So spoke Miles Kellogg in response to a local newspaper that made fun of his creation. Mr. Kellogg was a builder, inventor and businessman who picked up materials at a bargain... in this case, wood from the dismantled dance hall and bathhouse at Moonlight beach in 1925. Since the building had a low ceiling, the wood wasn't long enough to use in an ordinary house. Mr. Kellogg had a lingering interest in the sea, so the idea came to him to use the material for boat houses.

The Boathouses and Their Creator
He was undoubtedly one of Encinitas' most noted recyclers, certainly within that period when he lived here in the 1920's and 1930's. His name was Miles Minor Kellogg and he was a versatile builder with a talent for taking scrap material and incorporating it into new structures.

When the third story of Mr. Hammond's 1883 hotel became infested with bats in the late 1910's, Mr. Kellogg, who owned the building at the time, removed the top floor and used the wood to build a small silent movie theatre next door at the northeast corner of 101 and E Street.

But perhaps his ultimate recycling triumph was the boathouses on the west side of Third Street between F and G. What a stir they created back in the late twenties. The editor of the local paper poked fun of Mr. Kellogg's creation and Mr. Kellogg retaliated with a major tongue-lashing!

But then his imagination soared and he thought back to earlier days when he had worked on bats at Lake Michigan and the idea came to him to build “boat houses.” His young son, Miles Justin Kellogg, helped every day after school until they were completed. In 1928 the boat houses could be seen from Highway 101 and people passing through town began to turn west for a better look at the structures. Down through the years the boathouses probably have been the most photographed buildings downtown and are a unique symbol of our surfing, beach, and Hwy 101 culture.