MILEPOSTS #1015
By Bill Pumford, Image from the Russ Keller Collection
TITLE: MONTE CORONA RESORT AND CONFERENCE CENTER: This week’s image is a photo of the Monte Corona Center located in Twin Peaks. The facility should look familiar – it is currently the Twin Peaks Christian Conference Center. In a strange turn of fate, the section of land on which the conference center was built had been designated 100 years before, in the mid-1800s, as a “Seminary of Learning,” as had a total of 150,000 acres in California. Originally this land near Twin Peaks did not have a use for a learning center so the land was sold. In 1964 the Southern Section of the California Teachers Association (CTA) purchased 57 acres near Twin Peaks to create a resort and conference center. In March of 1966, the new $1.25M facility opened with a large auditorium, a dining room, cocktail lounge, and was surrounded by 40 cottages/hotel units. The conference center was a big hit and was booked much of the rest of 1966. One of the most popular uses of Monte Corona was for dinner theater and summer theater. The CTA and UCLA teamed up to provide wonderfully produced plays such as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Anything Goes,” and “Nine By Twelve.” When Monte Corona was not sponsoring groups the hotel units were available for rent and the dining room and cocktail lounge were open to the public. On Sundays, the Monte Corona featured an all you can eat dinner buffet for $2.75. The resort’s Christmas and New Year’s dining experiences were very popular in the local area. The Annual Festival of Grapes held by the Casa Ninos Auxiliary to Children’s Home Society, with entertainment by Dean Dellinger’s band, was one of the star-studded events of the year. In 1975 the California Teachers Association sold the property to Calvary Chapel who created a retreat which eventually became the Twin Peaks Christian Conference Center.