Newport Harbor Observance : A Presidential Cue for 50th Anniversary

Newport Harbor’s grand opening on May 23, 1936, featured “King Neptune” and his court gliding along the bay with actors portraying Spanish explorers and leading a boat parade that began on a telephoned cue from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington.

Before today’s 50th anniversary boat parade begins at 1 p.m., Newport Harbor yachtsmen will wait for a telephone cue from President Reagan, although the rest of the festivities won’t be nearly as melodramatic.

Harbor old-timers will exchange yarns about the early days when Newport residents clamored to make the harbor into a commercial port or a submarine base, rather than a pleasure harbor, during a 7:30 a.m. breakfast at the Balboa Bay Club and dinner at the Balboa Pavilion. And the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum on Balboa Boulevard will give visitors a taste of history at an informal showing before its grand opening June 28.

Sightseers can watch the two-hour boat parade featuring private boats and vessels from the Navy, Coast Guard and Sheriff’s Department. The procession will start at the harbor entrance. Good viewing spots will be beaches along the Balboa Peninsula, the Sea Scout Base on Coast Highway and the Lido Isle bridge.

Newport Harbor was officially dedicated in 1936 after completion of $1.9 million in improvements paid for with federal funds and county bonds. Workers dredged 8.5 million tons of sand and 50,000 tons of rock from the harbor bottom to deepen it. Next they used 210,000 tons of rock to extend the two harbor jetties, according to Newport historian Ellen K. Lee’s book, “Newport Bay--A Pioneer History.”

The harbor was able to survive both a severe hurricane in 1939 and its temporary closure during World War II, Lee wrote. The hurricane wiped out both Newport and Balboa piers, which were rebuilt in 1940. Pleasure boats were not allowed out of the harbor during the war, and many residents feared the Japanese would attack the harbor, Lee added.

When residents envisioned Newport Harbor in the 1910s and 1920s, they had hopes of establishing a world-renowned commercial port. The Feb. 28, 1918, copy of the Orange Daily News features a world map displaying Newport Harbor’s ease of access to other Pacific trade centers, as well as a letter from the Harbor Board to the Orange County Board of Supervisors requesting additional improvements to make Newport a world-class trade harbor.

According to Lee, there was also talk of turning the harbor into a submarine base during World War I, but “fortunately for the recreational future of Newport Harbor, World War I ended before (these) hopes were realized.”

“Property owners in this area fought for years to have a commercial harbor,” said William Hendricks, director of Newport Beach’s Sherman Foundation Library & Museum. “The irony is that if this had been accomplished, Newport wouldn’t be the attractive place it is today.”