Save the Lake Norconian Hotel
Donation protected
We Desperately Need Your Help!
The Lake Norconian Resort Supreme Hotel and Pavillion opened in the late 20s and quickly became the favored destination for many famed celebrities athletes, and stars. The likes of Cary Grant, Bob Hope and Buster Keaton loved this location for its plush surroundings and the vast activities located on the property; including the lakefront four-star hotel, hot springs baths, the Lake Norconian air field, an 18 hole golf course, the Lake Pavilion, lavish grounds and Olympic grade swimming and diving pools.
Just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt, in anticipation of World War II, ordered the purchase of the resort for use as a Navy hospital. Famed architect Claud Beelman was contracted to design the Navy medical “showplace of the west coast.” Over the next few years US Naval Hospital Norco expanded into three standalone hospitals that architecturally and magnificently harmonized with the original hotel buildings. The famed Mayo Clinic supplied the “most esteemed assemblage of physicians in the world” to establish a medical treatment program that in a very real way revolutionized military medicine.
Led by the forgotten Naval Aid Auxiliary, the greatest stars, who once stayed in the luxurious hotel suites, returned in droves to entertain and “get to know the sweet boys”: casualties from horrible battles such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
By end of World War II, this famed hospital was the Navy’s National Rheumatic Fever Facility and the West Coast/Pacific Theater Tuberculosis, Spinal Cord, and Polio Center. USNH Norco was the site of multiple ground breaking medical advancements including physical rehabilitation (pioneering wheel chair sports), wound repair, use of penicillin and streptomycin, and polio.
In 1951, Unit II, the former Tuberculosis Hospital, was converted into the Navy’s primary Missile Research, Development, Testing and Performance Assessment facility. Established eventually as the Naval Ordnance Laboratories and later as the Fleet Missile Analysis & Evaluation Group, this was the site of groundbreaking Cold War activity with pioneering advancements made in missile fusing systems, infrared, miniaturization, guidance systems, computers, and much more.
In 1963, Unit I, which consisted of the old Norconian Hotel, and Unit III, the former Rheumatic Fever facility, became the California Rehabilitation Center: the first state funded drug rehabilitation program in California History. A series of inmate riots in the late 1960’s pushed CRC to become a full-blown prison.
The old hotel was used for administration and to house women heroin addicts. Prison labor kept the site immaculate, but by 2002 the Norconian was deemed seismically unsafe for staff and prisoners and abandoned.
The City of Norco successfully lobbied to place the old Norconian Resort on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as a district comprised of 19 buildings, structures and features spread out over both the Navy and State properties. Legislation was passed by the State of California granting the city and preservation groups’ access to the old building, but, politics once again intervened and preservation efforts were blocked.
Today, hidden behind a 20-foot high fence sits the old Norconian Hotel along its amazing history and art deco/mission revival chandeliers, tiling and artwork.
What remains inside are amazing history, artifacts, art deco and mission revival.
The most intriguing aspect of the Norconian Resort Supreme may not be its fabulous history, magnificent ceiling paintings, the wonderful art deco and 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.
Sadly, time is running out as rainwater pours into the old Norconian, and a lack of funding, is killing this magnificent, and one of a kind, historic building.
We desperately need to preserve the artifacts, remove and store them. We also need to continue to repair the roof and get the rooftop pumps in working order, continue to clean and repair the rain gutters and downspouts and most importantly cover or repair the areas of the roof through which water runs and prevent further damage to the priceless artifacts and artwork.
Please help us with your donation dollars to protect this amazing piece of history before it needlessly deteriorates beyond recovery. Assist us in protecting and removing the exquisite chandeliers, wrought iron gates, artifacts, artwork, furnishings and more to a safe location.
Every dollar counts as we seek to simply protect the property and not continue to let it further deteriorate.
The need is now: every dollar counts!
Know that The Lake Norconian Club Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Your donation makes a big difference helping us save this piece of magnificent and living history and destruction and loss of a piece of our national heritage.
