Old Propriety Returning to Balboa

I refuse to wallow in nostalgia over the changing face of the Balboa Peninsula in the vicinity of the pier and the ferry.

I shall merely point out that the Fun Zone--the white lights of the Ferris wheel circling at night and the cacophonic music of the merry-go-round--is now a memory. And gone, but not quite, are the hordes of young people spewing popcorn and the residue of ice cream bars and hot dogs over the sidewalk.

Of course, Bal Week, with its screeching teen-agers who tried to turn night into day (and mostly succeeded), and the wonderful old Big Bands in the Pavilion and Rendezvous Ballroom are the ghosts of several decades ago.

Comfortable Ambiance

An unaccustomed propriety that was once here more than half a century ago is beginning to manifest itself. Fifty-five years ago, the old Pacific Electric “Red Cars” terminated on the beach next to the Balboa Inn. This hostelry had a comfortable ambiance that attracted businessmen, movie and political figures of the 1930s and early ‘40s.

And it is planned that the old inn will do that again, according to its newest owner, who has spent $1.2 million over the past seven months renovating it. He is Raymond L. Sanford, president of Griswold’s, who grew up in Claremont where Griswold’s was the place to eat and to stay after the Claremont Inn next to Pomona College burned down about 30 years ago.

Curious over the changing environment of this part of the peninsula, I rang up Griswold’s to learn, to my surprise, that Griswold’s had expanded to a hotel management company and had established its corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa. I explained I was interested in talking to Jacqueline Mercer, who is to be general manager of the inn when it opens Dec. 10.

A Waterfront Manager

As it turned out, I spent a pleasant hour chatting with both Mercer and Sanford. I had heard previously that Mercer was a sailor and lived aboard her sailing yacht, a 30-foot Newport in the harbor. The combination of a genuine waterfront manager of the only waterfront hotel in Newport Beach intrigued me. I also learned that Sanford spent a large part of his youth sailing these waters in his parents’ yacht, a Nat Herreshoff-designed vessel built in Bristol, Conn.

Being no stranger to the sea, Sanford, when he also began renovation of the old Bank of America building into a restaurant, yet unnamed, on Balboa Boulevard near the inn, determined to give it a nautical theme. He bought the old harbor patrol boat Sea Watch. All 34 feet of it will be suspended from the ceiling of this restaurant, which may open about Dec. 31.

The 34-room inn, with a staff of about 50, also will have its own restaurant, presided over by Karel Vidlak, formerly of the Newporter. “California-Continental cuisine” will be served there, Mercer said. A feature will be truly fresh fish, the catch of the day brought in by the peninsula’s dory fishermen, she said.

Objective Set Forth

“Our objective,” Sanford said, “is to re-establish the Balboa Inn’s prominence as a small and intimate inn with unsurpassed personal service, like the exclusive European resorts.”

Sanford is planning a similar operation at the Inn of Laguna at the west end of Main Beach in Laguna Beach.

Designated as a historical property by the Newport Beach City Council, the inn was designed originally by Walter Hagedhome, who also designed Los Angeles’ Union Station. Both structures are in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Care has been taken to preserve the inn’s original architecture during the renovation.

A native of France, Mercer speaks five languages, including Arabic, which puts her in a position to cope with almost all of the communication problems of innkeeping.

Sales Advertisement

She came to California from South Africa (where her two children live) in response to an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal seeking a director of sales for the Marina City Club of Marina del Rey. She served in that capacity for seven years, then joined Griswold’s. Her hotel experience also includes operating a resort hotel in Majorca, Spain, and as convention sales manager for a Marriott hotel.

She acquired her boat in Marina del Rey, where she also lived aboard. She is no stranger to weekend cruises to Catalina Island. Boating, she claims, is the world’s greatest antidote to tension.

And thus, in the hands of at least these two people, the scene changes on the Balboa Peninsula.