Friday, May 23, 2008

Newport Harbor, preservation & Huntington Beach

Today's photos show Newport Harbor as it looked in 1924 and in 1956. Newport Harbor (in it's modern form) was dedicated 72 years ago today, on May 23, 1936. To mark the event, a yacht parade was launched on a telegraph signal from President Franklin Roosevelt.
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Guy Ball writes, "I saw something on the [National Trust For Historic Preservation] site regarding a 'This Place Matters' project. You register online, print out a sign, and then post a photo on their site with comments. I think it would be a cool idea to embrace and will see what I can do this weekend on a couple locations. Might be something the rest of you want to have fun with as well. ...Wouldn't it be cool if we flooded them with good So Calif. images?"
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This could be a fun way to draw some national attention to local places that should be preserved. I may do a few of these myself.
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Chris Epting writes, "I have a new book coming out on 6/11/08 from Arcadia Publishing. It's called Huntington Beach Then & Now and it's a historic look at the city I live in--the old compared to the new from the exact same angles. Available at local stores, Amazon and ArcadiaPublishing.com." Chris has also posted a short YouTube movie that gives you an idea of the contents of his book. It's pretty cool!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris, do you know if FDR ever actually visited Orange County?

Chris Jepsen said...

Yes, he was known to visit O.C., but if I remember, he mainly only stayed in San Clemente, at the home of his friend, Henry Hamilton "Ham" Cotton. Still, crowds would gather along PCH (in communities like Huntington Beach and Laguna) to watch the motorcade go past. Oddly enough, Cotton's home would one day become Nixon's "Western Whitehouse."

Anonymous said...

I never knew that Franklin Roosevelt visited Orange County. It was always my understanding that his main vacation spots were Warm Springs, Georgia and his home state of New York, not California.

Did he travel into Los Angeles first then ride by car to San Clemente? Or did Roosevelt arrive by train somewhere in Orange County, like Santa Ana, then take a car south to his friend's house?

Chris Jepsen said...

I think he only visited a couple times. Not sure about that.

One time he was driven down the coast from L.A. And I think he took the train directly to San Clemente once -- When his health wasn't so good.