Lido Isle
By William Lobdell, Newport Beach Historian Laureate
If you owned a home on Lido Isle during its early years, you were likely quite lonely. Few people wanted to live there.
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Photos courtesy of Newport Beach Historical Society
One of the first homes to be built (this one with a dock) on Lido Isle, circa 1928
The island opened in 1928 to much fanfare (it was one of the first master-planned communities in California), but interest in home lots was almost nonexistent. After several years of pitiful sales, the original developer raised the white flag and surrendered, and the new owner left holding the bag immediately held a years-long liquidation sale to dispose of the then-white elephant as quickly as possible.
One of the first homes during construction on Lido Isle, circa 1928
But a century ago, Lido Isle’s remoteness made potential home-lot buyers hesitant, even with eye-popping incentives like 80% off the original price (the adjusted amount equates to $11,000 today), buy-one-get-one-free home-lot promotions and free architectural designs from an internationally renowned Swiss architect.
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This stucco home on Lido Isle is surrounded by sidewalks with a streetlamp nearby
In the end, it took nearly three decades for lots on Lido Isle to sell out.
Editor’s Note: To help celebrate Newport Beach’s 120th birthday this year, Mayor Lauren Kleiman and several of the city’s history-loving groups have collaborated on a Flashback Fridays project to highlight some of the most interesting people, places and events in our town’s history. The participating groups are Sherman Library & Gardens, the Newport Beach Historical Society, Balboa Island Museum, Visit Newport Beach and Newport Beach in the Rearview Mirror. This appears in Stu News on Fridays.
