San Mateo County History Museum
The San Mateo County History Museum, located in the Old Courthouse
San Mateo County History Museum is located in San Francisco Bay Area
San Mateo County History Museum
Location within San Francisco Bay Area
San Mateo County History Museum is located in California
San Mateo County History Museum
San Mateo County History Museum (California)
San Mateo County History Museum is located in the United States
San Mateo County History Museum
San Mateo County History Museum (the United States)
Former name
San Mateo County Historical Museum
Established1935; Relocated in 1999
Location2200 Broadway, Redwood City, CA
Coordinates37°29′13″N 122°13′47″W / 37.4868818°N 122.2296880°W / 37.4868818; -122.2296880[1]
TypeHistory
AccreditationAAM
Visitors53,000+ annually
DirectorMitch Postel
Public transit accessWalking distance from the Redwood City Caltrain station
Websitewww.historysmc.org
San Mateo County Courthouse
Area1.4 acres (0.57 ha)
Built1910 (1910)
Architectural styleItalian Renaissance Revival
NRHP reference No.77000340[2]
Added to NRHPDecember 13, 1977

The San Mateo County History Museum is located in downtown Redwood City, California. Housed inside the former courthouse built in 1910 for the San Mateo County Superior Court, the museum showcases the rich history of San Mateo County and the surrounding area. Operations and funding for the museum are by the San Mateo County Historical Association (SMCHA).[3]

The current location of this museum opened on February 6, 1999;[4] prior to that, from 1963 until 1998 the museum was located at the College of San Mateo.[4] The former courthouse building is a product of the City Beautiful Movement (1893-1920) and has a stained-glass dome thought to be the largest of its kind on the West Coast.

The SMCHA also operates two other museums: the Woodside Store and the Sánchez Adobe Park.[5]

History

The San Mateo County Historical Association was founded in 1935. One of its early members was Dr. Frank Stanger, a history professor at San Mateo Junior College, now the College of San Mateo. Through his efforts, the San Mateo County Historical Museum (now the San Mateo County History Museum) was founded in a college classroom in 1941. As the college grew, so did the Museum. Then in 1998, seeking larger and more publicly accessible quarters, the Historical Association's board of directors decided to move the Museum into the old courthouse in downtown Redwood City. The Museum expanded from its 6,000 square-foot original location to 40,000 square feet. Between 1998 and 2006, more than $20 million was spent on the restoration and renovation of the exterior and interior of the museum.[6]

Programs

The San Mateo County Historical Association is known principally for the operation of its San Mateo County History Museum and two historic sites, the Woodside Store and Sánchez Adobe. In 2016, it conducted school programs for nearly 20,000 children at its three locations, plus Folger Stable[7] in Woodside. It provides public access to its archives through its research library at the History Museum. Its collections compose about 420,000 two- and three-dimensional items. It organizes special educational programs for adults and children on a monthly basis. It maintains a creative schedule of changing exhibits at the San Mateo County History Museum. It publishes a journal, La Peninsula. Finally, it acts as a clearinghouse for matters of historic preservation throughout San Mateo County.[8]

Exhibits

Permanent exhibitions

  • Nature's Bounty explores how the early people of the Peninsula used natural resources to support daily life and how those resources were used to help build San Francisco.[9][10]
  • Journey to Work: Pioneering Patters of Growth tells the story of how transportation transformed San Mateo County from frontier to suburb.[11][12]
  • Living the California Dream uses an "object theater" to trace the evolution of the California Dream of suburban life using lighting effects on artifacts and video projection to add movement and drama.[11]
  • Land of Opportunity: The Immigrant Experience in San Mateo County tells the story of immigrants in the county, including arrivals, discrimination experiences, and maintaining previous cultural traditions.[12]
  • Maverick's features the history of the San Mateo County coast, the science of the 40' Maverick's wave, surfing videos, and a "waverider" where visitors can simulate surfing the waves of Maverick's.[9]
  • San Mateo County History Makers: Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World features local business minds who have invented, revolutionized and developed unique enterprises that have impacted the lives of people around the world.[9][12]

