THE IRVINE FAMILY

Jenifer Ragland

SEEDS OF A LEGACY

A local historian once pointed out that no other name has been more

frequently published in Newport Beach newspapers and magazines than

Irvine. The moniker is everywhere -- street signs, city halls, a

prestigious university and on the county’s largest development company,

which is based in Newport Beach.

The reason is because at one time -- long before anyone could have ever

conceived of Fashion Island or of multimillion-dollar mansions in Newport

Coast -- the land as far as you could see was owned by one man and his

descendants.

The Irvine family.”The family, being one of the oldest to own real

Spanish land grants in the county have been a very important influence on

how they treated their vast holding of land, which is almost one-fifth of

Orange County,” said Gil Ferguson, a former state assemblyman and former

vice president of the Irvine Co.

“Newport Beach residents have no idea how much they owe to the beauty of

their community and the financial success of where they live to the

Irvine family, who agreed that this place should be developed in a

beautiful way.”

James Irvine came from Ireland -- though he was proudly of Scottish

descent -- to the shores of New York in 1845. Shortly thereafter, after

saving as much money as he could working in a paper mill, he joined the

Gold Rush to San Francisco.

He made his money as a merchant in San Francisco but before long, his

adventurous tendencies called him to explore the largely untouched

Southern California, where land was cheap. He formed a partnership with a

friend and two family members and purchased 108,000 acres of Orange

County land for $41,000 -- what would now be a down payment on the

average Newport Beach home.

At the time, business pioneers were acquiring old Mexican and Spanish

land grants all over Orange County and southern Los Angeles. But the

Irvines, particularly Irvine’s heir, James Irvine Jr. did with the land

what few others had the vision to do.

“In the northern part of the county, you can’t visualize where the

[original] land grants were because they have been sold off by the heirs

of the people who got the grants many years ago,” said Ray Watson, vice

chairman of the Irvine Co. and a former planner and president of the

family-owned corporation. “[Irvine] created an instrument -- the James

Irvine Foundation, which is still going -- to hold it together.”

In 1937, eight years before his death, Irvine set up the James Irvine

Foundation and transferred 51% of his stock to run it, according to Jim

Sleeper, a Tustin resident and former Irvine Co. historian. While the

entity would donate extensively to cultural and medical endeavors

(anything not supported by the government) its primary function was to

keep his heirs from gaining control of the fortune and thus ensuring that

the ranch was kept whole.

THE TRANSITION

When the young Irvine was 18, his father died. Six years later, he

dropped the “Jr.” (a title he reportedly hated). Also that year, he

married Frances Anita Plum of San Francisco. One year after that, he

inherited the ranch.

Irvine was a true farmer. It’s what he loved to do more than anything,

aside from hunting for ducks with his dogs in the Back Bay.

Irvine changed and diversified the ranch from a business of largely sheep

grazing for wool production to an agricultural dynasty. His father’s

pastures became some of the most productive farms in the state, with lima

beans -- including a 17,000-acre field that was the largest in the world

-- citrus and wheat. Irvine made his fortune by selling the fruit of his

crops, which were worth millions even in the early 1900s, to

cooperatives.

Within 10 years of owning the ranch, Irvine became one of the top

agriculturists, eventually growing more diverse crops such as celery,

corn and sugar beets when more water became available. Much of that water

development was because of Irvine, who had a passion for it.

Irvine didn’t know it at the time -- nor would be have liked it -- but

that water development is eventually what enabled so many people to

settle on the ranch.

Irvine’s devotion to farming is what caused him to sell off much of the

untillable land on the coast that is now Newport Beach. That included 700

acres of Corona del Mar, which he sold to civil engineer George E. Hart

in 1906.

His love for farming the land is also why he grew to loath the

government, particularly Franklin Roosevelt, Sleeper said. Several

thousand acres of Irvine’s most fertile bean fields were condemned during

World War II for the Tustin Army base and the El Toro Marine base.

“He offered land elsewhere that was not as good agricultural land, but

they had their hearts set on both parcels,” Sleeper said. “He ultimately

got paid for both of those, but he would have rather had the land and let

the cash go.”

Irvine also stood steadfastly by his belief that Newport Harbor should

remain a pleasure harbor -- a radical view compared to what the city’s

founders had in mind.

“They wanted to put a commercial port there, but Irvine told them ‘No --

It’s a small-boat harbor and that’s where you’ll make your money,”’ said

Irvine historian Judy Gauntt. “He was really a brilliant person when it

came to land-use planning.”

His other contributions included giving up land for Pacific Coast Highway

and a parcel on the bay to the city of Newport Beach for a public dock.

That piece of real estate -- which was in shambles at the time as a

military waste dump -- later became the Balboa Bay Club, which brought

celebrities like Frank Sinatra and politicians like Barry Goldwater to

Newport Beach.

The second transition came after Irvine’s death in 1947 with Myford Irvine -- his youngest son and only surviving child. (A daughter, Kathryn

Helena, died in 1919). Myford developed much of Newport Beach including

Irvine Terrace, Bayshores and Cliffhaven.

