Huntington Beach says goodbye to Rodgers Seniors’ Center
Huntington Beach city leaders, staff and residents gathered Friday morning to say goodbye to the Michael E. Rodgers Seniors’ Center.
The center, located for decades on Orange Avenue, is being demolished. A new 2.01-acre park will be built in its place.
“The community recognized that it was time to evolve this space,” Huntington Beach Mayor Barbara Delgleize said. “I’ve always been a big supporter of our wonderful park system, and I love that we’re a community realizing the importance of continuing to improve our existing 78 parks, and even one more open space.”
The Rodgers Seniors’ Center was made expendable when the city opened the Senior Center in Central Park in 2016. Randy Pesqueira, the director of the Senior Center in Central Park, started working at the Rodgers location in 1999.
He said the aging Baby Boomer generation created a need for a bigger space.
“I started here in my 40s and now I’m in my 60s, so I became a senior all along the way,” Pesqueira said during Friday’s ceremony. “What we learned from working here was the respect that we must give to our elders. Seniors don’t like change, but seniors are also very flexible. They taught us how to live and how to age. You don’t get aging lessons … but this is where those lessons are taught.”
In July 2020, the Huntington Beach City Council approved a plan to redevelop the Rodgers Seniors’ Center site. A nearly $2.4-million contract was awarded last December to Legion Contractors Inc.
The existing outreach building at the property will remain in use by American Legion Huntington Beach Post 133.
The Rodgers Seniors’ Center was originally a Santa Ana Army Air Base building, building T-1099. The city authorized Tom Talbert to buy it for $4,117 in 1949, and it was moved to its current site.
“It was an interesting time, because our civic leaders and community members were very concerned about the effects the second world war had on our youth and high school students,” said Kathie Schey, the Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board chair and city archivist. “[They wanted] young people to have a place to gather and develop skills. Under the watchful eye of responsible adults, this would be really meaningful and transformative in our city.”
Though it may be hard to believe now, Schey said at the time the area featured no residential property, just oil wells and other drilling apparatus.
“That made it an asset,” she said. “It meant that they could have the teenagers here, close enough that they could get to it, but far enough from any residents for them to be a nuisance and cause a lot of noise.”
Over time, the building’s usage was expanded to include more groups. It was remodeled and dedicated as the Senior Center in 1975. Another renovation came in 1983, along with a renaming in honor of Michael E. Rodgers, a senior advocate and founding member of the Huntington Beach Council on Aging.
“The Council on Aging created programing, including a famous New Year’s Eve dance,” Pesqueira said. “People brought out their furs for this dance, OK? They brought out their fancy coats, their bangle dresses, and they danced until midnight.”
The mood of Friday’s ceremony was also celebratory, as local leaders grabbed shovels for a groundbreaking for the new park. They also placed flowers on the side of the Rodgers Seniors’ Center sign, which Schey said would be placed inside until demolition as one final tribute.
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