San Mateo County History Museum facts for kids
The San Mateo County History Museum, located in the Old Courthouse
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| Former name | San Mateo County Historical Museum |
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| Established | 1935; Relocated in 1999 |
| Location | 2200 Broadway, Redwood City, CA |
| Type | History |
| Accreditation | AAM |
| Visitors | 53,000+ annually |
| Public transit access | Walking distance from the Redwood City Caltrain station |
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San Mateo County Courthouse
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| Area | 1.4 acres (0.57 ha) |
| Built | 1910 |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 77000340 |
| Added to NRHP | December 13, 1977 |
The San Mateo County History Museum is a cool place to learn about the past! It's located in downtown Redwood City, California. The museum is inside an old courthouse building that was built in 1910.
This museum shows off the amazing history of San Mateo County and the areas nearby. The San Mateo County Historical Association (SMCHA) runs the museum and helps fund it. The museum moved to this current spot on February 6, 1999. Before that, from 1963 to 1998, it was at the College of San Mateo. The old courthouse building is famous for its beautiful stained-glass dome. People think it's the biggest one of its kind on the West Coast!
The SMCHA also takes care of two other museums: the Woodside Store and the Sánchez Adobe Park.
Contents
History of the Museum
The San Mateo County Historical Association started in 1935. One of its first members was Dr. Frank Stanger. He was a history professor at San Mateo Junior College, which is now the College of San Mateo. Thanks to his hard work, the San Mateo County Historical Museum began in a classroom in 1941.
As the college grew, so did the museum. In 1998, the Historical Association decided to move the museum. They wanted a bigger space that was easier for people to visit. So, they moved it to the old courthouse in downtown Redwood City. The museum grew a lot, from 6,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet! Between 1998 and 2006, over $20 million was spent to fix up and improve the museum building.
What the Museum Does
The San Mateo County Historical Association is mostly known for running the San Mateo County History Museum. They also manage the Woodside Store and Sánchez Adobe, which are two other historic places.
In 2016, they taught nearly 20,000 kids through school programs at their three locations. They also have a research library at the History Museum. Here, people can look at old papers and learn more about history. The museum has a huge collection of about 420,000 items! They also put on special learning programs for both kids and adults every month. Plus, they always have new and exciting exhibits at the San Mateo County History Museum. They even publish a history magazine called La Peninsula.
Awesome Exhibits
The museum has many cool exhibits that tell different stories about the area.
Permanent Exhibitions
- Nature's Bounty: This exhibit shows how early people used natural things like plants and animals to live. It also explains how these resources helped build the city of San Francisco.
- Journey to Work: Pioneering Patterns of Growth: Learn how different ways of transportation changed San Mateo County. It went from being a wild frontier to a busy suburban area.
- Living the California Dream: This exhibit uses special lighting and videos to show how the idea of suburban life in California changed over time. It's like a play with real objects!
- Land of Opportunity: The Immigrant Experience in San Mateo County: Discover the stories of immigrants who came to the county. It talks about their journeys, challenges, and how they kept their cultural traditions alive.
- Maverick's: This section is all about the famous Maverick's wave on the San Mateo County coast. You can learn about the science behind these huge 40-foot waves. There are surfing videos and even a "waverider" where you can pretend to surf the waves!
- San Mateo County History Makers: Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World: Meet local business leaders who invented things, started new ideas, and created businesses that changed lives around the world.
Cool Temporary Exhibitions
The museum also has special exhibits that change over time. Here are some examples:
- 2019 – Our Story: This exhibit had two parts. Transformation of a Courthouse showed how the "Old Courthouse" building changed over 160 years. 20 Years in Redwood City celebrated the museum's 20 years in the "Old Courthouse" building.
- 2016 – Experience the West: Sunset Cover Art: This exhibit highlighted the history of the famous Sunset magazine covers.
- 2016 – Fight the Bite: Learn about 100 years of fighting mosquitoes in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- 2016 – Highlights the Charles Parsons' Ships of the World exhibition: This showed 24 model ships built by hand. It also taught about the history of shipping in San Mateo County.
- 2016 – Let's Play Ball: See rare baseball items from San Mateo County.
- 1999 – Grizzlies: The California King: This exhibit was about the history of grizzly bears in San Mateo County.
Other Historic Places to Visit
The Historical Association started managing two other historic places in 1979. These are the Woodside Store and Sánchez Adobe. They are part of San Mateo County Parks. However, after a law called Proposition 13 passed, the parks' budget was cut. So, the Historical Association stepped in to keep these places open to the public. Since then, they have created outdoor learning programs for school groups at these sites.
Woodside Store
The Woodside Store was built in 1854 by Robert Orville Tripp and Mathias Parkhurst. This redwood building was in the middle of a logging area. For a while, it was the only general store between San Francisco and Santa Clara. The Historical Association helped save it in the 1940s. Then, in the 1980s, they worked hard to restore it, finishing by 1994.
Sánchez Adobe
The Sánchez Adobe is a very important historical site. Long ago, the Aramai people had a village called Pruristac here. During the Spanish colonial period, it was a farm. Later, during Mexican times, Francisco Sánchez built his large adobe house here. He was once the mayor of Yerba Buena, which is now San Francisco. His house was finished in 1846. The Historical Association helped convince the county to make this five-acre site a park in the 1940s. Since 1978, people have done a lot of archaeological digs here. Today, the County and the Historical Association are working to make this unique place even better for visitors to learn from.
See also
