CORONA - They may have come to shop and stroll, but on Saturday, visitors to The Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos also panned for gold, rode a stagecoach, watched a (mock) gunfight and were serenaded by cowboy musicians.
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| David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise |
| Doris Osko, of the Corona Woman's Improvement Club, from left, Ali Sahabi, of SE Corporation; Paula Ruscigno, of the De Anza District General Federation of Women's Clubs; and Richard Winn, of the Corona Historic Preservation Society, show off a plaque that marks the site of the Butterfield Stage Station. They are on hand for an Old West-themed community celebration Saturday. |
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The cash registers began ringing Friday with the grand opening of the new plaza, but builders set aside Saturday to throw an Old West-themed community celebration and acknowledge the history of Corona and Temescal Valley.
In an afternoon ceremony, developer Ali Sahabi unveiled a new bronze plaque commemorating the Butterfield Overland Stage, which in 1858 began carrying mail and passengers between Missouri and California. The stage stopped on Temescal Canyon Road, near what's now Dos Lagos, and in 1934 the Woman's Improvement Club of Corona installed a marker there to note its historic past.
"The original bronze plaque was stolen from underneath the old oak tree," club First Vice President Paula Ruscigno told an audience gathered near Dos Lagos' distinctive bamboo bridge and small lemon grove.
During the decade that Sahabi planned and built Dos Lagos, members of the woman's club and the Corona Historic Preservation Society filled him in on local lore, and he incorporated various nods to the area's history in its design. The still-unfinished "lifestyle center" also will have a hotel, senior housing, office buildings and "live-work" town homes.
Sahabi, president of SE Corporation, had promised to have a new plaque made to replace the missing one. It was installed on a boulder excavated from the construction site.
"I think Corona is ready for this kind of upscale center," said city resident Lola Avery, 69, who like her fellow Woman's Club members came to the ceremony in 1800s attire -- as did her daughter Vickie Dewey and granddaughter Anna Dewey, 17.
Vickie Dewey said she appreciated the lemon trees planted at Dos Lagos, a salute to a bygone era when Corona was the self-proclaimed Lemon Capital of the World. She and her mother recalled the old Sunkist lemon-processing plant on Joy Street, which used to produce pectin candies.
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| Nine-year-old Beverly Vargas, of Corona, is helped down from a stagecoach by Jim Capps of G&F Carriages |
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"My husband worked there when he was in high school," Avery said. The plant closed in the 1980s and was torn down last year to make way for construction of a business park.
When Sahabi purchased the land for his project in the 1990s, it bore the scars of another chapter in Corona's history -- the abandoned site of the Owens Illinois Glass Company's silica mine. The fine-grain sand from the mine was used to make glass until the operation closed in 1975, said former plant manager George Lemire, 83, who came out for Saturday's plaque dedication.
Lemire began working for Owens Illinois in 1947, and Sahabi sought him out when he was in escrow for information on the land's geology and drilling history.
Corona resident Cyndi Malo came with her mother, Sue Locke, visiting from Chino Hills, to peruse the open-air shopping center.
Malo's 14-month-old son, Dylan, clapped along as a bluegrass quartet in cowpoke attire played "You Are My Sunshine" on the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and stand-up bass.
"I really like the layout," Malo said. "We'll definitely be back."
Corona resident Diana Davis brought her sister, daughter and granddaughter to Dos Lagos, where they eagerly await the opening of a Trader Joe's market.
"All the stores are great, and I love all the seating," Davis said, noting the Craftsman-style chairs and benches that line the wide sidewalks along Dos Lagos' storefronts.
Davis and her family -- particularly 3-year-old granddaughter Zoe -- enjoyed a ride around the shopping center on a vintage stagecoach, pulled by a team of four horses.
"She got to get deputized. She got a little star (badge)," said Huntington Beach resident Ketty Davis, Diana's daughter.
Reach Mary Bender at 951-893-2103 or mbender@PE.com
Copyright The Press-Enterprise Co.
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