Historic California Posts, Camps,
Stations, and Airfields
Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Corona Division
(Naval Hospital, Corona including
Sprada Annex; Naval Ordnance Labratory, Corona; Detachment Corona,
Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach)
Naval
Hospital, Corona
By Justin M. Ruhge
Goleta Valley Historical Society
The Corona Naval Hospital facilities had
their beginnings in 1928. It was then that a local developer
named Rex Clark built a luxury resort costing $3.5 million at
Corona on 678 acres. A playground for the rich and famous frequented
by silent screen stars, the private resort complex sported a
gambling casino, golf course, 55-acre artificial lake, a hot
sulfur spring spa, Olympic pool, an airport and a magnificent
5-story hotel. Located on top of a knoll, the hotel had a commanding
view of Lake Norconian and the surrounding countryside. However,
during the years of the Depression beginning in 1929, the Norconian
Club slowly declined.
Rex Clark agreed to sell the Lake Norconian Club to the Navy
for $1.6 million on December 6, 1941, one day before the attack
on Pearl Harbor. On December 8, 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed the papers that completed the purchase. That day has been
set by the Navy as the official date for counting the anniversaries
of its service in Corona. On that date Secretary of the Navy
Frank Knox commissioned the institution a hospital ship.
Captain Frederick L. Conklin, M. C. was
the first commanding officer of the Hospital. He was succeeded
by Captain Harold L. Jensen, M. C. in January of 1942. Captain
Jensen was in command of the hospital ship Solace, which was
in the thick of the attack on Pearl Harbor before coming to Corona.
The Naval Hospital was expanded over the years. The Administration
building with surgery headquarters and special rooms for officers,
along with the Spadra Annex, which were built shortly after the
war started became known as "topside." A second unit
was added in 1943 exclusively for tubercular patients while a
third unit for rheumatic fever and polio wards was added shortly
thereafter.
The Hospital newsletter was called the Corona Beacon.
The Naval Hospital was also a teaching hospital or nurses and
doctors. A large contingent of WAVES was stationed there.
The peak load of patients was reached in 1945 when there were
4,500. This number fell to 2,700 in 1947. The Hospital was disestablished
on November 1, 1949. The few remaining patients at that time
were transferred to the Long Beach Naval Hospital and the Navy's
new Hospital at Balboa Park, San Diego.
In 1951, the Corona Naval Hospital was reopened to care for Korean
War casualties after almost $2 million was spent to re-equip
and refurbish the facility.
The Hospital newsletter during that period was called The
Norconian.
With the end of the Korean War in 1953, the patients at the Corona
Naval Hospital gradually decreased. In September 1957, it was
announced by the Navy that the San Diego Naval Hospital and a
hospital ship in Long Beach Harbor would be able to take care
of all the medical needs of the Navy in Southern California.
On October 15, 1957 the Corona Naval Hospital was closed. It
was turned over to the General Services Administration (GSA)
for disposal.
On March 2, 1962, California Governor Edmund G. Brown stated
that the GSA would donate the hospital buildings and grounds
included in Units I and III to the State of California for a
narcotics addiction rehabilitation center.
In the meantime, other Navy organizations moved onto the grounds
of the Hospital and into Unit II of the Hospital buildings. At
first this was the Nation Bureau of Standards (NBS) in 1951.
In 1953, the NBS programs were transferred to the Navy who then
formed the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Corona (NOLC). Since than
a number of Naval organizations have occupied the property, adding
buildings and changing the missions. In 2005, the organization
is named the Corona Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Norco.
This organization with some 800 employees still use some of the
original World War II and Norconian Club buildings.
References: A Tribute to 60 Years of
Service to the Navy, Corona Division Naval Surface Warfare Center,
Navsea, 2002.
Map of World War
II Corona Naval Hospital
Naval
Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Corona Division
by globalsecurity.org (copied
with permission)
The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)
Corona Division - a Naval Sea Systems Command activity, is the
Navy's only independent analysis and assessment center. The mission
of the NSWC Corona Division is to "Gauge the warfighting
capacity of ships and aircraft, from unit to battlegroup level,
by assessing the suitability of design, the performance of weapons
and equipment, and the adequacy of training." In order to
carry out this mission, NSWC Corona Division possesses a number
of unique capabilities. Foremost among these is the Warfare Assessment
Laboratory - the cornerstone of an integrated approach to warfare
assessment and the focal point of internal and external interconnectivity.
NSWC Corona Division is comprised of three
Centers of Excellence, four departments, and more than 950 scientists
and engineers, 700 contractors, and one of the Navy's largest
scientific and engineering computer operations. More than 180
critical programs are assigned to the Center with about $180 million
dollars of annual expenditures.
The site of the NSWC Corona Division was
once a playground for the rich and famous. A 700-acre luxury resort
once operated here in Norco, built by Rex Clark in 1928. Frequented
by silent-screen stars, the complex sported a gambling casino,
golf course, 55 acre lake, a hot sulfur spring spa, an airport,
and a magnificent, 5-story hotel. Sitting atop a knoll, the hotel
had a commanding view of Lake Norconian and the surrounding countryside.
With the stock market crash of 1929, the resort plunged into a
12-year decline culminating in Clark agreeing to sell the complex
to the Navy for 1.6 million dollars December 6th, 1941, one day
before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Navy quickly began to convert the complex
into a hospital. Behind the ornate facade of the main building,
murals were removed from the walls, chandeliers were taken down,
furniture was stored, draperies and Persian rugs were removed,
and soon the elegant hotel was turned into an aseptic, strictly
functional hospital. Even the sulfur baths were converted to functional
hydrotherapy mineral baths. By 1944, there were 100 officers,
184 nurses, and 1200 corpsmen at the hospital, and that year alone,
they cared for almost 12,000 patients.
