Piece of history is demolished

NEWPORT BEACH — Nearly eight decades of Newport Beach history came to a close Thursday morning as a crew began demolishing Robins Hall, the iconic building at Newport Harbor High School that is slated to be replaced under the Measure F school bond.

With a crowd of about two dozen people, many of them former students, snapping pictures, an excavator set to work tearing down the walls on the building’s right side. The wooden structure crumpled like cardboard under the giant metal claw, revealing the barren rooms that housed classrooms for generations.

The crew started shortly after 8 a.m. and within an hour had torn away nearly the entire façade of the right side. Debris scattered the school’s front lawn below the flagpole and trees. A wrecking ball sat unused on the far end of the grass, reserved for the building’s famous clock tower and other concrete parts set to be torn down in the coming weeks.

As Robins Hall began its demise 77 years after opening, onlookers reminisced.

“I was up in that bell tower years and years ago,” said Ed Richardson, who graduated in 1940 and once climbed the inside of the tower on a dare from friends. “It’s hard for me to believe it isn’t safe anymore.”

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District closed Robins Hall in 2003 due to seismic problems and planned at first to renovate it under the Measure A school bond. Officials decided, however, that fixing the building would be more costly than simply erecting another facility from scratch. So out went the desks and in came the portables.

When voters passed Measure F in 2005, the district relieved many at Newport Harbor by choosing Robins Hall for the first round of projects. The new structure is expected to be nearly identical to the old one, with some minor adjustments for modern building standards. Craig Scaringi, the project manager for McCarthy Building Co. who is overseeing the demolition, said the old building would likely be completely torn down by September and construction on the replacement would start soon after.

To Newport Harbor Principal Michael Vossen, entering his eighth year at the school, that change was a bittersweet one.

“On the one hand, I’m happy to see progress after this building’s been vacant for four years,” he said. “It’s a long time to be displaced. But the other side is very upset because you’ve had this icon here since 1930.”

To see a photo gallery of the demolition, click here.