My interest in what was once the Lake Norconian Club began in the mid-1970s.

From '74 through '79 I worked for a navy contractor in Norco California. Truth to tell it wasn't much of a job — made worse by the airless, windowless bunker of a building I worked in — but pleasure could be derived from trips up to the base (then called FMSAEG).

This facility was housed in a cluster of long, low buildings situated near a lake. Across this lake was a pavilion that served as the base club. And beyond that, high on a hill, was an imposing complex. "What is that?" I asked once. "Think it's a hospital" was the reply. I left it at that.

Forward to the mid-1990s.

Turner Classic Movies had recently been added to our local cable lineup and I was continually amazed by the "Dawn of Sound" Metro and Warner obscurities often scheduled (usually in the dead of night).

On 15 July 1995 TCM slotted the Robert Montgomery golf comedy Love in the Rough during the wee hours. This 1930 release was early sound for sure and even promised some decent Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh songs. It looked good.

The next evening I watched the tape and suddenly THERE IT WAS. My jaw dropped. Love in the Rough had been filmed on location. It was that place "across the lake and high on a hill" that, years ago, had prompted my "What is that?" What is that indeed.

Then on 18 November 1995 TCM scheduled the Joe E. Brown comedy Top Speed. Again, it was vintage 1930. Again, it aired in the middle of the night. And again, my jaw dropped when watching the tape next evening. It too had been filmed on location. The same location.

Time for research, but my efforts produced little of consequence:

• It was built (in 1928) and managed by Rex Clark, a local rancher and founder of the city of Norco
  
• It fell on hard times in the early depression (was it completely shut down by the mid-1930s?)
  
• It was sold to the US government and converted to a naval hospital in 1941
  
• Since 1962, it has housed the California Rehabilitation Center
  
• It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the late 1990s
  
• It is now owned by the city of Norco?
  
  

Got any information or experiences relating to the Lake Norconian Club or the naval hospital which replaced it?

             . . . please e-mail me



Updates:
The website for the Lake Norconian Preservation Foundation includes several documentaries covering the club's history.

Episode 9009 of the Huell Howser program California's Gold recounts it's history and visits the site.

Kevin Bash and Brigitte Jouxtel's The Norconian Resort is part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series.

Marge Bitetti's Norco - also part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America - includes chapters on the hotel, hospital, and navy base.

A limited edition Lake Norconian lithograph is available. E-mail artist Jill Darr for purchase details.

Information on the Norconian's long-vanished airfield can be found here.

A few photos of a silver-plated Norconian creamer. Background on the creamer plus several personal and historical references to the club were on a webpage that no longer exists.