Under the direction of Dr. Robert D. Huntoon,
most of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) Missile Development
Division began to move to the west coast and Unit II was formally
designated as the NBS Corona Laboratories. Under Dr. Huntoon's
leadership, the organization rapidly expanded to 250 scientists,
technicians, and necessary support personnel. This staff continued
to concentrate on missiles and improving methods of guiding and
fusing them.
In 1952, there occurred a key event in the
evolution of the NSWC Corona Division. By that year, the Navy's
Terrier guided missile had completed development and was considered
ready for full-scale shipboard firing tests. Recognizing the need
for accurate and objective evaluation of these firings, the Navy
assigned responsibility for this task to the government group
whose work on guided missiles it had been sponsoring for more
than a decade-the NBS Corona Laboratories.
By 1953, the NBS Corona laboratories were
in full operation with a staff of more than 400. On 24 July of
that year, following a decision that weapons research and development
were more properly a function of the military than NBS, the Secretary
of Defense, and the Secretary of Commerce jointly announced plans
to transfer seventeen NBS technical divisions to the Department
of Defense. As part of that transfer, the NBS activity at Corona
was transferred to the Department of the Navy, redesignated the
Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Corona (NOLC) and assigned to the Bureau
of Ordnance, thus becoming an official part of the Bureau it had
served since 1941.
The Naval Warfare Assessment Division of
the Naval Ordnance Center dedicated a new 48,000 square-foot Warfare
Assessment building April 6th, 1994. The $9,425,532 Warfare Assessment
Laboratory provides a consolidated secure facility to analyze
fleet readiness and capability during world-wide multi-service
training exercises.
Administration Building,
Corona Naval Hospital in the 1950s
Seal
Beach Naval Weapons Station Corona Detatchment
The site now occupied by Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment
Corona was once a playground of the rich and famous. In 1928 City
of Norco founder Rex B. Clark built a 700-acre resort hotel complex
on the site that included a lakefront casino, golf course and
airport. The location became a hit with Hollywood celebrities,
but experienced tough times following the stock market crash of
1929.
On December 6, 1941, one day before the
attack on Pearl Harbor, Clark agreed to sell the complex to the
Navy for use as a naval hospital. Naval Hospital, Corona was established
on December 15, and served wounded Sailors and Marines throughout
World War Two. The hospital was disestablished in 1949, but was
reestablished in 1951 to care for casualties of the Korean War.
Also in 1951, as the Navy's guided missile
development efforts began to expand, personnel from the National
Bureau of Standards (NBS) Missile Development Division began arriving.
The organization was designated as NBS Corona Laboratory in 1952
and initially shared property with the naval hospital. In 1953,
the NBS laboratories were transferred to the Department of Defense,
and the Corona Laboratory was re-designated as Naval Ordnance
Laboratory, Corona.
This was just the beginning of what would
become a long and proud history of weapons research and assessment
work at the Corona site, culminating with work done by the detachment's
current primary tenant, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division.
The naval hospital was permanently closed
in 1957, and in 1962 this portion of the property was turned over
to the State of California to be used as a narcotics addicts rehabilitation
center, and later as a prison.
In 1971 weapons operations in the Southern
California area were consolidated, with assessment work at Corona
coming under the command of Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.
Throughout the ensuing decades, several additional re-organizations
took place as the Navy sought to maximize efficiencies in both
its weapons laboratories as well as its shore-based infrastructure
in general.
Finally, in July 2005, the Corona site was
re-designated as a detachment of Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach,
with the facility's primary tenant, Naval Surface Warfare Center,
Corona Division, retaining its own command structure.
Corps
of Engineers Real Estate History
The United States government acquired a
total of 713.665 acres of land in fee and direct purchase for
the former Corona Naval Hospital, located in the city of Norco,
Riverside County, California. The site was originally a resort
hotel located on a 694.555 acre tract. This tract was purchased
by the Navy Department from Rex B. Clark on 9 December 1941 through
condemnation proceedings. Three additional parcels associated
with this hospital site were purchased by the Navy Department
as follows: 1.322 acres acquired in condemnation proceedings from
Rex B. Clark on 22 September 1942, 4.458 acres acquired in condemnation
proceedings from the North Corona Land Co. on 30 March 1943, and
13.33 acres acquired by direct purchase from George E. McCauley
on 26 February 1946.
The Navy Department converted the main hotel
building into a hospital. Additional buildings were constructed
to house additional patients and Navy personnel. By conversion
and additions, the hospital had a capacity of 2,160 beds. The
site was exclusively under Navy control during the periods of
ownership and use.
Disestablishment of the hospital was declared
by the Navy on 1 November 1949. The hospital was reopened on 1
June 1951 and the Navy inactivated the hospital again in September
1957. On 21 September 1959, 580 acres of the former hospital site
were transferred to Bureau of Naval Weapons for use by the Naval
Ordnance Laboratory. The remaining 115 acres were declared excess
and recommended to the General Services Administration for disposal.
On 30 March 1962, 92.3553 acres were transferred to the State
of California for use as a Narcotics Rehabilitation Center. On
15 May 1962, an additional 14.6014 acres were transferred to Corona
Unified School District, Corona, CA. On 4 June 1985, 141.86 acres
were transferred to Riverside Community College District.
Approximately 219 acres were transferred
by quitclaim deeds to two private owners on 19 May 1967 and 23
June 1972. These parcels were subsequently purchased by two housing
developers Lewis Homes and Crestwood Homes. The Seal Beach Naval
Weapons Station currently controls 245.75 acres.
Source: Los Angeles District,
US Army Corps of Engineers, 1999
Additions
to Corona Naval Hospital
1000-bed Unit 3 in
1943
Unit 2 in 1945
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