Eight Decades of Change in Two Photographs of Corona del Mar

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Eight Decades of Change in Two Photographs of Corona del Mar

At first glance, this photograph may seem uninteresting. It is after all, a shot of a nearly empty street with a few buildings. If you look closely, you will see a number of clues to the location and date. To the left, you can see the Goldenrod footbridge and to the right a grocery store, which also served as a post office. The store was Scott’s Grocery, which city directories indicate was on the corner of Coast Highway and Marigold Ave. In the distance toward the center of the photo, you will notice two additional buildings. The nearer of the two, on the left, was Brigg’s Service Station, and the smaller building in the distance was the K. I. Fulton real estate office.

The Goldenrod Footbridge

Sometimes as the small bungalows that once dominated the area around Sherman Library are replaced by large residences it seems nothing of “old” Corona del Mar survives. Yet amid the new homes are some elements of the past. One of these is the iconic Goldenrod footbridge, which is nearly 90 years old. The bridge over Bayside Drive, connects two segments of Goldenrod Avenue. It is not only quaint, but it represents a different time, when Newport Beach city leaders sought new ways to attract people to Corona del Mar.

The Wreck of the Muriel

In the 1920s, silent movie production companies often used Newport Beach and the surrounding coastline as backdrops. Unlike the bustling port of Los Angeles, Newport Bay and Catalina had few… Read More »

When Nobody Bought $100 Lots in Corona del Mar

The oldest structure at Sherman Library & Gardens is a single-room adobe house built by Lawrence and Pauline Lushbaugh in the late 1930s. The Lushbaugh’s story is interesting: the young couple bought a plot of land, and taught themselves how to make fired-adobe brinks to build their own home. Yet if a single element of the story fascinates people, it is this: the Lushbaughs bought the land for their house from the City of Newport Beach for $600.00, an amount that would not cover the cost of a square foot of a typical house today.

Preserving the History of Newport Beach

For the last 50 years, Sherman Library has been collecting valuable historical materials about the history of the Pacific Southwest. One of the strengths of the collection is the history of Newport Beach. For the first time, information about these collections is now available in a Guide to Newport Beach Historical Collections in Sherman Library.

How Jamboree Road Got its Name

Every day countless people drive on Jamboree Road in Newport Beach without knowing the origin of the street’s name. Today it is hard to image that 45,000 Boy Scouts once camped on the spot now occupied by Fashion Island. But, in 1953, when Irvine Ranch hosted the Third National Jamboree, that was the case.