Lake Norconian Club

Miraculously chandeliers still hang in slowly deteriorating grand dining hall after more than 65 years. Time is running out as rainwater and lack of funding is killing this magnificent and one of a kind historic site.

The most intriguing aspect of the Norconian Resort Supreme may not be it's fabulous history, magnificent ceiling paintings or the wonderful art deco, mission revival/Mediterranean Style architecture, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the former "playground to the stars" is that it still stands and no one seems to know it.

Unlike so many wonderful and long gone resorts, theatres and other structures built during this golden age of architecture, we can still look up and see the red-tiled towers, walk across the marble floors, touch the exquisite tile work by the light of original chandeliers and fixtures, gaze at beautiful murals and paintings, and find our image in mirrors that still bear the initials of the Lake Norconian Club. Almost the entire resort complex still exists despite two decades as a naval hospital, 60 years service as a top-secret naval warfare testing center and 40 years as a prison. Unfortunately, after surviving for 80 years and despite it's prominent position on the National Register of Historic Places, the days of The Norconian Resort Supreme may be numbered due to officially sanctioned neglect and destruction, politics and an uninformed, perhaps uncaring, public.

The Norconian was built by Rex B. Clark in the town he founded; Norco, California. In the early 1920's, Clark, a brilliant businessman buoyed by a wife with millions, purchased 15 square miles in the middle of nowhere with the idea of founding a community where people could live off the land they owned by developing chicken and rabbit farms and all manner of agriculture. While drilling a well in 1924 a "hot mineral spring" was discovered and Clark who believed in doing things "big" announced he was going to construct the greatest recreational resort ever built on the west coast, perhaps in the whole United States; and then did it.

On February 2, 1929, The Norconian Resort was given to the world with a star-studded grand opening. Complete with boating, airfield, horseback riding, mineral-baths, tennis, golf and swimming the resort simply astounded. The Olympic pools attracted some of the greatest Olympic swimmers and divers of all time. Several films were shot at and around the Norconian and celebrities flocked to the resort. Greta Garbo and Clark Gable were frequent guests, and Will Rogers and Wallace Beery regularly flew into the Norconian Air Field. On the championship golf course could be found Buster Keaton, Bing Crosby and even Babe Ruth. Major motion picture studios, Lions Club, Kiwanis, Rotary, Shriners, American Legion and dozens of other organizations held gigantic picnics on the lush grounds as well as national, state and county conventions.

rgin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Georgia, Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 13px; text-align: left; padding: 0px;">Unfortunately, the Norconian never made a nickel. Opening just months before "Black Tuesday", the depression hit the resort hard. Another mark against the "millionaires playground" was its location. Norco, California of the 1920's was known for lettuce and chickens: meaning once you stepped off the resort's manicured lawns; there wasn't a whole lot to do in the small town. Worse, the depression was equally devastating to the promising community with many farms and ranches going belly up and perhaps driving through such poverty to enjoy a weekend in luxury may not have been appealing.

By 1941, the Norconian was up for sale and the asking price was $2,000,000; less than half of it's cost to build. The United States was quietly preparing for war and the Navy came calling; the resorts plentiful water supply, top of the line power plant and room to expand, provided a perfect location for a hospital. On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Norconian Resort became the United States Naval Hospital.

Perhaps World War II was the old "playground to the stars" finest hour. The Naval Hospital was an exemplary facility making extraordinary advances in the treatment of tuberculosis, malaria and polio. Wheelchair basketball may well have been born at the facility or at the very least was given a huge boost on the wheels of the fabulous "Rolling Devils". Wounded from Pearl Harbor, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and other distant Pacific battlefields recovered in luxury at the Naval Hospital. And Hollywood again called, movie star Kay Francis was in charge of moral and troop entertainment and many of the stars who once were guests at the resort, now spent their weekends visiting patients. After the war, the patient load dropped and the hospital closed in 1949 only to re-open again in 1951 to receive wounded from Korea. In 1957, despite heavy public outcry and a moderately heavy patient load, the hospital closed for good.
In 1951, the National Bureau of Standards moved into the empty isolation wards on the eastern portion of the old Norconian golf course. The best minds in the country were brought together in the interest of national defense to work primarily on guiding and fusing missile systems. Since then, many name and mission changes have occurred on this base described by Congressman Ken Calvert as "crucial to our nation's security". The experimentation and evaluation of all manner of weaponry carried out in that 400-acre, heavily guarded facility has saved countless US soldiers lives.
In 1963, 94 acres of the old resort became the Californian Rehabilitation Center. Using the former hotel building, the Navy built hospital wing, gymnasium, Chapel and patient barracks the State of California, in an unprecedented effort, attempted to circumvent heroin addiction.

Today, "CRC" is a Level II correctional facility; a medium security prison housing at times as many as 5000 inmates guilty of a wide variety of crimes. Inside, some truly extraordinary prison officials and officers, despite horrific overcrowding, lack of funding, public disinterest and even scorn, keep the public safe and continue to man programs that offer even the most wretched a way out of drug addiction.

In 2002, the State of California deemed the old hotel building seismically unfit and despite the buildings history, architecture, landmark status and multiple recommendations to the contrary, deemed a retrofit too expensive and ordered the old hotel abandoned. Despite the mandated protections in place to preserve national treasures, a twenty-foot high fence was put up around the building, the water and power turned off and the building was officially designated a "black building"; a structure sealed up and left to die from the inside out. In the dark, rainwater seeps over breathtaking paintings, chandeliers, and stunning tile. Raccoons and feral cats roam the empty hallways and defecate on the marble floors. Just as planned, the "shining white monument to health", is dying.

On the Navy controlled side of the old resort, thanks to the efforts of countless Navy and civilian officials, the lake still remains as do the pavilion, old chauffeurs quarters and garage. Unfortunately, Navy budget cuts have severely limited the resources needed to maintain these treasures also on the National Register and their fate is in limbo.

It would appear at this time, that only an informed and interested pubic, on a local, statewide and national level, willing to lobby our elected officials, can save this complex of some of the finest and most extraordinary structures ever built.