About the Milpitas Historical Society
The Milpitas Historical Society was founded in 1980 by 79 concerned
citizens who
feared the loss of our city's heritage. The first president of the
society and the
person most responsible for the society's creation was Elaine Levine.
Mrs. Levine
and her husband, Mort, were the founders of the Milpitas
Post
newspaper.
One of the first accomplishments of the Society was to persuade the
city of Milpitas
to create a Cultural Resources Preservation Board in 1986. This
city commission
was empowered
by ordinance to review for approval or rejection all construction or
alteration which
involved cultural resources. In 1992, the City Council acted to
dissolve the Cultural
Resources Preservation Board after the CRPB insisted that Ford
Corporation mitigate the destruction of the historic motor assembly
plant when it built the Great Mall by purchasing property on Main St.
to be used as a community museum. The duties of ordinance
enforcement were passed on to the
newly created Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources
Commission. (The historical display near the food
court at the Great Mall was the only
cultural resource mitigation required of Ford. The display has
been maintained by the Historical Society for many years at no cost to
the Great Mall's owners.)
During the 1980s the Society conducted oral history interviews with persons who recalled the days before Milpitas became a city. Transcribing the tapes was begun but the work of completing the task remains to be finished. In 1986, the Society sponsored the publishing of Milpitas, The Century of Little Cornfields. This book, written by Patricia Loomis, told the story of the people who came to this area. It begins with the first land grant ranchos and ends in 1952, as plans were beginning to be made to move the Ford Motor Assembly Plant to Milpitas from Richmond, CA. In the late 1980s, the Society raised funds, including a $100,000 grant received from Shapell Industries in 1990, for the purpose of restoring and preserving some of the most precious of our few remaining historic buildings.
Society
Projects and Activities:
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The Society has been
increasingly active in preservation
since 1990.
In 1992, plans for a new printing for the book, Milpitas: The Century of Little Cornfields, began and in 1999 a new edition was published. In 1992, the badly deteriorated roof of the Alviso adobe was covered by the Society working with the E Clampus Vitus Association. (At right is the cover of Milpitas: The Century of Little Cornfields by Patricia Loomis.) |
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 Bob Keely and "Lena"
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The
first
firetruck
used by the Milpitas Volunteer Fire Department, nicknamed "Leapin'
Lena," was
acquired in 1993 thanks
to Ed Cavallini and is now completely restored thanks to Bob Keely and
the inmates
at Elmwood Correctional Facility. Thanks to the efforts made in 2008 by Barbara Bowman and the city
of Milpitas, today it may be seen displayed
at the parking garage entrance to the Milpitas Public Library. In 1994, the Society
helped the City research and erect the Viet Nam
and Korean War memorials. In 1994,
the
Society worked closely with the Great Mall
of the Bay Area to create a local history display seen by tens of
thousands of visitors
to the mall each year. The
Society
sponsored
the
first
printing
of
a Bicycle Tour
of Historical Places in Milpitas, written by Steve Munzel, in 1994. The
creation
of
a walking tour brochure of old Main Street was begun in 1996 and
represents a work in progress, although there is a "Cybertour" of Main
Street at the "Return to History" link below that shows some of the
remaining historical buildings
standing
as of December 1999.
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In 2005, the Historical
Society members provided information and photographs for use in the
book, Milpitas. This title
was one of the Images of America series of books and contains wonderful
old photos of Milpitas' past, many of them unretouched by the author,
Robert Burrill.
In 2009, the Society bought
and donated a statue to the newly opened
Milpitas
Public Library after various art groups in Milpitas refused to buy the
sculpture, which had been mass-produced in Thailand, from the owner who
had temporarily loaned it to the library.
In
2009,
the
Society purchased a 1964 Ford Galaxie sedan that had been painted to
resemble a police car by a San Jose emergency vehicle collector.
The car had been a family sedan and never served a a real police
car. This vehicle is not a Milpitas cultural resource but rather
was created as a show car for those involved in the emergency vehicle
hobby. It is a
modern replica not a historical Millpitas Police Department
artifact. In 2011, the Board of Directors voted to have the
membership authorize the sale of the car and to put the money raised
from the sale into the Milpitas Community Museum fund.
In 2011, the Society gave the City of Milpitas a grant of over $83,392 for external restoration and reconstruction of the Alviso Adobe. As of 2011, there were no plans by the city to complete the restoration of the Alviso Adobe.
In 2011, the Society successfully campaigned to have the City Council designate a portion of the park on Main Street, located next to our public library, as the site of our city's first museum.
In 2011, Society member Bill Hare offered to donate the 1865 Laguna Schoolhouse structure to the City for use as a museum.
In 2011, the Society participated in our first fundraiser for the new museum. This was a fashion show at the Great Mall and raised over $1,900 thanks to the efforts of Vice President Harriett McGuire.
In 2011, President Steve Munzel and Secretary Catherine Leeson completed cataloging over 300 items displayed at the Great Mall. Also, the Society began to use donor and loan forms for items in its collection to establish and document the ownership over them. This work represents the first step by the Society to prepare professionally for operating a museum.
In
2011, the Society began to
create historical displays at City Hall.
In
2011, the Society began plans
to stablize the 1865 Shaughnessy-Murphy Milk Shed, owned by the city,
for possible future use as a museum office.