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Author: Paul Wormser

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Rex Brandt

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Tom Heffernan

Photo of Rex Brandt (credit:californiawatercolor.com)
Artist Rex Brandt, who lived and worked in Corona del Mar for most of his life, is considered one of the most important and influential California watercolorists.
‘Morning Mood at Balboa’

From ‘Blue Sky’, his home and studio located on Goldenrod next to the Footbridge, he created hundreds of paintings of coastal scenes and one of the most important watercolor schools.  Through the school and eleven books on watercolor painting, Brandt taught and inspired many professional artists.

Photo of Rex with his wife Joan Irving Brandt at home at ‘Blue Sky’ (credit: coronadelmartoday.com)

There is a plaque today that recognizes where ‘Blue Sky’ used to be located.  The 1941 home was designed by Brandt and was formerly located at 405 Goldenrod.

‘Consulting the Map’ is a watercolor of the Irvine Ranch, 6 miles inland from Rex’s home. It was featured on the cover of ‘Westways’ magazine in November 1954.
‘Tom’s ‘Old’ House’, 1979
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Kay Finch (1903-1993)

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Tom Heffernan

Continuing on the artist theme, ceramic artist Kay Finch (1903-1993) built her studio and showroom next to Five Crowns where Crown Cove Assisted Living is now located.  It was later Sam’s Seafood and Don the Beachcomber. 

F​inch attended the Memphis Academy of Fine Arts in the 1920s and would move with her husband to California in 1929.  She did some freelance work and teaching before opening a small studio in a former milking shed.  As demand for her work grew, she and her husband, Braden Finch, bought a two lot parcel of land on PCH and had her studio next to her home.  Demand for her work shot up during WW2 when imports were stopped and she expanded her studio and showroom.  By the late 1940s, she employed as many as 65 employees, all the pieces were made by hand, with each designed by Finch.  Her designs were known for their color and distinctive whimsical design.  You can find many of her pieces on eBay today, generally from $30-$300.

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Cottage Profile: 510 Dahlia

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Tom Heffernan

Photo credit: Realtor.com

A delightful cottage that is rather unique in that it features elements of streamline moderne architectural style with its rounded edges.

The 1948 cottage has 600 sq ft and 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.  It was last sold in 1984 for $215,000 and looks like it has been rented out the past few years.
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Cottage Profile: 609 Jasmine

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Tom Heffernan

This week’s house turns 100 this year but may only have a few weeks or days left so you may want to walk by it before it goes.  It is one of the oldest remaining homes in CdM and very likely the oldest on the inland side of PCH.  It was likely one of the first homes ever built on that side of PCH as much of the early development in the area centered around the Bluffs and was not that far back.  It was listed as a 1 bed, 1 bath, 730 sq ft house.

It might be the dark colors, but this very much has the look of cabin at a campground to me.  The front is very asymmetrical with one window right against the door and the other set to the side and I don’t recall seeing a front door like that before in CdM.  The mouldings on the front windows are also a different shape than you see on most board and batten homes around town.  I was also surprised to hear from Ron Yeo that this house was (and is) on a septic tank. ​

It was sold in the Spring of 2019 when the longtime owner of 609 and the vacant lot at 611 passed away.  The vacant lot next door at 611 is being bulldozed now and 609 has permits pulled and construction fencing is around it now, which is usually the last step before it goes so you may want to walk by and peer through/over the fence soon.
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Cottage Profile: 2711 Seaview

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Tom Heffernan

Photo: MLS/HomeBay

This 1923 cottage is likely one of the five oldest surviving houses in Corona del Mar and retains a great original look and tons of charm.  It pre-dates the Pacific Coast Highway coming through Corona del Mar by three years and was built a year before CdM became part of Newport Beach.  At the time, road access and access to running water were both very difficult so there were very few residential homes in CdM. 

Photo courtesy of Orange County Archives

Even by 1930, when the aerial photo was taken, you can see it was still quite sparse and this was several years after PCH and reliable residential water service came to CdM.  This 2BR/2BA cottage is currently for sale and a recent price drop moved it to $2.69M.  Hope to see someone buy this beautiful historic cottage and enjoy it for many more years.
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The Last Snowfall in Corona del Mar

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Tom Heffernan

CdM resident Howard Folsom's car on the evening of January 10, 1949 (Photo credit: Howard Folsom)

As a blizzard moves across rest of the country, it is a good time to remember that the last snowfall in Corona del Mar was 71 years ago, this month.  On the night of January 10, 1949, snow started to fall and continued into the 11th.  

​Anaheim and Orange received 3 inches of snow and it was recorded at 4 inches at the Irvine Ranch.   The temperature in Orange County remained in the 20s for the next few days.

Paul Andres in the snow in Irvine on January 11, 1949 (Photo credit: Tustin Area Historical Society)
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Cottage Profile: 213 Iris

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Tom Heffernan

This 1939 cottage located a few houses from ‘Big Corona’ Beach was expanded out the back starting in the 1950s but it has maintained an original look from the street with its cedar shake roof and siding.  Inside, the living room has dramatic exposed beams set off by a vintage wallpaper.  It was listed as over 3,400 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and 4 fireplaces when it was sold in 2017 for $3.4M. 

