| Marking off 100 years | |
| The icons of Newport Beach tell a distinct story of the city. |
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Much has changed in Newport Beach during the past 100 years. Gone are the bare fields and swampy harbor-front land where pioneers settled, hoping to make their fortune via fishing, agriculture or maybe rum-running. Hotels, restaurants and high-end shopping centers now mark the landscape. Clapboard cottages that once sat lonely and isolated have been replaced by multi-million dollar homes that are squeezed along the
water. Much has changed, indeed. But much has stayed the same.
It is those constants, the landmarks that have stood watch as the decades passed, that maintain the city’s history. And it is the newer landmarks that tell the story of the city’s evolution from sleepy vacation destination to bustling economic center. In the following stories, these pieces of Newport’s history take center stage. Some are still down the street. Others have disappeared into the city’s past. A few are the promise of the next 100 years. Each has left its mark, unmistakably, on Newport Beach. Balboa Pavilion raises city’s early profile 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. A commercial center that wasn’t Had the McFadden brothers gotten their way in the late 1800s, Newport Beach today would be the gateway to a massive commercial harbor, and pleasure seekers would have to find another place to loll on the sand. A pair of ocean oddities They each extend regally into the ocean, but rarely draw much afterthought from the thousands of visitors and locals who pass by the Balboa and Newport piers during the summer months. Standing the test of time Newport Beach’s landmark restaurant, a staple here since 1922, doesn’t have a view of the water, never mind sunlight or even an open window. The atmosphere inside is dark - and that’s the way the customers like itFor owner Dan Marcheano, it’s also precisely the point - it’s not a view restaurant but that doesn’t matter; here, it’s all about the food and the atmosphere. Red Car opened city to tourists The Red Cars, created as an inter-urban transit line by Henry Huntington’s Pacific Electric railroad company, started rolling around the turn of the century. At their height, the Red Cars were part of a transportation network that ran across Southern California from Los Angeles to Orange County to the Inland Empire. Fishing Newport shores Open every morning, the Dory Fleet is about as old-time as Newport Beach gets. The day’s catch is sold out of weather-beaten boats that function as sales counters and table tops where fish are beheaded and cleaned before customers’ eyes. Seafood lovers line up at the fish market around sunrise and leave with bags of fresh fish, crabs or even sea snails. Where legends played Newport Beach’s greatest basketball legend does not involve the names Jordan or Johnson, Bird or Chamberlain - or, for that matter, either of the future NBA stars who once played for Newport Harbor High School. No, the most enduring tale is the night, somewhere in the mid-1940s, when the local Newport team defeated the Harlem Globetrotters. 50,000 Boy Scouts can’t be wrong Decades before Jamboree Road became a major thoroughfare for Newport Beach motorists, the unpaved land served as the entryway for nearly 50,000 people who attended the National Scout Jamboree. |
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