Charlie Chaplin's Boardwalk Buildings
Westminster Avenue at the Venice Boardwalk, Los Angeles, CA 90291
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public boardwalk and beach. The buildings on Westminster Avenue are private residences and apartments.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved boardwalk and sand
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · Abbot Kinney Development · Silent Film Location · Los Angeles Neighborhood
Venice of America was founded in 1905 by Abbot Kinney as a planned beach community on the Pacific coast of what is now Los Angeles. Kinney built canals, a pier, an arcade-fronted business district, and a series of bathhouses and lodging buildings aimed at vacationers. The neighborhood was annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1926, and most of the canals were paved over in 1929; a smaller section survives as the protected Venice Canals.
Venice Beach served as a frequent shooting location for one-reel silent comedies in the mid-1910s. Charlie Chaplin's 1915 Keystone-era film By the Sea, a one-reel comedy released through the Essanay Studio, was filmed along the Venice piers and boardwalk. Production records and Chaplin biographies establish his use of Venice locations during this period; the persistent local claim that he owned multiple buildings along Westminster Avenue is not supported by property records in the published sources reviewed.
The broader Westminster Avenue area today is a mix of private residences and small multi-unit buildings, some dating to the original Kinney development. The boardwalk remains a major Los Angeles public space with active performers, vendors, and high foot traffic.
Sources
Online retellings of the Westminster Avenue folklore describe a Chaplin stunt double who disappeared during the 1915 production of By the Sea, prompting a multi-day search; the man's body was supposedly discovered later in the basement dressing room of a Westminster Avenue building, wet and covered in seaweed, bound at the hands and feet. The tale concludes with reports from later residents of the building of footsteps, dripping water, faint cries for help, and the figure of a bound man in Chaplin-era costume.
The story does not appear in standard Chaplin biographies, the Margaret Herrick Library production materials, or Los Angeles Times coverage from the period. Contemporary Keystone production records describe a brief one-reel shoot rather than a multi-day shutdown. The narrative is best treated as a piece of internet-era folklore attached to a real silent-film location, not as documented history.
The Westminster Avenue buildings are private residences. A respectful visit is a daylight walk along the boardwalk and side streets, not access to private interiors.
Walk the Venice Beach Boardwalk and the side streets including Westminster Avenue, the area where Charlie Chaplin filmed scenes for the 1915 Keystone short By the Sea. Buildings tied to the silent-film era remain along the boardwalk, though most are now private residences and apartments.
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