Charm of the Past Beckons : Stately Newland House, Circa 1898, Is Statement About a Simpler Time

An old-fashioned clock on a sideboard in the dining room tick-tocks rhythmically, soothingly--almost hypnotically.

Like so many items in the historic Newland House, the clock gently urges a visitor to let go. To travel back in time. To relax in a less hurried, less complicated era.

“My favorite thing about this house is the charm of yesterday,” said Idelle Jungbluth, a Huntington Beach Historical Society leader who helped restore the home.

Built in 1898 by pioneer farmer William Taylor Newland, the white Victorian house is now a museum and part of a city park. Busy, bustling, still-growing Huntington Beach surrounds the site, which adjoins the Newland Shopping Center, near Beach Boulevard and Adams Avenue.

But 95 years ago, this was lonely land. When farmer Newland, an emigrant from Illinois, brought his big family to the new house, only a handful of people lived nearby. The tiny community was then called Shell Beach. Newland built his handsome home on high ground--a commanding mesa. Below the mesa, a huge quagmire--Gospel Swamp--stretched for miles.

When the Newland family “arrived on the mesa, much of the peat land was submerged, and it looked like one big lake with islands of tulle grass and willows,” said Barbara Milcovich, an archivist for the historical society. The swampy land surrounding what is now Huntington Beach was a major reason why few people chose to live in that part of Orange County.

Newland nonetheless purchased 500 acres of marshy land adjoining the high ground where he built his house. A sturdy man with a piercing gaze, Newland envisioned a farm emerging from Gospel Swamp. And he made that vision real.

”. . . Newland found that there was sufficient grade to drain the whole basin into the ocean, and with the help of neighboring owners, cut ditches and recovered the land for planting,” Milcovich said. She said the rich peat land then produced bountiful vegetable crops for Newland: celery, lima beans, chili peppers and sugar beets. In addition, Newland leased part of the vast Irvine Ranch and on it raised barley at the turn of the century.

Newland, his wife, Mary Juanita, and their 10 children prospered.

The tiny community of Shell Beach was renamed Pacific City in 1901, then changed again to Huntington Beach in 1904. William Newland served on the boards of directors of the local bank and newspaper. He established the Huntington Beach Canning Co. and was instrumental in getting the state to extend Pacific Coast Highway from Long Beach into Huntington Beach.

Throughout the early growth of Huntington Beach, Newland’s graceful white “mansion on the mesa” always was regarded as the city’s finest home. When dignitaries came to the community, they stayed with the Newlands.

“Although we can’t document it, we’re told that President Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain were among the people who stayed at the Newland House,” said Teresa Reynolds, president of the Huntington Beach Historical Society.

William Newland died in 1933, and his wife in 1952. After her death, Signal Oil bought the property and used the house as an employees’ residence. The oil company in 1974 gave the Newland House to the city, along with 30 adjoining acres. The company was building homes on former oil and farmland nearby and under state law had to donate park land proportional to new development.

From 1972 to 1974, the old house remained empty. Vandals stripped, looted and almost burned it down. City government turned to the newly formed Huntington Beach Historical Society in 1974 to restore the building and operate it as a museum. When renovation work began, the interior of the once stately building was a shambles, recalled Idelle Jungbluth, who headed the restoration committee.

“It was in terrible shape,” added her husband, Jay Jungbluth. “Hippies had moved in, and they had fires upstairs. They took everything, even the fireplace.”

Historical society workers painstakingly rebuilt walls, refinished ornamental woodwork and replaced windows.

“It’s somewhat amazing, but our restoration work only cost a total of $21,000,” said Reynolds, pointing out that since most of the original furniture in the house was gone, donors were asked to fill the rooms with authentic pre-1920s-era pieces.

The restored Newland House first opened for public tours in 1978, and today about 4,000 people a year view the stately old home. Income from suggested donations of $2 per adult and $1 per child allows the historical society to continue upkeep of the house, which is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

Part of the charm of the Newland House is that it doesn’t seem like a museum. All the rooms look as if a big family still lovingly lives there. On the dining room table, plates are set for a big family meal. In the nursery, an engaging teddy bear seemingly waits for the baby of the house to return. A pedal-powered Singer sewing machine sits ready for seam work in the sunny, second-floor cupola that Mary Newland used as her sewing room.

The eight-sided cupola has magnificent views of the ocean. But urban growth and pollution has dimmed the view Mary Newland used to enjoy from there.

“Mary Newland used to say that she could see the streetcars in Santa Monica by looking out the windows of the sewing room,” said Reynolds.

Outside, grounds of the house include sweeping lawns, a flower garden, and a barn that also serves as the caretaker’s cottage.

Idelle Jungbluth, standing in the flower garden and gazing toward the ocean about a mile and a half away, said she could easily see why William Newland chose the mesa site for his Pacific home.

“The view,” said Jungbluth, “is absolutely magnificent.”

County Gem

One of the last remaining local examples of Queen Anne-style Victorian architecture is Huntington Beach’s Newland House. The two-story wood-frame farmhouse, which is now surrounded by a mini-mall, is an Orange County Historic Site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built: 1898

Rooms: 13

Owner: city of Huntington Beach

Manager: Huntington Beach Historical Society

Features: A birthing room, kitchen with original wood stove, period clothes, guest room used by James Irvine, Mark Twain

Composition: Redwood lumber shipped through old McFadden Wharf in Newport Beach

Site: House sits atop an ancient American Indian village

Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 2 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday

Admission: $1; group tours available

Information: (714) 962-5777

Source: Los Angeles Times files