Local News in Brief : History and Culture Museum to Open
The Santa Monica Historical Society will make a little history itself Saturday when it opens the city’s first museum of history and culture.
The museum will feature artifacts ranging from a stone corn grinder used by pre-Columbian American Indians to flapper dresses from the 1920s to photos of Shirley Temple, Lawrence Welk and other entertainers who lived in the city.
Other attractions include a photo essay depicting the 113-year-old city’s history, wartime memorabilia and a reference library that eventually will include videotaped interviews with descendants of city pioneers, according to Louise Gabriel, who has spearheaded the society’s push for the museum.
“As a city, we’re just over a hundred years old; as a metropolis we’re less than 40, maybe 50, years old, yet already there’s a sense of wanting to preserve memories,” Mayor Jim Conn said.
The society had searched for a museum site for six years before deciding on 2,400 square feet in a building at 2050 Colorado Ave.
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