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Dancing at the Rancho Day Fiesta. Photo by Joe Messina.
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On Saturday, September 17 from 12-4 p.m., the Sanchez Adobe docents will present the Rancho Day Fiesta exploring life in Mexican California. This year will add a celebration for an important new effort. A groundbreaking will take place marking the beginning of a $1.5 million endeavor designed to improve the visitor experience at the five-acre county park in Pacifica.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has allocated $1.3 million while the Historical Association has committed to raising another $200,000 toward the project. Among the planned improvements will be the conversion of the present ranger’s residence into a new interpretive center, exterior restoration of the adobe house, implementation of a furnishing plan to return the interior of the adobe house to its appearance during its historic era (1840s), building of new restrooms and other upgrades. San Mateo County Parks supporters and Historical Association members are very excited about this work, given that there have not been capital improvements of this type since the Site was first opened to the public in the 1950s.
The Sanchez Adobe Historic Site is unique in that the first three eras of California History are represented here. During native California times, the Aramai village of Pruristac occupied this place. During the Spanish era, the Site was used by the padres at Mission San Francisco de Asis as the center of an assistance farm that grew the food necessary for the mission and presidio to survive. During the Mexican era, the Site (and 9,000 acres all around it) became the rancho of Francisco Sanchez, a prominent Californio who served as alcalde (or mayor) of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco). In January of 1847, Sanchez led the Californios against American Marines at the Battle of Santa Clara.
The groundbreaking will take place at 2 p.m. on this historic day. San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley will conduct the ceremony.
Families are invited to enjoy early California music and dancing. Lance Beesom and his musicians will be playing while giving instruction about the dances of the 1840s. Carol Verbeek and Bruce Hortter, expert craftsmen, will describe for the public how they constructed the authentic Mexican-era carreta (or ox cart) that is on the Site.
Children will be encouraged to participate in various craft activities reminiscent of “old” California. They will be twining rope, tooling leather, churning butter, dipping candles, forming adobe bricks, pressing grapes, making corn husk dolls, weaving god’s eyes and spinning wool. Demonstrations of bread-baking and tortilla-making will take place.
Admission will be free for the event. There will be a charge for craft activities and food. The Sanchez Adobe Historic Site is located at 1000 Linda Mar Blvd. in Pacifica.
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Rancho Corte Madera, 1995. Photo by Robert Buelteman.
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Next on the Courthouse Docket:
Robert Buelteman Speaks for the Land
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On Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m., join us for an evening of history, photographic art and nature with Peninsula photographer Robert Buelteman as he tells us about his art and his passion for land conservation. Sharing anecdotes of his 40-year exploration of the Peninsula, the Courthouse Docket presentation will be a visual tour of the natural and scenic wonders of San Mateo County.
The presentation will take place in historic Courtroom A, on the second floor of the History Museum. Downstairs, 19 of Buelteman’s favorite black and white works of environmental scenes from San Mateo County are on display. These images are derived from projects he completed for five organizations - - Peninsula Open Space Trust, Sempervirens Fund, Djerassi Residents Artists Program, San Mateo County Parks Foundation and Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
His works strive to connect audiences to subjects in an emotionally transcendent manner, especially as they celebrate the local natural environment. His love of the land began when he was growing up in Woodside. The family home looked out to the Santa Cruz Mountains, whose deep canyons, redwood groves and daily tides of ocean-borne fog inspired the veneration of life and light that appear in his works today.
Buelteman has published 15 photographic portfolios. His art has been the subject of dozens on essays in 28 languages and can found in public and private collections worldwide.
Doors open at 6 p.m. The event is free with admission to the museum--$6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, and free for members.
The Courthouse Docket is a monthly series of presentations held in the History Museum’s historic Courtroom A. The Courthouse Docket Series is sponsored by Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation. More information at www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.org.
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Robert Wisnom and Family c. 1890s.
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The Wisnom Family will be honored as our 2016 San Mateo County History Makers. Since 1873, this founding family has played a crucial role in the creation of the mid-Peninsula’s communities with ramifications that have had influence far past the borders of San Mateo County.
The San Mateo County-Wisnom Family story begins with Robert Wisnom, an Irish immigrant who arrived on the Peninsula in 1873.Robert built many commercial buildings and residential homes in San Mateo. He became involved in a variety of other businesses, including helping to establish the mid-Peninsula’s first bank, the Bank of San Mateo. He supported a variety of community and charitable causes.
Later his five sons and two daughters also became important builders and leaders of the mid-Peninsula.
The San Mateo County History Makers Dinner will be held at the Marriott Hotel in Burlingame on September 21 from 6-9 p.m. Tickets cost $200. For more information, please call the Development Department at 650.299.0104 or visit our website.
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Paul Cook founded Raychem in 1957.
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On Wednesday, September 14, the San Mateo County Historical Association’s Members' Annual Meeting will be held in the History Museum’s Courtroom A. A welcome reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting starting at 7 p.m. In addition to discussing upcoming plans, we will be honoring outgoing officers and board members and volunteers who have been working for the Association for 5, 10, 15...or more years.
Paul Cook will be the guest presenter at the Annual Meeting. A chemical engineer, he worked at Stanford Research Institute after World War II studying the potential industrial uses of waste fission products. In 1957, Cook founded Raychem in Redwood City. The company was the first to successfully commercialize radiation chemistry. Among its many innovative projects, Raychem developed Arcticlad, a heat shrinkable tape product used on the Alaska pipeline. At the Annual Meeting, Cook will discuss his experiences at Raychem.
One of the planned projects at the History Museum in coming years is a renovation of the exhibit San Mateo County History Makers: Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World. Cook’s story is one of the important additions that will be made to the exhibit.
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Our Wednesday, September 14, 2016, the Members’ Annual Meeting will be special for a number of reasons. It will be the first time we will stage the event at night (6:30 reception, 7:00 meeting) and the first time we will have it on a weekday. Our keynote speaker will be Paul Cook, the founder of Raychem.
The meeting will also be important for we will recognize some of our excellent volunteers, and this includes board members. In particular, we will be thanking Paul Barulich, our immediate past-chairman, and Shawn DeLuna, who is retiring from the Board after nine years of service.
Paul’s two years (fiscal 2015 and 2016) featured the completion of two important capital projects at the History Museum - - the installation of a climate control system and restoration of windows on the Broadway side of the building.
He oversaw two successful History Makers dinners and two record breaking annual campaigns. We published four significant issues of our journal, La Peninsula, and a catalogue for the Parsons Gallery. We took in the largest contribution of materials that our archives has ever accessioned, the 250,000 images of the Norton Pearl photographic collection. During these two years our attendance burgeoned to over 60,000, a 17% increase. But Paul will say his most important accomplishment was passing through the Board a strategic plan that focuses on some significant, and exciting, capital improvements at the History Museum and Sanchez Adobe, while seeking to expand our endowment program.
Meanwhile, Shawn DeLuna has completed his third, three year term and now, according to our bylaws, must retire from the Board. Shawn served as chairman of two committees - - the Audit Committee - - and, during the worst of the Great Recession, the Marketing Committee. His good natured optimism was essential to the Board and staff in getting through those hard times. More recently, Shawn has been a team captain for several of our annual campaigns. He served as Board Secretary over the last two years. His is a family commitment to the mission and programs of the Historical Association, as his father, Dick, served on our Board in the 1970s.
I hope that as many members as possible will come to the Annual Meeting to learn about the Historical Association’s progress, hear about the life and times of Paul Cook and honor our great volunteers.
Mitch Postel, President
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