(Naval Hospital, Corona including
Sprada Annex; Naval Ordnance Labratory, Corona)
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.
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.
California State Military
Department