Tom Heffernan
One of our surviving historic treasures is the Kerckhoff Marine Lab in China Cove. While it became a Marine Lab when it was sold to Caltech, it was originally designed as a boat and bath house for the short-lived Balboa Palisades Club in 1926. The club ran into financial difficulty while it was still being built and they ended up selling it to Caltech in late 1929 for $50,000. The lab was acquired with funds donated by William G. Kerckhoff, a California businessman who made his fortune in power and gas.
