Countdown to 2000: Personalities

Jessica Garrison

It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever attended a city

council meeting in Newport Beach or Costa Mesa that, even in the 1920s,

the towns were full of personalities.

Even 70 years ago in Newport Beach, many of these personalities emerged

and fought bitterly over environmental issues. Take Isabel Pease, or

“Izzy,” as she was affectionately known to her friends.

Without benefit of a fax machine or the long arm of the Sierra Club,

Pease led the first effort to preserve what is now Corona del Mar State

Beach.

Though she didn’t have to contend with waves of school children streaming

off Southland buses and harassing the creatures who live in the tide

pools as do today’s proponents of Little Corona, Pease did have a foe in

Citizens Bank, which was trying to prevent the city of Newport Beach from

deeding the property to the state to preserve it as a public park.

Pease and her lawyer friend, Mary Burton, exposed the fact that City

Attorney Roland Thompson was secretly in cahoots with the bank, and, to

much acclaim, the beach was saved.

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa in 1925 got its own fire department, of crucial

importance to any frontier town constructed of flammable wood buildings.

Fred Bush, no relation to George, served as the town’s first fire chief.

Across the street, Charles TeWinkle, the man who lent his name to both a

park and a school, served as the town’s first postmaster.

TeWinkle operated the post office from the back of his hardware store

until 1925, when W.W. Middleton, thanks to his relationship with the

administration of new U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, was appointed

postmaster and dedicated an entire building just for the post office.

Sources:

“Newport Beach 75: 1906-1981,” James P. Felton, 1981.

“A Slice of Orange, The History of Costa Mesa,” Edrick J. Miller, 1970.

“Fifty Golden Years,” S.A. Meyer.