The Chula Vista Heritage Museum, in Memorial Park next to Fuddruckers, is only a few hundred feet square, but it is the only museum that Chula Vista has (so far). And it is headed by a board of directors of eight hardy people. (Actually, the Heritage Museum is an offshoot of the Chula Vista Public Library – but never mind them.) These eight people are all volunteers, with a good many other things to do in their lives, but what they are now accomplishing is a pretty neat story.
Right now, four of them are very active creating one of the premier events our time, a historic home tour of some of the wonderful historic homes we have in Chula Vista, and the other four are busy trying to not only keep the museum operating during these difficult economic times, but actually making it grow in many ways.
In 1993, then head librarian Rosemary Lane asked Frank Roseman to establish a museum in the empty little building on Third Avenue in Memorial Park. With the help of Chula Vista historian John Rojas, they did just that over the next 10 years, all with volunteer help. Then in 2004, Frank finally retired from the task and the library took over managing and manning the museum with a museum attendant and paying all the expenses.
Well, enter the housing crisis of 2007, and poof went much of the city’s revenues. Chula Vista, you will remember, was ground-zero for that collapse. The city offered a couple of proposals to the electorate to raise taxes, but they were all defeated. So cut followed cut followed cut, and pretty soon the library announced it had to close the museum.
Well, our brave little band of eight said, “We can’t let that happen,” so they got busy using some money they had raised in the past and some money recently donated, and after consultations with the library, took over full responsibility for the museum, including the paid museum attendant and other expenses. So now you might catch sight of one of the hardy board members picking up trash around the museum, painting over graffiti, vacuuming and cleaning a bit and, yes, having a pretty good time playing “owner.”
Stop by our little museum sometime, Tuesday or Thursday 12 to 4 p.m., Saturday 12 to 3 p.m., and you will probably see a couple of them picking up trash or just jawing away inside the museum – come in and join the jawing.
Meanwhile, preparations are well underway for what must be our sixth or seventh historic home tour. That event takes thousands of hours of preparation, beginning a year or so ahead of time finding owners of historic homes willing to do what is necessary to allow their home to be trooped through by perhaps 700 people. On the big day, there will be some 60 or 70 other volunteers taking tickets, serving as docents, or a dozen other chores, and all must be recruited and trained to some extent – and all that done by just a handful of our intrepid little board members. These historic home tours are perhaps the most positive event “showing off” Chula Vista that we have. They were originally begun by Councilwoman Pamela Bensoussan in 2001, but the museum board members have carried them on. The historic home tour this year will be on April 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, visiting five historic homes. Visit www.cvhistorichomes.net to learn more.
If you are curious, our intrepid board members are David Danciu, Carlos Fox, Corrine McCall, Imozelle and Jim McVeigh, Dale Pering, Glenda de Vaney, and Peter Watry.
