MUSEUM DINNER REAFFIRMED OUR COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING CITY’S HISTORY
It’s been a long struggle to establish a history museum in Pinole. It began in 2005 when the Faria House was moved to its current location, and while we had hoped we’d be open by now, we’re resolute in seeing our mission to fruition.
Many of the dinner attendees — there were 169 paid tickets — have donated to the museum (see page 5) and supported our advocacy before the city council. Three years after the museum’s last fundraiser and dinner they were still supporting us because they see the value in preserving our past history and making a lasting record of our present history.
THANK YOU FOR VALUING CULTURE AND HISTORY!
While a permanent home for the Pinole History Museum is still forthcoming, our approach is focused on public outreach — working with schools, the community, and local businesses to promote interest and excitement for the preservation of our historical past.
While COVID-19 restrictions severely curtailed our activities in 2021, the Pinole History Museum and Pinole Historical Society jointly accomplished several goals to preserve our city’s history.
— We are preparing mini-exhibits that will be installed in several Pinole businesses. These exhibits will include photographs and memorabilia on founding families, the early ranchos, downtown, then and now, and the history of street names. The first will be at Mechanics Bank.
— We did two projects with students from Pinole Valley High School: One that explored the recent history of minority business owners, and the other an oral history project where a student sought to learn the history of her family members in Pinole. Both of these may be found on the Pinole Historical Society YouTube Channel, along with 45 other videos covering Pinole’s history.
— The Pinole Historical Society resumed print publishing of its newsletter, Newsbriefs, in 2021, devoting much of its editorial space to advocate for the creation of the Pinole History Museum in the Faria House.
— The PHS and PHM Facebook pages continuously publish information about the history of our city. This information is shared on half a dozen other local and area Facebook pages.
— The PHS continued its yearly history essay contest in Pinole schools. We did so even during COVID-19 school closures, and continue to award scholarships to graduating Pinole Valley High School students.
— The PHS resumed producing its annual Veterans Day Memorial and Flag Retirement Ceremony. This year’s event will be held Friday, November 11, at 11 a.m. in Fernandez Park.
— The PHM continued to enhance its Collections Management System database with CatalogIt, a cloud-based online service. Metadata has been added to more than 500 historical photos that have been uploaded to CatalogIt and are available to the public to view at: https://hub.catalogit.app/157.
An independent contractor continues to work on this project with the ultimate goal of uploading our entire collection of photos and images of artifacts.
Imagine what we could accomplish if we had a home!
Be sure to check back regularly for news updates about what’s going on at the Pinole History Museum.
