Lake Norconian: Resort to Naval Hospital in One Day

Rex Clark, who founded the city of Norco, opened the Norconian Resort Supreme on February second, nineteen twenty-nine, as a ninety-two-acre paradise of sulfur springs, boating, golf, and horseback riding. Hollywood's elite arrived for the grand opening. Then the Great Depression hit months later, and the resort struggled.

The Navy purchased the property in the fall of nineteen forty-one, and on December eighth, nineteen forty-one, the day after Pearl Harbor, it was commissioned as the United States Naval Hospital Corona. At its peak in nineteen forty-five, the hospital treated more than five thousand patients, pioneered the first use of penicillin for tuberculosis, and performed the first air transport of Navy patients across the country. The hospital closed in nineteen fifty-seven.

The buildings eventually became a California state prison, though preservationists have long fought to restore the old resort to its original grandeur.