John Hall’s frequent rants about how we should “nuke the Miramar!” make me sad. In his zeal to promote new development I believe he has lost sight of what it is that makes San Clemente so special. It is our story.

It begins with one man’s vision for a town unlike any other, friendly to families who wish to live by the sea surrounded with the beauty and ambiance of a Spanish Village. Ole Hanson breathed life into that dream and brought it into focus with his many gifts including the pier, the Beach Club, a lovely park across from an architecturally unique elementary school and a Community Clubhouse – all amidst gently curving avenues that wend and wind through our town and culminate at the ocean’s door.

He commissioned the Strang Bros. to build the Beach Club in 1928. In 1937, shortly after his departure, the casino, later to be called Sebastian’s West was built, along with the Miramar in 1938, also designed by Strang Bros. This North Beach area was to be the entertainment hub for our city with stars such as Dorothy Lamour, Mickey Rooney, Cesar Romero, and Martha Raye entertaining there, while Olympic Champions the likes of Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmiller graced the Beach Club shortly after its opening.

Our historic Spanish Colonial Revival structures serve as reminders of our city’s illustrious past. They are each a chapter in that story and were witness to a time of greatness and promise. To let them be leveled to make way for timeshares and quick profits seems a shortsighted and unforgivable travesty. They are the anchors that tie this city to its Spanish heritage and balance the effects of new development. They should be preserved, or at least incorporated into new development whenever possible. They are the heart and soul and inspiration of our city.

Ruth and Alan Clark understood that, as they rebuilt the historic Bartlett Building on the southwest corner of Avenida Del Mar after it was ravaged by fire 12 years ago. No other structure could stand guard at the top of Del Mar in quite the same way. It needed to be saved, no matter what the cost. They were heroes in returning to us that historic sentinel.

The proposed development for where the Miramar now stands, nice as it may be, is something that could be built in any city, anywhere at anytime. It’s new, it’s nice, it’s huge and it’s generic.

Sadly, it seems that we have to keep learning the same lesson over and over. The Beach Club was once a contender for demolition. For years we struggled, pondered and argued over what to do with Casa Romantica. There was support for turning it into a restaurant, with a funicular cable car leading down the hill to the pier. Condos were entertained as part of the development. How fortunate none of that happened, and that it is now being returned to its amazing beauty. Just a short time ago, the Casa, like the Miramar today and the Beach Club of yesterday, was in the process of becoming a casualty of “demolition by neglect.”

We have already let what should have been dear and precious assets slip through our fingers. Las Palmas Elementary School and the Community Clubhouse were both destroyed by fire, and neither was restored to their original splendor.

The first step is not in finding a creative and purpose filling use for the Miramar – it’s knowing why we should care and the realization that safeguarding our city’s treasures begins with having the vision to recognize where the real value is, and then having the courage and tenacity to do what’s necessary to preserve it.

Georgette Korsen