COUNTDOWN TO 2000 -- 1910s: Top Ten

S.J. Cahn

The second decade of the 20th Century was a time of growing successes in

Newport Beach, but one of slow development and repeated failure in what

is now Costa Mesa.

Those important 10 years saw Newport Beach, and its blossoming harbor,

grow into a small, vibrant community and vacation spot. In Costa Mesa,

growth was hampered by development in the oil-rich areas that are now

Huntington Beach and Santa Ana.

In Fairview, the largest of the areas within present-day Costa Mesa, the

only significant business during this decade was a hotel. But attempts to

turn the “Fairview Hot Springs” into a resort failed repeatedly. Business

was so bad that the hotel changed ownership several times, including

twice within one month.

While Fairview struggled, folks in Paularino quietly went about their

lives on the few scattered farms in the area.

That left the smallest area, Harper, to keep up with the booming areas to

the north and south, which were filling with automobiles and getting

connected to the first information highway -- the telephone.

As locals described it, Harper was the one area that offered numerous

reasons for people to relocate -- health, business opportunities,

retirement, some oil discovery and farming.

Still, Harper was no bustling metropolis. As the Newport News reported on

July 20, 1917, “Harper is not yet large enough to have a local newspaper,

but a neighborhood bulletin board, to perform many of the functions of a

newspaper is to be erected at the Harper Store.”

In Newport Beach, however, there were visions of a booming city floating

in more than one head. The “Harbor Boosters,” 16 men who formed the first

Chamber of Commerce, still expected the harbor to become a center for

commercial shipping, cruise lines and resorts.

The decade opened with James McFadden selling the islands of Newport,

Lido and Balboa for $50,000. By the middle of the decade, William S.

Collins had sold more than 700 lots on Balboa Island, which was annexed

to the city of Newport Beach in 1916. Still, if not for the work of

Joseph A. Beek, who fulfilled Collins’ promise of building a bridge to

the mainland, Balboa Island’s development likely would have been delayed,

if not failed.

Much work was being done to turn the area into a tourist resort. In 1916,

residents approved $125,000 to build the west jetty following a series of

floods. Joseph A. Beek recalled the January 1916 flood, illustrating that

the harbor has long been plagued by pollution: “The water of the bay was

the color of chocolate, and the beaches were littered with thousands of

oranges and everything else, from decrepit baby buggies to dead calves.”

The following year, construction began on a two-mile boardwalk,

reminiscent of the one in Atlantic City, along the peninsula to connect

the villages of Newport and Balboa.

Still, there was one major impediment to turning Newport into a vacation

spot. In 1916, the city went “dry” under Prohibition and stayed that way

until the amendment was repealed in 1933.

These 10 events defined the second decade of the 20th Century in the

Newport-Mesa area:

* 1912 -- Aviator Glenn Martin completes work on a hydroplane and on May

10 flies from Newport to Catalina Island and back. The 37-minute flight

was the longest and fastest over-water trip at that time.

* 1912 -- In the fall, the Fairview School District is formed and the

first school house in what will become Costa Mesa opens under teacher

Minnie Kellog. The school is relocated two years later to a site at

Paularino Avenue and Newport Boulevard on land leased from James Irvine

for $25 a month.

* 1913 -- Following a double drowning, Newport Beach’s first unpaid

lifeguard department is formed. The Frost Life Saving Corps is named

after Dr. Lowell C. Frost, who responded to news of the drowning, only to

find the victims were his wife and child.

* 1915 -- Harper Church is dedicated after narrowly escaping destruction

by a fire. The ceremony at the Methodist Church is held on Sun., March 21

at 2:30 p.m.

* 1915 -- George Hart, who had hoped to develop Corona del Mar, trades

more than half his 700 acres to the F.D. Cornell Co. for land in

Riverside County. Only 15 houses and a small hotel exist in Corona del

Mar, where development is hampered by the area’s isolation. At the time,

the only way to get from Newport to Corona del Mar is by traveling around

the Back Bay. A bridge across the bay won’t be built until 1926.

* 1916 -- The area experiences the last of a series of floods, this one

the worst since the 1880s. While there is no permanent damage in the

Costa Mesa area, Newport Beach is repeatedly flooded, encouraging the

county in 1919 to sink $500,000 into building a dam and diverting the

Santa Ana river to its present course.

* 1917 -- Harper’s General Store is destroyed by a fire. The front page

of the Newport News for Jan. 19 describes how the midnight blaze consumed

the building. The only product saved is one bag of potatoes. Strong east

winds -- what today we call the Santa Anas -- are blamed.

* 1917 -- “Cleopatra,” the first major motion picture filmed in the area,

casts Upper Newport Bay in the role of the Nile River. Twenty-nine ships

and 700 Roman soldiers round out the scene.

* 1918 -- A Spanish influenza epidemic hits the county, killing as many

as 10 people a day. In response, Dr. Conrad Richter begins practicing in

the area with Dr. Gordon M. Grundy, who will later open the city’s first

hospital in the late 20s.

* 1918 -- An earthquake hits the area, cutting off the flow of hot

mineral water to the Fairview Hotel, the final blow to this

never-quite-successful resort. Two years later, it is sold to Charles

TeWinkle -- later to become Costa Mesa’s first mayor. He will have it

torn down in 1920.

SOURCES:

“Newport Beach: The First Century, 1888-1988,” James Felton, Ed., 1988.

“A Slice of Orange: The History of Costa Mesa,” Edrick J. Miller, 1970.