Countdown to 2000 -- Lifestyles

Alex Coolman

Suddenly, the world was moving fast.

Technology was beginning to change the nature of Newport-Mesa life during

the 1910s, bringing new opportunities to residents but also changing the

nature of life in ways that were unprecedented and strange.

Henry Ford had introduced the Model T in 1908 and automobiles now began

to putter down the primitive roads of the Newport-Mesa area.

A photograph taken in 1913 shows the Ellis brothers of Fairview staring

out from the carriage of their immense 1909 Buick, a car with spoked

wheels, an engine compartment reminiscent of that found on a locomotive,

and the number “19” emblazoned on its side. The Ellis brothers gunned

their clunky monster of an auto in a race from Los Angeles to Phoenix.

They finished a disappointing seventh, demonstrating at the very dawn of

the automotive age the reality that commuting isn’t much fun.

The skies, too, were filling with people moving at high speed. Aviation

pioneer Glenn Martin flew his “aero-hydroplane” from Newport Bay to

Avalon and back on May 10, 1912, setting a record for the longest and

fastest over-water flight at that time.

Technology also showed Newport-Mesa residents it had disadvantages when

it took the form of the first modern war in 1914.

World War I brought a halt to the economic growth experienced in the area

during the first half of the decade, cutting off what seemed to be

healthy development and leaving the city in a state of disrepair.

“Shortly before the war,” author Joseph Allan Beek wrote, “it was noticed

that the improvement program had come to a stop. No sidewalks were being

laid, construction of the little bulkhead along the waterfront had ceased

and over half of [Balboa] island was left without water pipes or sewers.”

The result of the slowdown, Beek said, was “a depreciation in [property]

values seldom equaled in the history of real estate.”

It would not be until the Roaring ‘20s that the economic strain finally

eased.

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.

“Balboa Island Yarns,” Joseph Allan Beek.