Photo credit: MLS

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The First House in Corona del Mar

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Tom Heffernan

Wondering what house was the first in Corona del Mar?  Well, the Burton Family’s ‘Happy House’ (2920 Ocean Blvd.) is credited as the first as it went up in 1909 but ‘Quarterdeck’ (2928 Ocean Blvd.) went up shortly after.  The LA Times wrote about Happy House in a 1993 story:
Lured by an advertisement to “beautiful Newport Beach,” Mary Everett and Alice Aldon took a free ride on the Red Car in search of a summer retreat from sizzling Pasadena. They were appalled at what they found–a seaside hamlet filled with fishermen, canneries and saloons–but entranced by the bare cliffs of Corona del Mar. On a whim, they bought a parcel of land.

That was in 1908.

“There were no roads, there were no semblances of roads, they just plowed through the tall grass,” recalled Mary Burton, Everett’s daughter, who still lives in the house her mother built. “When she saw the view of the beach from up here, she just said, ‘Eureka!’ ”

But Burton’s father was horrified.

“ ‘My dear, I’m afraid you’ve thrown your money away,’ ” Burton, 89, remembers her father telling her mother. Of course, Burton added, “the family never made any investment as good as this.”

She was right – the house sold for $4.5M in 2003 and sadly was torn down to make room for this house that seems to resemble an office building – seen here next to Quarterdeck in 2011:
Listed in the city’s register of historic landmarks, “Happy House,” the Cape Cod-style grayish brown shingle house with redwood floors and walls, stands today almost identical to the way it appeared when it was built–by 22 workmen in just two weeks–back in 1909.

The porch, with a view clear to Capistrano, has since been enclosed in glass. And the Burtons added French doors off the dining room.

“He got a good stiff drink, grabbed an ax, and chopped a hole in the wall,” Burton recalled of her husband, who died 18 years ago. “And there, we’ve got those windows, just like we wanted.”
‘Happy House’ (right) alongside ‘Quarterdeck’ (left):
It is the memories, Burton said, that make the house a treasure.
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CdM in 1979

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Tom Heffernan

427 Fernleaf Ave. in 1979 (Photo: Sherman Library)

The Sherman Library recently came across a collection of photos taken of different houses throughout the Village in 1979. Many of them are gone now, but a few caught my eye as interesting photos of houses that have survived today.  Pictured above is
427 Fernleaf, built in 1944, which is definitely one of CdM’s most unique homes.  

427 Fernleaf Ave. in 2019 (Photo: Google Streetview)

The current owner bought it in 1958 and in 1969 (ten years before this photo was taken) took the gingerbread pieces off a Victorian house (built in 1870) that they were tearing down in Santa Ana and designed and built the Victorian house it is today.

708 / 706 / 704 Avocado Ave. in 1979 (Photo: Sherman Library)

706 Avocado, built in 1961, was very different looking in 1979 but is clearly recognizable. You can also see part of 708 Avocado, which has survived and was recently sold. 704 has been torn down.

413 Poppy, built in 1956, has survived and is a great example of a cottage.   415, listed as being built in 1947, has survived although it had a different look in 1979.

413 / 415 Poppy Ave. in 1979 (Photo: Sherman Library)
708 / 706 / 704 Avocado Ave. in 2019 (Photo: Google Streetview)

The portion of the deck that wrapped around on the Poppy side of 415 was removed and those large windows/doors were replaced.

413 / 415 Poppy Ave. in 2019 (Photo: Google Streetview)
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CdM’s First Grocery Store

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Tom Heffernan

Did you know there used to be a grocery store on Fernleaf, one house in from Ocean Blvd? While reviewing this great photo from the Sherman Library of the Kerckhoff Marine Lab and the Hole House sitting above it, we noticed a sign for a grocery store on Fernleaf.

The Grocery store's sign can be seen in the distance in this photo. (Credit: Sherman Library)

One of our Facebook group members, Virginia Thomas Fickes, whose family home at Goldenrod & Bayview was one of the first homes in CdM, filled us in on the story.

“I was born in 1946, so I was just a young child towards the end of when the small grocery store was there,” said Virginia. “I remember it was on the alley. There were special glass squares for the front window. My dad used to speak of the grocery store. The growing small community needed the grocery store on Fernleaf before there were markets on the Coast Highway. Later on in the 1950’s, the Coast Super Market came to town on Marigold.”

The grocery store was located in the lower level of this house at 209 Fernleaf – the glass square front window was still there in these 2011 Google Streetview images.

The building that housed the grocery store – with its glass squares for the front window – was still there in 2011 per Google Street View but by 2014 it had been torn down.  

The original house was torn down and replaced with this structure in 2014.

Perhaps someday, some of us will be able to wow the ‘youngsters’ of 2060 with tales of how there used to be a grocery store in the Flower Streets between Iris & Jasmine along PCH before it became drug store row.