"and gladly would they teach" -- 30 years

Three decades ago, the unique round building at the end of the Manhattan Beach pier had fish guts all over the floor, fish being slapped against the wall and a bait shop residing out front. The space had been vacant for years. Its most recent tenant had been a restaurant whose owners realized they didn’t have the capacity to feed very many people.

But within what had become a makeshift fish cleaning facility, Dick Fruin, among others, had found the home for the Roundhouse Aquarium.

“There was no place close by to learn about the marine environment of the Santa Monica Bay,” said Fruin, back then an environmental commissioner.

Amid the fish residue cleanup, the founders faced a more daunting challenge — developing an aquarium that could pay for itself and raising enough money to pay for staff. Initially, the group cut out pictures of fish from magazines, put them on fishing line and hung them in the Roundhouse with a sign — “When we raise enough money we’ll put fish in here.”

Soon the aquarium entered a contract with the L.A. County Office of Education (LACOE). The aquarium would offer classes to local students and LACOE would provide the financial underpinnings for the endeavor, Fruin said.

By 1979, Oceanographic Teaching Stations, Inc. opened as a marine interpretive center in the Roundhouse aquarium. And this Friday night, the Roundhouse will celebrate its 30-year anniversary.