Corona del Mar : Outdated Youth Center Soon to Be Demolished

After a career that spanned a world war, a Boy Scout jamboree and numerous arts-and-crafts classes, the Corona del Mar Community Youth Center soon will be only a memory.

The old building that began its life during World War II as an Army barracks before serving as the headquarters for the 1953 Corona del Mar International Boy Scout Jamboree and ultimately as the local youth center is slated for demolition next month.

In its place, Newport Beach plans to erect a 6,000-square-foot, split-level structure that will permit several different events to take place at the same time. Ron Whitley, director of the city Parks, Beaches and Recreation Department, said the old building, which is long and narrow, “doesn’t allow you to do more than one thing at a time.”

Located at Grant Howald Park at the corner of 5th and Iris avenues, the $535,000 construction project also will include new landscaping for the park as well as two new playgrounds, Whitley said.

During the five months that the project is expected to be under way, he said, Newport Beach will be scrambling for a place for the kids to gather. Outdoor activities and access to the nearby OASIS senior citizens center will fill most of the gaps, but shelter will be a problem until the new center is completed, Whitley said.

“We’re really trying to scrounge around for a location,” he said. “We even thought of a tent, but they talked me out of it. It wouldn’t be as secure.”