The battle continues to save and preserve the magnificent Norconian: next steps are to preserve artifacts that are in danger and get a conex container off the roof before it crashes to the floors below!
Hard to believe we have fought to have this repair work done for ten years!
Preparing for our annual Pearl Harbor Commemoration Ceremony - 10 years ago we held the first such event in pouring rain to a packed house and thought it would be a one time event. Well, ten years later, we are still showing off "the showplace of the west coast" and honoring those Sailors and Marines who came to receive treatment and recover from that terrible attack.
Sadly, of the ten Pearl Harbor Survivors who made the first remembrance ceremony, only one survives: Roger Marron.
On another note, the LNCF is very active in the fight to recognize the historic contributions of the US Naval Hospital Corona (in Norco) and the Navy graciously took our concerns about tearing off the tile roof of a historic hospital wing and opted to save it: A+ for the US Navy!
And finally - the LNCF has plans to scare the devil out of you at our upcoming Oktoberfest Member Appreciation Get Together at the Sons of Liberty Aleworks on October 10 - come on by and say "BOO"!
Best Regards -
Linda Dixon
President: Lake Norconian Club Foundation
Norco Community Town Hall Meeting
Sponsored by the Lake Norconian Club Foundation
Hear updates from City staff, regional agencies, community organizations and more! Residents will be allowed to ask questions as time allows after each presentation.
Monday, October 24, 2016
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Nellie Weaver hall, 3737 Crestview Avenue, Norco, CA, 92860
Special Events, Special Events
The Fabulous Norconian
If walls could talk - - -
photos by Brigitte Jouxtel
Norconian Tour Part I
Preservation50 National Photography Contest
Commemorating 50 Years of the National Preservation Act
To honor 50 years of saving history, Preservation 50 is holding a photo contest to determine 20 photographers and 12 photos that best exemplify that effort.
Brigitte Jouxtel has entered three photos of the Norconian on INSTAGRAM at #P50Photo - Click and LIKE! Instagram
Here are the three entries:
Endangered Place
The Norconian/US Naval Hospital Norco California Rehabilitation Center/Naval Warfare Center Norco/California
Photo Brigitte Jouxtel.
The Norconian Clubhouse, designed by Dwight Gibbs, was once the centerpiece for the fabulous Norconian Resort, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Opening in the midst of rural Norco , California, then a poultry Capitol, in 1929, the resort was a massive complex consisting of the clubhouse (complete with lavish and still intact interiors by AB Heinsbergen), men and women's hot springs spas, Olympic swimming and diving pools, hotel, dining room, ballroom, lounge, 18-hole golf course, air field, man made lake chauffeurs quarters, breathtaking gardens and more. Today, the former resort is broken up between private ownership, Norco College, California Rehabilitation Center and Naval Warfare Center. The clubhouse, which sits in the middle of the prison behind 20 foot high fences, was abandoned in 2003 and declared a "black building": meaning it would be allowed to purposely deteriorate and "die". The Lake Norconian Club Foundation and the City of Norco have waged a 15 year battle to preserve this masterpiece and are currently engaged in a groundbreaking lawsuit to force the State of California to preserve this historic landmark.
Inspiring Place
Norconian/US Naval Hospital Norco California Rehabilitation Center/Naval Warfare Center Norco California
Photo: Brigitte Jouxtel
The Norconian Clubhouse and Lake Pavilion: once part of a 700-acre resort consisting of hotel, hot sweet sulfur spa, air field, Olympic Diving and Swimming Pools, chauffeurs quarters, man-made lake, gardens, garage, and 18 hole-golf course. Designed in Spanish Colonial by Dwight Gibbs with still existing interiors by AB Heinsbergen. Spectacular opening in 1929 attended by thousands including the greatest Hollywood stars of the day, but ran smack into the Great Depression. Limped through the 1930s and was eventually purchased by the Navy just weeks before Pearl Harbor initially to serve as a minor convalescent hospital. Breathtaking architecture saved the complex from alteration wrecking ball with Claud Beelman contracted to expand the Norconian into a major freestanding hospital. Designed to preserve and compliment the original architecture and to serve as the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery "showplace of the west coast". The Norconian/US Naval Hospital Norco grew into a three hospital complex and four off-site satellite facilities. Also built was a nurses quarters, gym/theater complex, WAVES quarters, chapel and more. The hospital was home to the first neurosurgery unit in Navy history and the Navy's WWII/post war national rheumatic was fever unit and spinal cord, polio and TB west coast units. With the closure of the hospital in 1957, the property has bee split between the California Rehabilitation Center, Naval Warfare Center and private hands. The Norconian, as a district, was placed on the National Register in 2000 and has been the scene of a hard fought preservation battle. The Naval Hospital has also been the topic of serious fighting to preserve and remember it's history: miraculously, the old hospital is almost entirely architecturally intact and as such is the last standing example of a WWII Naval Hospital on the west coast and one of only three nation wide. Today, in the middle of Norco, California, Horse Town USA, the Norconian still inspires.
