NEWPORT BEACH : School to Celebrate 100th Anniversary

When Newport Elementary School was opened in 1894, it shared Balboa peninsula with a bustling wharf and some oceanfront cottages and the city jail. The McFadden family donated the materials, and local townspeople built the wooden school for the first class of 18 pupils.

The school, like the city, has grown enormously since then, but it will try to recapture some old-time feel this month with a centennial celebration that will feature a reunion for alumni, a dance and other festivities.

The big birthday bash happens on May 21, and school officials and parents are working feverishly to locate students, parents, teachers and administrators who have been associated with the school on the sea.

“The school has always drawn (from the families of local) fishermen, cannery workers and sons and daughters of celebrities. . . . A real diverse group,” said Ralph Whitford, who taught for 30 years at the school. “But none of that made any difference, they were all beach kids.”

Newport Elementary School, or Newport Grammar School as it is known to old-timers, sits right on the beach. For decades, students have spent their recesses playing on the sand and watching the waves come in. From some of the classrooms, it is easy to gaze out the windows and see people using the boardwalk and boats sailing on the ocean.

For its first 50 years, it served as the sole grammar school for youngsters in Newport Beach and much of the surrounding community. By 1933, the original school had been replaced by a brick structure and a bell tower, which later collapsed in an earthquake.

Today the school retains many of the qualities that recall a bygone era. Even though the school is named Newport Elementary School, the old name “Newport Grammar School” is still spelled out over the main entrance. The administration office has wood floors, there are interior hallways, and wall murals date back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Proceeds from the birthday party, which is being planned by the parent-teacher association, will be used to refurbish the school.

Former students, parents, teachers or administrators who want to attend the “Day at the Sea” should call the school at (714) 760-3454.