A farewell on the Fourth

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- For the residents of the cottages, Fourth of July was

a festive last hurrah.

It marked the symbolic end to more than 80 years of quiet, peaceful

life in one of the last undisturbed enclaves on the Orange County

coastline.

By Sunday at 5 p.m., the remaining residents of the 46 beachfront

cottages must vacate their homes on the publicly-owned land. They signed

agreements with California State Parks shortly after receiving eviction

notices in March.

The Fourth of July celebration at the cove was, of course, bittersweet

for the tightly knit tribe of residents.

“It’s really just the end of an incredibly wonderful era,” resident

and activist Laura Davick said. “It’s the loss of the cottages, the loss

of the cove. But it’s also the loss of the family.”

The community of renters, who paid between $790 and $1,400 per month

to live in the weather-beaten bungalows, celebrated their last Fourth of

July at the cove in a relaxed, downbeat way.More than 100 people gathered

on the beach to play volleyball, listen to live music and say their

goodbyes.

Many bemoaned the state’s plans to board up the cabins after Sunday,

while State Parks develops a plan to preserve the historic district.

The state held a public meeting on April 26 to hear input from the

bevy of groups who hope to shape the face of the district in future

years. Another meeting is tentatively set for August.

Residents said the cottages will fall into ruin once they leave.

State Parks officials have pledged to maintain the cottages. After the

residents leave, the agency will install lifeguards and rangers in a

handful of the cottages. The state has also pledged to spend nearly $1

million on repairs.

“I think we’re fully capable of taking care of those cottages,” Parks

spokesman Roy Stearns said. “We’ve been in the business of preserving

historic sites for nearly 150 years.”

In the living room of his bungalow, the first in the district to have

electricity installed, Kevin Donahue criticized the state for evicting

him before a plan is in place.

“Once this place is gone, you will never restore it,” Donahue said.

“They do have the ability [to restore the cottages], but the will power

isn’t there.”

Crystal Cove attracted the ancestors of the current residents as early

as 1916, when tents popped up on the beach. The cottages were built in

the 1920s and 1930s, as the cove became more than just a vacation spot.

In 1979, the state bought the 3.25-mile coastline from the Irvine Co.,

who had owned the land, for $32.6 million. That same year the district

was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as an authentic

example of “vernacular” architecture.

Some of those who had sold cottages in the cove returned for the

Fourth of July to celebrate the cove as they remembered it for one last

time.

Virginia Mergell Smolich, who is 73, flew down from Sacramento to see

the place she constantly visited even after selling her cottage in 1962.

“I will never come back and look at it again,” Smolich said, as she

stood on the beach. “It would be too sad . . . It was a wonderful place

to grow up. It was our little world, our Shangri-La.”