| Balboa Pavilion raises city’s early profile | |
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Art Gronsky parks his gleaming 1956 black Ford Thunderbird right in front of the Balboa Pavilion, like he owns the place.
It’s a habit that’s hard to break. Because the Gronsky family did own the place, for 13 years, from 1947 to 1960. Gronsky is just one in a handful of people who had the opportunity to own the Pavilion and have a hand in its 100-year history. This year, along with the city of Newport Beach, the building that has been a venue for big band icons and a sport fishing depot all at the same time will celebrate a landmark birthday. “The way this building is, the longer you’re here, the more you fall in love with it,” said Matt Tozer, current president of the Balboa Pavilion Co. and the son of the late Phil Tozer, who bought the Pavilion in 1969. The building itself is an original structure; nearly the entire building is built out over water, most of the weight supported by concrete pilings. “During the high tides you could actually hear the water rustling underneath the floor here in the office,” Tozer said. Buildings like the Pavilion are one-of-a-kind and don’t exist anymore, Gronsky said. “You don’t get a permit to do this these days for all the tea in China,” Gronsky said. “The Pavilion property here is one of the most unique properties in the city.” When Tozer took partial ownership of the building after his mother passed away in December 2004, he compiled an extensive history of the building from newspaper clippings and papers his father had collected. Tozer found that a string of proud owners, each captivated by the Pavilion’s history, had worked to continually maintain the aging building over the years and restore the Pavilion to its original appearance the day it opened to the public, July 1, 1906. The Balboa Pavilion was commissioned in 1905 by the Newport Bay Investment Co., who pledged $10,000 to build a community structure designed to draw people into Balboa, Tozer wrote. At the time the Pacific Electric Railway ran from Los Angeles to Balboa, providing transportation from the city to the beaches, Tozer wrote. The Pavilion was built to attract people to the area - and it certainly did the job, Tozer said. Although it’s now difficultto imagine a time when the Balboa Peninsula wasn’t crowded with beach houses, the Pavilion was once one of the sole buildings on the peninsula, serving as a catalyst for development in Newport Beach, Tozer said. In the 1930s, the Pavilion became a regular venue for the big bands of the era; Benny Goodman played there on weekends, Tozer said. Growing up in a home on Balboa Peninsula Point, Gronsky remembers visiting the Pavilion as a child, climbing the front staircase and watching the dance marathons from the sidelines. After World War II ended and Gronsky got out of the Navy, he and his brother started a boat repair service in Newport. Needing more space for the growing business, the Gronsky family searched prospective properties with the help of a real estate agent. When the agent showed the Gronskys the Pavilion, the family wasn’t sure what to think of the property. The real estate agent suggested tearing it down and using the space for a boat yard. When word got around Newport that the Gronskys were considering demolishing the historic building, the locals objected, Gronsky said. “We almost got run out of town,” Gronsky said. And so, in 1947 with a price tag of $120,000 the Gronsky family bought the building and forever tied themselves to the historic Balboa Pavilion. The Gronskys suddenly found themselves the owners of a dilapidated building in need of repair. The family put nearly four times the cost of purchase into the building, Gronsky said. Repairs included the immediate need to replace the old wooden pilings, which supported most of the building and had begun to decay and sink. Gronsky then began the daunting task of replacing the 28 wooden pilings with eight, larger concrete pilings. After some careful engineering, Gronsky actually helped to pour each of the eight pilings himself. Gronsky’s concrete pilings still support the building today. At one point during Gronsky’s ownership, a man leased the upstairs ballroom and used it as a bowling alley. Gronsky remembers that the man insulated the floors with sawdust to prevent the loud noise from carrying throughout the building. In his 13 years as an owner of the Pavilion, Gronsky developed a lifelong attachment to the building. “I feel like I’m at home,” Gronsky said. And for five years before Gronsky got married, the Pavilion was home. He built an apartment for himself in the upstairs of the building. “I have a real big soft spot in my heart for this place,” Gronsky said. A family dispute with a relative resulted in the Gronskys being forced to sell the Pavilion at a public auction. They never intended to sell, but the price climbed too high and the Gronskys were outbid by developer Alan Ducommun. Ducommun restored the exterior of the building, adding the 1,500 lights that now illuminate the Pavilion every night and serve as a beacon for boaters, wrote Tozer. In 1969, the Pavilion was once again up for sale. Phil Tozer, owner of Davey’s Locker, a sport fishing company, bought the building and began a complete period restoration of the interior of the building. Today the Pavilion is owned by the Balboa Pavilion Company and the building is home to a handful of long-term tenants. Davey’s Locker continues to operate out of the Pavilion, joined now by the Catalina Passenger Service, the Harborside Restaurant and Grand Ballroom, a tackle shop and a boat rental service. For Gronsky, now 85 years old, visits to the Pavilion bring back a flood of reminiscence. “A lot of these pictures bring back lots of memories,” said Gronsky, standing next to a wall of historic photographs at the entrance to the Pavilion. “This old building is full of stories,” Gronsky said. |
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