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| Society Page | UPDATE: |
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| APRIL 2011 | ||||
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You’re
invited to a HISTORIC
POSTCARD TOUR OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY... Darlene
Thorne, will take you on a tour of “The Valley of Heart’s Delight”
with vintage postcards from her collection. Many are one-of-a-kind
images, not seen before. Funny and sometimes profound, the
postcards speak for themselves, with her help. What was it like, living in Santa Clara County 100 years ago when there were 10 million fruit trees on 4,100 farms? Children worked beside their parents in the fields and men rode ostriches for pleasure. Gilroy boasted of at least two popular symbols of Santa Clara Valley. A simpler life? Not likely; the average life expectancy was 47 years. ABOUT
OUR PROGRAM PRESENTER…………
Accompanying her then-husband to a coin show at the Santa Clara County
Fairgrounds, Darlene Thorne was fascinated by a card table
strewn with colorful postcards from the postcard era for sale at 5
for $1. She took an hour to pick just the right cards and can
still remember which ones they were, almost 50 years later. Since
then, her collection has grown into a passion with these
vignettes of history. |
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SOCIETY
ANNOUNCES RESIDENTIAL PLAQUE PROGRAM By
Kathy Hodgdon Our Historic Home
Plaque Committee has selected a beautiful design for their historic home
plaques. The program will begin in earnest in April when
homeowners can begin placing their orders through the Society. The
plaques will be 8” x 11” cast bronze and will contain the street
address, the home’s historic name, and the year it was built.
The Historical Society will aggregate the plaque orders and receive
wholesale discount pricing, based upon their status as a non-profit
organization. Participating homeowners will pay only the
Historical Society’s cost ($225 including shipping) for their plaque.
However, if more homeowners participate in the initial order, the cost
may be reduced.
Roberta
Hughan,
Society Vice-President said, “Most homes that are on Gilroy’s
Historic Homes Inventory are automatically eligible to participate in
this plaque program. Even if not included in the inventory,
though, the committee agreed on several other criteria that may qualify
a home for a historic home plaque: architectural significance;
within a historic district; local historic interest; or age of home.” The photo shown is
a sample done by the foundry for one homeowner who said, “There are
many of us who cherish our lovely, charming old homes – mine is 114
years old - and I just can’t wait to see my plaque mounted on my
home.” Connie
Rogers,
Society President said, “I love this project and it has our full
support. We’re happy to see it finally coming to fruition, and
we hope that many more homeowners will join us in our first order.
After their friends and neighbors see their plaques, they will
want one too.” If you are
interested in applying for a plaque for your historic home, please
contact one of the committee members.
We’d like to submit our first order by the end of April. Contact
info: |
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ART
AND HISTORY MERGED WITH Carol Peters’ program about her father, Curley Tomey on January 29th was outstanding! About 70 members and guests enjoyed wine and tapas at our donor thank you event at Lizarran restaurant in Old City Hall. In addition to Carol’s Power Point presentation many of Curley’s works were displayed, plus posters explaining his artistry. CMAP filmed the event, which will become part of a longer program about the cowboy life. The program was a wonderful tribute to Gilroy’s cowboy era. If you missed it, the posters and artifacts will be on display in the center corridor at City Hall until the end of April. |
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ENDOWMENT
FUND PROGRESS We
are so thankful and pleased with the many donations we’ve received for
our Museum Endowment Fund. As
reported in our last Society Page, our donations and earnings in 2010
totaled $10,000. which was matched by our most generous benefactor, Warren Lindeleaf. And it
doesn’t stop there. Since
the first of the year we’ve received the following additions: BRONZE
LEVEL - $100. SILVER
LEVEL - $250 GOLD
LEVEL - $500. Additional
donations received: Peter
and Leona Burge $25. in memory of Linda Burnett Dining
at Mimi’s day on Feb. 1st earned $285.00.
– thanks to all participants! |
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GREAT
NEWS FROM THE GILROY FOUNDATION We
recently received letters from the Foundation with this news:
AND
the Society’s request for a grant of $524. was approved.
This will buy sleeves for the fluorescent lights in the museum,
which will eliminate 92% of their ultraviolet rays.
This is Phase I of our plan to improve the lighting at the museum
as recommended by the Conservation Assessment done last year. These
amounts will be formally awarded at the Foundation’s annual meeting
and Grants Presentation on April 28th at the Interim Center
for the Arts. The Society
Board will decide whether the fund earnings should be reinvested in
their funds or whether part of the Society’s earnings will be needed
to buy supplies for the museum. |
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NEWS
BRIEFS We’re
delighted to announce that Jeanne
Gage has joined our Society Board.
Her energy and know how will be a great addition to the team. The
Museum and our monthly historic walking tours were recently featured on
KSBW, along with Connie Rogers
who received one of six local Jefferson Awards.
Members Claudia Salewske
and Arline Silva were included in the film clip speaking about our
important work of keeping the museum open with volunteers.
Monthly
historic walking tours coming up:
May 7th – Old Gilroy on
the east side, Alexander, Forest and Chestnut Streets Thank
you to Roberta Hughan for six
years of faithful service on the City’s Historic Heritage Committee.
Newly appointed members to the HHC are Steve Ashford and Bill
Faus. The committee met
recently (for the first time in over a year) to consider the design of a
new door for the Milias Hotel Restaurant.
The owners of the new restaurant are very proud of its historic
past. They will retain the
historic frieze over the bar and have uncovered the original tile floor.
A mid-spring opening is planned for the restaurant. Another good
way to patronize our historic downtown! |
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PIONEERS
FILM ARCHIVE Our
friends at the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County have a very
exciting and fun project going on………….. an archive of historic
home movies. To see for
yourself, visit their website at http://www.californiapioneers.com/Welcome.html
and click on Film Archive. They
have an extensive collection, including gems such as a trip over the Bay
Bridge in when it opened in 1937 and a family car trip over Highway 17
to the beach in Santa Cruz, also 1937. The
details behind this story may be even more interesting to you.
The Pioneers own the equipment that can digitize your old films,
8, 16 and 35 millimeter plus slides.
They are actively seeking old films of our area.
If you treasure your old films, it would be good to convert them
to DVDs because the film itself will eventually decay.
The Pioneers will copy your old films for free and give you a DVD
of them if you will allow them to show the film.
They will keep your original film in controlled atmosphere
storage at History San Jose. If
you don’t want to donate your original film, they’ll charge you 17
cents/foot to digitize it. For details, call Bill Foley, manager of the
project, at 408-317-8249.
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Hot Springs
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