a local legend. The lifeguard is credited with rescuing 28 bathers in a single day after they were caught in deadly rip currents, according to archived news reports.
        Captain Gus first visited the Town of Palm Beach in 1911 while on a honeymoon with his new wife, Johanne Rasmussen. They were charmed by the seaside allure of the village and soon made it their home.
        He managed the Breakers bathhouse and swimming facilities for the grand hotel until he could establish his own business.  Captain Gus opened "Gus' Baths" bathing casino and apparel shop near the intersection of  Worth Avenue and South Ocean Blvd. It featured two heated saltwater pools for adults, a diving platform, steam cabinets, and a wading pool for children.
        The Gus' Baths complex eventually included a two-story Mediterranean-style building with 16 apartments on the second floor, three palmetto-covered Seminole-style gazebos, and a boardwalk. A tunnel was dug connecting the pool area to the public beach.
        Work on the "Rainbo Pier," the crowning achievement in the career of Captain Gus, began in 1924. It opened on Labor Day, 1925. Admission to the pier cost a dime per person for fishing or sightseeing. It featured a tackle shop for fishermen, and hosted the Palm Beach Anglers Club.
        The former New York lifeguard was an avid swimmer his entire life. Captain Gus celebrated his 50th birthday in 1932 by swimming across the Lake Worth Lagoon to West Palm Beach, then back to the island of Palm Beach.
        He founded both the "Palm Beach Swimming Club," and "Cowboys-of-the-Sea," a trained volunteer lifeguard unit to patrol the town's beaches in 1924. A favorite stunt performed for visitors was diving off the end of the Rainbo Pier and hitching a ride on the back of a passing sea turtle.
        An advertisement, posted by Captain Gus in local newspapers in 1926, promoted the Rainbo Pier Tackle Shop as offering "everything for the fisherman," and the "very latest styles in beach and bathing attire, including satin, wool, an rubberized caps" sold at Gus' Baths.
        The swimming complex soon attracted both seasonal visitors and  residents from West Palm Beach. Swimmers could pay admission fees on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to use the facilities at Gus' Baths.
        Captain Gus was civic-minded and a strong supporter of his adopted town and country. Gus's Bath served the community by opening its pools to area high school swim teams. It also provided swim classes for Boys and Girls Scouts and sponsored weekly dances.
        Captain Gus was one of first resident police officers sworn in by the Town of Palm Beach. He patrolled the beach, and occasionally cited the unclothed for "nude bathing".  Later in life, he also served terms on both the Palm Beach Town Council and Palm Beach County Commission.
        Near the entrance to Gus's Bath was posted the owner's favorite slogan, which he often repeated to visitors in person: "Welcome to Our Ocean."
        Captain Gus placed a flagpole on his seaside property and was often observed by neighbors raising the American flag early in the morning. Whenever a ship passed close to shore, he would dip the flag as a salute and wait for the vessel to return the honor with a blast of its steam horn.
        As an entrepreneur, Captain Gus drew on his nautical knowledge to design an innovative life preserver patented as the "Sug-ooter," but commonly called the "Palm Beach Roll". In his 1921 U.S. Patent Office application, he described his water wing as " a device to be used  in learning to swim consisting of a long flexible open-ended tube adapted to encircle the body of the wearer..."
        In March 1931, he even tried to patent a "Sea Shell Whistle" consisting of a "sea shell of the species Nerita Peloranta." Essentially, he sought ownership rights and royalties for the use of shells common to Florida and Caribbean to sell as whistles. The venture failed.
        The biggest threat faced during his lifetime was the Category 5 "Hurricane of 1928." The storm battered his new fishing pier and pushed a surge of seawater over the dune and South Ocean Blvd., then down Worth Avenue.
        Captain Gus gathered 38 residents and guests at Gus' Baths and rode out the hurricane in a cellar located behind one of his pools. After surveying the damages to his swimming complex and Rainbo Pier, he may have had second thoughts about the wisdom of operating seaside recreational facilities in Florida.
        His pier was supported by wood pilings driven into the sand, with a deck consisting mainly of wooden planks. It was vulnerable to the waves, winds and whims of the sea.
        The 1928 Hurricane arrived the same year as the stock market crash. Profits plunged as the Great Depression impacted customers. Facing future foreclosure, Captain Gus sold his interest in both Gus' Baths and the Rainbo Pier to the "Bath and Pools Operating Company" for $50,000 in 1931.

Lido Pools and the 'Palm Beach Pier"
        The Bath and Pools Operating Company was jointly owned by local businessmen William D. Gray and Hedley Gillings. They had ambitious plans for both the pier and swimming complex.
        Their first action was a promotional name change. The Rainbo Pier became the "Palm Beach Pier" in 1931. Gus' Baths swimming center assumed a new identity as the "Lido Pools". In addition to the existing pools, they added a solarium, badminton and table tennis courts.
        To increase tourism and profits, the business duo added a new coffee shop, liquor store, cocktail lounge, and restaurant on the pier with a deck for dancing at night. Nature gave the new operators of the Palm Beach Pier a reprieve until the summer of 1948.
        Hurricanes in both 1948 and 1949 generated huge waves which tore off the end of the Palm Beach Pier. Property ownership changed hands several times in the 1950s and 1960s as the pier continued to be battered by both tropical and winter storms.
        Repair costs increased while profits from the pier declined. Hurricanes Cleo and Isbell turned the Palm Beach Pier into dangerous wreck in 1964. The pier became more of a city hazard than tourism attraction.
        Two powerful winter storms in 1969 ended plans for the pier's revitalization. The Town of Palm Beach ordered the demolition of the pier. A company called the "Pier Corporation" presented a plan to build a new pier in 1972, but the Town Council denied their venture, and sent them packing.
        The Lido Pools site consisted of 287 feet of prime oceanfront property between Worth and Hammon avenues. In the late 1960s, a new developer acquired the valuable site, and the Lido Pools became the Winthrop House Condominium.
        Captain Gus did not live to see the sad end of his Rainbo Pier and Gus' Baths of Worth Avenue. He contracted a severe case of pneumonia in February 1938 and died at age 58. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach, where he rests in peace today.
(c.) Davidsson. 2016.

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