Myford was more social than his father and would much rather play a game

of golf than deal with business affairs, Irvine historian Gauntt said.

Myford’s brother, James Irvine III, was trained and groomed to run the

ranch, but he died in 1935 of tuberculosis.

“Myford was a musician, he wasn’t a businessman,” Gauntt added.

But there were three key things Myford did that started the growth of

development in Newport.

First was bringing the Boy Scout Jamboree to town in 1953. More than

50,000 boys attended the massive event. Myford donated the land and

brought in the infrastructure, including Jamboree Road.

Next was the development of Ford Aeronutronics on a 200-acre site off of

Old Ford Road and Jamboree. Myford leased the land to the corporation,

which brought more than 2,000 employees to Newport just as the aerospace

industry was beginning to expand. It eventually became Loral Aerospace

and is now being developed into a housing tract known as One Ford Road.

“Those marked the changes in Newport Beach from a town to a city because

of the constant pressure for service,” Gauntt said.

Myford also invited the Buffalo Ranch -- which became a major tourist

attraction -- onto the Irvine Co. property, Gauntt said.

The ranch was established in 1954, and became one of Myford’s favorite

places. Myford’s 1959 death -- which was by two shotgun blasts to the

stomach and a handgun shot to the head -- was ruled a suicide by the

county coroner.

As Myford was the Buffalo Ranch’s biggest supporter, the lease was not

renewed and in the early 1960s, the operators left. But William Pereira,

a Los Angeles architect who became one of the most famous in Orange

County, fell in love with the barn building and relocated his office

there -- one of seven nationwide -- for the next 20 years. Pereira

designed the master plans for both UCI and the Irvine Ranch, including

Newport Center.

“Pereira was a barn freak, and loved that area,” Gauntt said. “His Orange

County office was the barn, and from the window he could see where he was

planning Newport Center and UCI.”

EDUCATION, ARTS AND CULTURE

The Irvine family’s biggest contribution aside from farming and

development was the University of California at Irvine, which the company

permitted to locate on the ranch.

The company also gave 1,000 acres for the land for $1 -- the other 500

was purchased by the university system -- and the campus opened to

classes on Oct. 4, 1965, before it was landscaped.

It was not an easy road to get there. Irvine, the patriarch of the

family, wanted to keep the family’s vast agricultural empire intact. He

had mandated in his will when he created the James Irvine Foundation that

land donations not be made to tax-supported institutions.

Joan Irvine Smith, who at the time was Joan Irvine Burt, is Irvine’s

granddaughter. A member of the company’s board of directors, she became

an ally for UCI proponents spent two years trying to convince the other

board members to support the university campaign and make a land gift.

A university -- particularly one that is growing and becoming more and

more recognized -- not only helps the economy by bringing jobs, but adds

an element of culture and excitement to the community.

“In any community anywhere in the world, a major university elevates it

to a higher plane because it attracts brain power and youth with fresh

ideas,’ said B.W. Cook, a Daily Pilot society columnist and the editor of

the Bay Window.

According to historians, Irvine Smith -- who is very private about

herself and her family -- was more like her grandfather than any of his

other descendants.

Despite not owning any of the land -- which was the Irvine legacy -- the

sense is that she still tries to watch over the spirit of the family.

WHERE THE DYNASTY ENDS

Although the family company was sold twice and is a separate corporate

entity now owned by Southern California developer Donald Bren, observers

say the philosophy embodied by James Irvine has not changed. The

wholeness of the land and the quality of development continue to be goals

touted by Irvine Co. officials. And the company is held fiercely private

by Bren.

“The philosophy from the beginning was that this was the ranch --

something that would remain here and that they would retain ownership of

an interest in,” said former Newport Beach City Manager Kevin Murphy.

“I’m sure it’s evolved, but quite honestly I think it’s gotten more

sophisticated.”

The developments in Newport Beach are mostly residential, aside from

Newport Center. Competing with South Coast Plaza just down the highway,

it remains the single largest generator of sales tax for the city. The

center includes not only upscale retail shopping at Bloomingdales and

Neiman Marcus but office complexes that house Orange County giants such

as Pacific Life and the Irvine Co. It opened in the late ‘60s and went

through a $100 million expansion a decade later.

But it did not pave without protest. A movement in the 1970s that

continues today -- as evidenced by the Protect From Traffic and Density

Initiative, which could be voted on this year -- tried to slow down the

company’s ambitious plans, twice putting Irvine Co. plans on the ballot.

In the 1980s, voters passed a measure opposing Newport Center’s

expansion, and the company was forced to scale down its proposal. In the

early ‘90s, Measure M was floated in an attempt to purchase the Castaways

property and other Back Bay land. That initiative failed.

But Murphy said he believes Newport Beach has always been lucky to have,

for many years, one large developer.

“It’s not a developer that’s going to come to town and leave,” he said.

Watson agreed, saying that because growth of the city was inevitable,

it’s wonderful that much of Newport Beach has been developed by people

who cared enough to develop it nicely.

“I think Don Bren cares about the Irvine Ranch as much as James Irvine

did,” Watson said.