The fabulous Norconian Resort opened in 1929 and was built in the middle of an area that was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. The builder, Rex Clark specifically sought to attract "discriminating ladies and gentlemen of the Caucasian race". The Great Depression killed the resort, which due to its enormous cost, became known as "Rex's Folly". Weeks before Pearl Harbor, the Navy purchased the Norconian and during WWII developed the former resort into into a major, architecturally magnificent hospital ("the showplace of the west coast"). It was also the site of two major and completely forgotten achievements (among many): in 1945, the hospital was the Navy's designated spinal cord treatment center and paraplegics from around the Pacific came to receive pioneering treatment. Physicians employed sports to fight against deadly bed sores common to paraplegics and US Naval Hospital Norco became the site of the first organized wheelchair basketball game between to organized paraplegic teams in American history (USNH Norco vs. Birmingham VA - March 18, 1947) in a gym that is still historically intact. The Norco team was nationally known as the Rolling Devils and their California barnstorming tour was a key component to the early development of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The second historic incident took place in early 1942. Captain Leslie Marshall, Executive Officer at the Naval Hospital, informed the local leadership that one "of his Negro Sailors, a Pearl Harbor hero, had not been served" in a local restaurant. He went on to say that should this practice continue, the town "would be off-limits. This quiet declaration led to the demise of the Klan and segregation. USNH Norco never adhered to the pre-war practice of segregated wards, and unlike other pools in area, they did not bar minorities from the former Norconian pools. Today, efforts to preserve these historic pools are underway.
Rex B. Clark
"That Clark fella' is a real go-getter!"
Part Two: Norco - "Where a Man Can Live by His Own Two Hands!"
Rex Clark c. 1927
It is unknown exactly how Rex Clark happened upon Norco and decided to create a stand alone town. His daughter claimed, "He followed his mistress from Julian," news accounts state he purchased land from a friend whose development was going belly-up, and Clark himself stated, "I passed through and saw a place like none other: a paradise in the rough."
In October of 1920, it was announced that Clark had purchased a sizable piece of land in future Norco and very quickly, he purchased the remaining lots and land owned by the Citrus Belt Company who established the first development in the area om 1909 and had been teetering on bankruptcy ever since.
Clark hired Civil Engineer Captain Cuthbert Gully who would spend the next forty years "cleaning up messes". Gully actually served as the townships engineer and beginning in 1909 laid out all the streets, pipes, "and whatever else needed to be done". He quit the Citrus Belt Company in 1910 because, "They insisted we use cheap pipes".
Clark's first task was to build better roads in and out of the township - Hamner Avenue was little more than a dirt road in 1920 and a key reason why other developers failed. Prone to flooding, Hamner at times was closed for days in heavy rainstorms leaving residents stranded.
The North Corona Land Company was established to build roads, lay pipe and serve any and all construction needs for the new town.
Clark and Gully quickly learned the water pipes were useless and decided to tear the existing water system out and start over. Clark vowed to sell no lot until a man and his family "could take a bath".
The Santa Ana Winds and frost killed all but the most hearty trees and crops - so, berries, potatoes and other spring/summer produce was grown - in 1922 Norco became the lettuce capitol of California.
The North Corona Land Company sold several types of pre-fab ranch homes. The one above was considered "a modern, spacious, full service, home for the modern family." Included in this 600 square foot home was a sink with running water, two bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and optional toilet "for discriminating ranchers and farmers". Most folks had an outhouse.
Clark intended to build a modern downtown and started with the Norco Store - a full service "shoppers paradise". Old timers remember this store with great fondness, particularly the soda fountain and candy counter.
Opening Day occurred on Mother's Day, May 13, 1923 and thousands swarmed Norco to dine on great food, listen to members of the John Phillip Sousa Band and maybe buy a piece of "paradise".
Norco's future would be altered however in 1926 with a monumental discovery: hot sweet sulfur water!
It is claimed that Congress/DOD has a policy of tearing down a building of equal square footage when a new building is being constructed - they are torn whether that building is historic, has had money poured into it or there is a use for the building.
Hanger 385 is on the chopping block - tragic loss to this and another building which are part of the truly magnificent March Air Field Historic District.
Call your Congressmen if you object - Congressmen Calvert and Takano!
Those following the Norconian Preservation efforts are very familiar with this truly ridiculous policy and remember well the destruction of the old resort laundry, which was still heavily used, for no reason whatsoever.
Norconian Laundry Building - 1930: Designed by Dwight Gibbs, placed on National Register in 2000, in use prior to destruction as supply building. Navy is currently constructing new building due to need. Why was this building not mothballed for future use?
Norconian Laundry today - torn down as it was being placed on National Register under the policy of when one building goes up another goes down.
Who is Who?
Not Given His Due
Dwight Gibbs designed the now demolished Carthay Circle Theater, Pasadena Playhouse and the Norconian. Initially his style was Spanish Colonial, but, in the end he became a designer of "modern, spacious homes."
Fired from the Norconian, Gibbs designed many Public Works buildings through the 1939's but by the early 1950's he designed tract homes.
