The Sea Scout Building

Drive to the end of Embarcadero Road and, just before the nature center, you pass a white building that looks like it is about to cast off. Its main hall curves like a ship's hull. Round porthole windows line its sides and decks rise like the pilot house of an old riverboat. This is the Sea Scout Building, put up in 1941 when boats could still sail right up to it.

Today the boats are long gone and the harbor is marsh again. The building survived decades of sinking, flooding and neglect. Since 2012 it has been the EcoCenter of Environmental Volunteers, a nonprofit that teaches science to children. This page covers its design, its long decline, the restoration that saved it and how to visit. For the full story of the shoreline around it, see our history of the Baylands.

A clubhouse for the Sea Scouts

By the late 1920s Palo Alto had a working yacht harbor near the old mouth of San Francisquito Creek. It was part of city engineer John Fletcher Byxbee's plan to turn the marsh into a recreation area. Local boys in the Sea Scouts, the maritime branch of the Boy Scouts of America, used the harbor to learn sailing and seamanship.

Philanthropist Lucie Stern commissioned a proper base for them. Environmental Volunteers says she gave $13,000 toward its construction. A historical marker at the site gives the building's original cost as $12,000. Either way, she paid for it and she christened it in 1941. Dedication events were held on May 30, 1941. The marker shows her watching the ceremony while the Stanford Band played. Our page on Lucie Stern covers her many other gifts to the city.

Birge Clark's ship on land

The architect was Birge Clark, the Palo Alto designer best known for the Spanish Colonial Revival look of downtown. The marker credits Birge and David Clark together. For this job Clark set the red tile aside and worked in Streamline Moderne, the style of rounded corners and horizontal lines that drew on ships, trains and planes. Environmental Volunteers says the design was based on the pilot house of a paddle wheel steamer.

Look for these details as you walk around it:

• The hull. The main hall is shaped like the rounded hull of a ship.
• Portholes. Round windows run along the walls.
• Decks and gangplanks. Upper decks and gangplank-style walkways echo a boat's superstructure.
• The setting. It faced the harbor basin, so the scouts could step from their clubhouse to their boats.

Our Birge Clark biography and our guide to mid-century modern Palo Alto place it among his later, more modern buildings.

The harbor closes and the building sinks

The yacht harbor silted up constantly and needed dredging every few years. In the 1980s voters twice rejected more dredging and the boats left in 1986. Environmental Volunteers notes that the City Council voted in 1986 to close the harbor and restore it to tidal marsh. The marker says the Sea Scouts left in 1991, after 50 years in the building. Our page on kayaking and paddling tells the story of the harbor votes.

Without the scouts the building went downhill fast. It sank about three feet into the soft bay mud. High tides flooded it. Vandals broke in. Still, people noticed what was at stake. The Art Deco Society of California gave the building a Preservation Award in 1999. The city then gave it local historic status, in 2003 according to Environmental Volunteers or 2002 according to the marker.

The restoration

Environmental Volunteers took on the project in 2004. The work was complicated. The site sits in a nature preserve at the edge of the bay and planning involved 15 local, state and federal agencies. The group ran a $3.8 million capital campaign, with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The City of Palo Alto owns the building and leases it to Environmental Volunteers for 40 years.

1. September 14, 2008: Groundbreaking. Construction started the next month.
2. The lift: The building was moved onto a new foundation with 50 foot sunken piers and raised four feet to guard against flooding and sea level rise.
3. February 13, 2012: Environmental Volunteers moved in.
4. July 22, 2012: Grand opening of the EcoCenter.
5. 2014: The Santa Clara Valley chapter of the American Institute of Architects gave it a Citation Design Award.

The rebuild doubles as a lesson in reuse. The group lists refurbished siding, flooring and windows, insulation made from blue jeans and carpet made from soda bottles. Round markers around the building point out the green features, so ask for the green building tour if one is running.

The EcoCenter today

Inside, the old clubhouse is a small hands-on science center. Environmental Volunteers lists touchscreen science displays, nature activities, nature-themed art exhibits and a wall of bird taxidermy that helps kids put names to the birds outside. It also runs "The EcoCenter on Wheels" at the Duck Pond across the road.

Most of the group's work is with schools. It runs classroom programs for kindergarten through sixth grade, homeschool and group programs and a field trip fund for schools. The building can also be rented for events. Our guide to nature programs for kids lists similar options around town.

Hours and visiting

As of November 1, 2026, the EcoCenter page lists free drop-in Science Days on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and administrative offices open Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It warns that hours change by season, so check its events calendar. Early November's Science Friday and Science Saturday, on November 6 and 7, are themed on earthquakes and plate tectonics.

The group has also posted a weather notice running from October 26, 2026 to February 25, 2027. It says access to the EcoCenter and the Baylands may be restricted during extreme winter weather and high tides. Call (650) 493-8000 if a storm is forecast.

Getting there and parking

The address is 2560 Embarcadero Road, across from the Duck Pond. From Highway 101, take Embarcadero Road east toward the bay, pass the airport and turn left where the road ends at a T. The building comes up on that road shortly before the Lucy Evans nature center, which is about half a mile past the turn. There is a small parking lot at the building and more parking at the Duck Pond and the nature center.

No public transit runs to the door. Cyclists can follow Embarcadero Road's bike lanes or arrive on the Bay Trail. The Baylands preserve is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset.

What is nearby

The Sea Scout Building anchors a cluster of Baylands sights within a few minutes' walk. Cross the road to the Duck Pond, the old saltwater pool turned bird pond. Continue to the Lucy Evans nature center and its boardwalk over the marsh. Plane spotters can watch small aircraft at Palo Alto Airport just to the south. For trails and birding across the whole preserve, start with our Baylands Nature Preserve guide. Palo Alto has no bike share, so visitors without a bike can book a rental bike and ride out on the flat streets.

Frequently asked questions