Select temporary exhibitions

  • 2019 – Our Story (February 18 - October 27, 2019), a two-part exhibit. Transformation of a Courthouse highlights the changes to the "Old Courthouse" location over 160 years, including images of the four courthouse buildings. 20 Years in Redwood City highlights activities at the History Museum in the 20 years since it opened at the “Old Courthouse” in 1999.[13]
  • 2016 – Experience the West: Sunset Cover Art,[14] highlighting the history of Sunset magazine covers
  • 2016 – Fight the Bite, history of 100 years of fighting mosquitoes on the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula[15]
  • 2016 – Highlights the Charles Parsons' Ships of the World exhibition,[15] 24 model ships hand-crafted and presentation about the history of maritime activities in San Mateo County like boat building in South San Francisco and shipping in Redwood City[16]
  • 2016 – Let's Play Ball, rare baseball memorabilia from San Mateo County[17]
  • 1999 – Grizzlies: The California King, about San Mateo County's grizzly bear history[4]

Other Historic Sites

Woodside Store

The association began managing its other two historic sites in 1979. The Woodside Store and Sánchez Adobe were, and still are, San Mateo County Parks, but after the passage of Proposition 13, which resulted in severe cuts to the parks' budget, the Historical Association was enlisted to keep them open to the public. Since that time, the Historical Association has developed outdoor education programs for school groups at the sites.

Woodside Store

The Woodside Store was constructed in 1854 by pioneer dentist Robert Orville Tripp and Mathias Parkhurst. This redwood emporium sat in the middle of the San Francisco Peninsula's lumbering district; it was, for a time, the only general store between San Francisco and Santa Clara. It was preserved through the efforts of the Historical Association in the 1940s. After being taken under the wing of the association in 1979, it was subject to a substantial restoration during the mid-1980s and completed by 1994.[18]

Sánchez Adobe

Sánchez Adobe

The Sánchez Adobe is the site of important regional history during the first three periods of California History. During Native California times the Aramai people established the village of Pruristac here. During the Spanish colonial period, it was an important agricultural outpost. During Mexican times, Francisco Sánchez, one-time Alcalde of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco), built his substantial adobe house at this site, which was completed in 1846. Lobbying efforts of the Historical Association inspired the county to obtain the five-acre site for a park in the 1940s. Since 1978, extensive archaeological investigations have been accomplished. Today, the County and the Historical Association are working on a master plan to improve the interpretive value of this unique location.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "San Mateo County Courthouse". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. 9 November 1995. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#77000340)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Exploring San Mateo County History Museum". Redwood Creek Inn. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  4. 1 2 3 "Grand opening events". The Almanac News. 1999. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  5. ↑ "Key information on historical museum". The Almanac News. 1999-02-03. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  6. ↑ Van W. Shields, Janet L. Gillimore, “Accreditation Visiting Report,” The American Alliance of Museums, 2011, p. 2.
  7. ↑ "Folger Stable Historic Site". San Mateo Co. Parks Department. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  8. ↑ "San Mateo County History Museum Home". historysmc.org. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  9. 1 2 3 "San Mateo County History Museum". AAA.com. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  10. ↑ "Music vs. history at Redwood City's Courthouse Square". SFGate. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  11. 1 2 "San Mateo County Historical Museum". Wanderbat. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  12. 1 2 3 "Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Donates $1.1 Million to Help San Mateo County History Museum Reveal Unknown Stories of California". Business Wire. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  13. ↑ "Changing Exhibits". San Mateo County Historical Association. 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  14. ↑ "Museum gotta see 'um". San Mateo Daily Journal. 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  15. 1 2 "Things To Do". Mercury News. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  16. ↑ "Discovering our maritime history at the San Mateo County History Museum". San Mateo Daily Journal. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  17. ↑ "Major League Baseball treasures found in San Mateo County museum". Mercury News. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  18. ↑ "Woodside Store History". San Mateo County Historical Association. 2017-01-12. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
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