Tower knocked down

Robins Hall has been there through World War II, the first moon landing, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and 13 U.S. presidents.

And with one commanding swing of a wrecking ball Thursday morning, the 100-foot-tall bell tower at Newport Harbor High School buckled at its punctured east side and thudded to the ground, falling next to the mangled rebar and concrete of some of its remains.

“Well, certainly it’s disappointing to see such a landmark come down, but fortunately we know it’s going back up,” said Theodore “Bob” Robins Jr., Newport Harbor High School class of ’41. The building was named after his father. “There’s a lot of history and memories behind that building, but they’ll still be there with the new one,” he said.

As the dust cleared around the 77-year-old tower’s upper half, now lying on its side broken open, generations of the high school’s alumni were privy to a view of the inside, a sight only the adventurous and sly enough were able to see before.

Though construction fences blocked the public’s view, the tower’s graffiti-stained interior was visible. Likely hundreds, if not thousands, of signatures and messages were on the walls.

“It’s a sad day,” Dan Hill, class of ’86, said to his former classmate, “Cass” Spence.

The landmark’s fall saddened them.

“What’s next, the Washington Monument?” Hill said. He, like most of the alumni present, steadily talked up local history of the bell tower — its use as a navigation point for ships and its outline jutting up from the formerly flat Orange County landscape. Their passion came with the individual stories.

“Yeah, some people made some money up there,” Hill remembered with a grin. He said one upperclassmen’s favorite pranks used to be charging freshman to use the elevator to get to the top.

Of course, there is no elevator.

Rob Henthorn, a music teacher there for the last 15 years, gazed at the gothic points on the tower’s facade near the top with a smile.

One of his fondest memories is of a senior prank he witnessed about 10 years ago.

Somehow, he recalled, seniors put metal trash cans on top of each of the points, stacked with books and pompoms. Best of all, they were able to put Mickey Mouse gloves at the end of the clock’s hands.

“You want to do whatever you could to stop the demolition, but you can’t,” said Natasha Kosecki, class of ’06.

“There was always the dream that my kids will go in there,” said Erica Thomas, a returning senior.

Andrea Fox, class of ’70, had only returned to Southern California yesterday when she heard the news about Robins Hall.

“To me this is no different than the Parthenon,” Fox said. “We need these visual reminders of our history.”

Newport Harbor students are expected to get their replica tower in about two years after construction begins. American Wrecking is expected to complete Robins Hall demolition by the end of September, said McCarthy Building Co. Project Manager Craig Scaringi.

LPA Inc. has been tapped for the new building’s architecture, and public bidding for the construction contract should be opened by the end of fall, said Deputy Supt. Paul Reed.

Construction on the new building, should begin by the beginning of next year at the latest, he said.

Funding for the project, from Robins Hall’s destruction to rebuilding, is funded by Measure F, approved by voters in 2005.