When Grant Howald moved his family to Corona del Mar from Valley View, Kansas, in 1950, Corona del Mar was a tiny town surrounded by Irvine sheep and cattle pastures. There were no public parks anywhere—no places for children to play!

 

Grant, who was the CdM postmaster, a man of inspired ideas, and wanted to enhance the community/benefit the youth—set his sights on starting a youth center. He had his eye on a property at 5th and Iris (which was the edge of town at that time), on a strip of land which had been Irvine Co./Santa Fe Pacific Railroad easement land (5th Avenue, from Goldenrod to Poppy) for a railroad line that was never built.

 

During WWII, the Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) was located in Costa Mesa (part of the base was where the OC Fair is now). Right before the Howalds arrived, the war had ended (1945). In 1946, the SAAAB Base closed, and its approximately 800 decommissioned military buildings (chapels, barracks, warehouses) had been sold or given away to: USC’s campus, elementary schools, hospitals, a mess hall that became Cook’s Corner bar, and seventy-one buildings to start the new Orange Coast College.

 

Seven years later, the 1953 Boy Scout Jamboree was held in Newport Beach on 3000 acres of Irvine Company land (where Fashion Island is now). Raw empty land before the Jamboree took place, the Irvine Co. paid for most of the site improvements for the event—water, sewer, telephone lines, grading and improving dirt roads (the road leading in would become Jamboree Blvd.). Orange Coast College donated a spare army barracks building to the scouts for their Administration building. At the closing of the 10-day Jamboree, Orange Coast College donated the Administration barrack building to Grant Howald to be used as a youth center.

 

Following the event, the Jamboree organizers were anxious to clear off the site. Grant’s barrack was still sitting there and needed to be relocated—or would be cut up if not moved right away. Grant went to the Irvine Co. and the Newport Beach City Council, proposing use of the 5th and Iris corner for the location of his youth center. No one at the Irvine Co. or the Council was making a decision.   

 

Over coffee, Grant’s friend Bill Riley said, “I think I can solve your problem.” Shortly after, Bill (a heavy equipment/bulldozer man) had Grant meet him at his barracks building at midnight. Under cover of darkness, they spent most of the wee hours of the night hauling the two halves of the barrack to CdM and installing it. At dawn, the houses on 5th Ave. woke up to find a new building there!

 

Neighbors Pitch In

To pay for building improvements, a Lobster Bake was held, and The Newport Harbor Ensign, the Business Men’s Assoc., the Woman’s Civic League, the CdM Business Assoc., and other local civic groups and organizations pitched in and donated funds. A non-profit was set up to operate the center.

 

The CdM Community Youth Center offers classes, party facilities (including dance floor, tables, chairs), meeting spaces and equipment, and recreation pro­grams for all ages. Call 949-644-3151, or visit www.newportbeachca.gov. Their staff is pleased to help. Grant would be proud!