Thank you from the Lake Norconian Club Foundation
Please view this video of the hotel here... Hotel Video
or
Visit our website
The Lake Norconian Resort Supreme Hotel and Pavillion opened in the late 20s and quickly became the favored destination for many famed celebrities athletes, and stars. The likes of Cary Grant, Bob Hope and Buster Keaton loved this location for its plush surroundings and the vast activities located on the property; including the lakefront four-star hotel, hot springs baths, the Lake Norconian air field, an 18 hole golf course, the Lake Pavilion, lavish grounds and Olympic grade swimming and diving pools.
Just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt, in anticipation of World War II, ordered the purchase of the resort for use as a Navy hospital. Famed architect Claud Beelman was contracted to design the Navy medical “showplace of the west coast.” Over the next few years US Naval Hospital Norco expanded into three standalone hospitals that architecturally and magnificently harmonized with the original hotel buildings. The famed Mayo Clinic supplied the “most esteemed assemblage of physicians in the world” to establish a medical treatment program that in a very real way revolutionized military medicine.
Led by the forgotten Naval Aid Auxiliary, the greatest stars, who once stayed in the luxurious hotel suites, returned in droves to entertain and “get to know the sweet boys”: casualties from horrible battles such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
By end of World War II, this famed hospital was the Navy’s National Rheumatic Fever Facility and the West Coast/Pacific Theater Tuberculosis, Spinal Cord, and Polio Center. USNH Norco was the site of multiple ground breaking medical advancements including physical rehabilitation (pioneering wheel chair sports), wound repair, use of penicillin and streptomycin, and polio.
In 1951, Unit II, the former Tuberculosis Hospital, was converted into the Navy’s primary Missile Research, Development, Testing and Performance Assessment facility. Established eventually as the Naval Ordnance Laboratories and later as the Fleet Missile Analysis & Evaluation Group, this was the site of groundbreaking Cold War activity with pioneering advancements made in missile fusing systems, infrared, miniaturization, guidance systems, computers, and much more.
In 1963, Unit I, which consisted of the old Norconian Hotel, and Unit III, the former Rheumatic Fever facility, became the California Rehabilitation Center: the first state funded drug rehabilitation program in California History. A series of inmate riots in the late 1960’s pushed CRC to become a full-blown prison.
The old hotel was used for administration and to house women heroin addicts. Prison labor kept the site immaculate, but by 2002 the Norconian was deemed seismically unsafe for staff and prisoners and abandoned.
The City of Norco successfully lobbied to place the old Norconian Resort on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as a district comprised of 19 buildings, structures and features spread out over both the Navy and State properties. Legislation was passed by the State of California granting the city and preservation groups’ access to the old building, but, politics once again intervened and preservation efforts were blocked.
Today, hidden behind a 20-foot high fence sits the old Norconian Hotel along its amazing history and art deco/mission revival chandeliers, tiling and artwork.
What remains inside are amazing history, artifacts, art deco and mission revival.
The most intriguing aspect of the Norconian Resort Supreme may not be its fabulous history, magnificent ceiling paintings, the wonderful art deco and 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.
Sadly, time is running out as rainwater pours into the old Norconian, and a lack of funding, is killing this magnificent, and one of a kind, historic building.
We desperately need to preserve the artifacts, remove and store them. We also need to continue to repair the roof and get the rooftop pumps in working order, continue to clean and repair the rain gutters and downspouts and most importantly cover or repair the areas of the roof through which water runs and prevent further damage to the priceless artifacts and artwork.
Please help us with your donation dollars to protect this amazing piece of history before it needlessly deteriorates beyond recovery. Assist us in protecting and removing the exquisite chandeliers, wrought iron gates, artifacts, artwork, furnishings and more to a safe location.
Every dollar counts as we seek to simply protect the property and not continue to let it further deteriorate.
The need is now: every dollar counts!
Know that The Lake Norconian Club Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Your donation makes a big difference helping us save this piece of magnificent and living history and destruction and loss of a piece of our national heritage.
Thank you from the Lake Norconian Club Foundation
Please view this video of the hotel here... Hotel Video
or
Visit our website
Organizer and beneficiary
Denise Sutherland
Organizer
Norco, CA
Linda Dixon
Beneficiary
