Train station may become museum

By Mark Abramson / Burlingame Daily News Staff Writer

The Burlingame Historical Society has some big plans for one of the city's California Historical Landmarks - the old train station at 290 California Drive.

Historical Society officials are trying to raise $1 million to transform the ticket office and waiting area of the station into a museum. The station also houses the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce's offices, which would not be affected by the plan.

The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which operates Caltrain, is donating the building's use. The historical society would only have to pay for maintenance and utilities.

The building opened in October 1894, and its roof contains tiles from 18th-century missions, including the Mission Dolores Asistencia in San Mateo, according to the state Office of Historic Preservation.

"Just about every city has a history museum and counties have them," said Mike Garavaglia, the architect who has been hired to rehabilitate the building. "When you are trying to interpret history, being in a historic place reinforces what you are trying to do."

Russ Cohen, the historical society's president and a city council member, called the train station the perfect location for the project and said now is a good time to start fundraising. The plan is to have the 914-square-foot museum open by the end of the city's centennial anniversary celebration in June 2008, he said.

"I am counting on the community to rally around this project," Cohen said. "We have already raised about $16,000, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what we need to raise."

Cohen said he plans to open the museum during the centennial regardless of the building's condition. A recent survey of the facility paid for with grants from the city and the National Trust for Historic Preservation indicated it was in good shape. But some stucco, drainage and other work is needed. And there are several fundraising ideas being considered, but nothing has been decided, he added.

"We would like to have some rotating exhibits," said Jennifer Pfaff, the historical society's co-vice president. "The difference between our museum and some others is that ours changes and it is not stagnant."

The historical society has 125,000 artifacts, which are now housed in the old Carriage House in Washington Park.

"It would be ideal if all of our research records were digital ... then it would become a searchable database and you could do research based on keywords," Cohen said.

Pfaff said she envisions computers being used to research the history of visitors' homes, which in some cases in Burlingame may be 100 years or older.

The museum would also include an area where people could record themselves to keep a diary of sorts, so that the next time they visited the museum they could remember what was happening in their lives when the recordings were made.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.

- Written by admin

Comments

Thanks, Mark, for a good, informative article on this project.

Here is another article that I will post that I admit will help to unabashedly promote the museum. Please pay close attention to the last paragraph which directs all to donate to the cause at The Burlingame Historical Socety, PO Box 144, Burlingame, Ca 94011. Please make checks payable to The Burlingame Historical Society and write in the memo "museum fund."

From The SM County Times, article by Aaron Kinney

All aboard to raise museum funds
Burlingame plans to fix up railroad station

BURLINGAME The Burlingame Historical Society is ramping up a $1million fundraising drive to pay for renovating the city's Caltrain station and installing a museum of local history there.

Even if the campaign is not finished by the end of the year, officials say, the museum will open in limited form sometime in 2007 to commemorate the city's centennial celebration.

The fundraising effort will target private and corporate sponsors and tout the society's goal of creating a 21st-century museum that is interactive and dynamic, society president and Burlingame City Councilman Russ Cohen said.

"I'd like to say that we are keeping the bar fairly high, because what I don't want to happen is to have a museum where nothing ever happens," Cohen said.

The society wants to transform its 125,000-piece archive into a digital database that is easily searchable, while providing visitors with the chance to make new history by recording first-person video or audio files, Cohen said.

Society member Richard Terrones, vice president of Dreiling Terrones Bartos Architecture Inc., said the changing nature of the museum also will be meant to maintain the public's attention.

The society, which documents the history of both Burlingame and Hillsborough, aims for the museum to be a "repeat business, so it's not just static and once you experience it, that's it," said Terrones, who is helping implement the vision for the new institution.

Most of the $1 million will go toward renovating the train station, which was built in 1894 and stands as "one of the first permanent Mission Revival structures to be built," Cohen said.

Owned by Caltrain, which has agreed to provide the facility at no cost, the train station needs seismic and structural improvements, cosmetic fixes and improved access for the disabled.

In time, Cohen hopes to be able to pay for an executive director and paid staff members to oversee the exhibits and interactive activities. The all-volunteer organization has between 300 and 350 dues-paying members, Cohen said.

So far, the society has raised only $16,000, but its campaign is still in the early stages. The society has yet to set out official fundraising benchmarks, but donations can be sent to the society at P.O. Box 144, Burlingame, CA 94011.

Staff writer Aaron Kinney can be reached at (650) 348-4302 or at akinney@sanmateocountytimes.com.