The Randall Museum is a museum in central
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, owned and operated by the
San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department
The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park i ...
with the support of the Randall Friends. The museum focuses on science, nature and the arts. On exhibit are live native and domestic animals and interactive displays about nature. Other facilities include a theater, a wood shop, and art and ceramics studios.
Its permanent location is in
Corona Heights Park
Corona Heights Park is a park in the Castro and Corona Heights neighborhoods of San Francisco, California, United States. It is situated immediately to the south of Buena Vista Park. Corona Heights is bounded in part by Flint Street on the e ...
, on a large hill between the
Castro
Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''.
...
and
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
districts of San Francisco. The Corona Heights location features views of the city, downtown
financial district
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
and the
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
.
History
![San Francisco View from Randall Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/San_Francisco_View_from_Randall_Museum.jpg)
Originally named the "Junior Museum", the facility was established in 1937 in an old city jail on what is now the campus of
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a State school#United States, public community college in San Francisco, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local ...
.
In 1947, a $12 million bond was issued for the creation of recreation and park capital projects, one of which included a new museum. In 1951, the museum opened at its current location in a building designed by William Merchant with exhibits, a theater, classrooms, arts and crafts shops and studios, a live animal room and gardens overlooking the San Francisco Bay.
The museum was formally dedicated by Mayor
Elmer Robinson
Elmer Edwin "Rob-Rob" Robinson (October 3, 1894 – June 9, 1982) was the 33rd mayor of San Francisco, California. A Republican, he served as San Francisco's mayor from January 1948 until January 1956.
Robinson was born in the Richmond ...
on September 23 of that year as the 'Josephine D. Randall Junior Museum' to honor its founder.
Josephine Randall first visited Corona Heights in 1928. Prior to its acquisition and use for the namesake museum, it had been used as a rock quarry until the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
; kilns on the slope of the hill exploded and collapsed in the wake of the earthquake, and the quarries were subsequently abandoned.
Renovations
In 2003, the museum dedicated its Outdoor Learning Environment, which replaced a parking lot and driveway. The museum's director, Amy Dawson, characterized the prior structures as "an asphalt moat".
Sculptures by
Beniamino Bufano were temporarily moved to the Randall Museum from 2004 to 2006 while their permanent home, the Valencia Gardens housing project in
The Mission, was demolished and rebuilt.
Plans were announced in 2013 for a $6 million makeover to double the space available for exhibits and programs,
designed by Liz Ranieri of Kuth Ranieri Architects in a joint venture with Pfau Long Architecture. The Corona Heights location closed on June 1, 2015, to implement the planned renovations. During renovations, the museum relocated its live animal exhibit and programs to 745 Treat Ave, between 20th and 21st Street, at the Mission Art Center.
The museum held a grand reopening for the remodeled space on February 11, 2018.
Mister G was scheduled to provide live music at the reopening.
Name
The Randall Museum takes its name from
Josephine Dows Randall, a
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
master's degree graduate in zoology in 1913. After graduating she traveled to the Midwest and organized one of the first
Girl Scout
Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
troops in the United States as well as one of the first
Camp Fire Girls
Camp Fire, formerly Camp Fire USA and originally Camp Fire Girls of America, is a co-ed youth development organization. Camp Fire was the first nonsectarian, multicultural organization for girls in America. It is gender inclusive, and its prog ...
troops. When she returned to California she became the first Superintendent of Recreation for San Francisco's Recreation Department, creating the Junior Museum and bringing national recognition to the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department for its outstanding services between the years 1926 and 1952. During her tenure as the San Francisco Recreation Department Superintendent she secured hundreds of acres of open space for playgrounds and consequently, sports and artistic programming for the children and families of San Francisco.
Overview and features
The museum charges no admission and offers events, movies, plays, lectures, exhibits, and classes for ages 3–adult, but is geared mostly toward children and educational field trips. Child and adult classes are available in the wood shop and pottery studio. The museum has special topic days, such as Bug Day, Mushroom Day, and Water & Sun Day, during which interested clubs and sponsors participate.
The museum's theater is home to the performances of the
Young People's Teen Musical Theatre Company, a Recreation and Parks Department program closely tied to the museum.
The Golden Gate Model Rail Road Club (GGMRC) has been a tenant in the west basement wing since 1961. Children run HO-scale trains around the layout on "Junior Engineer Day," held on the third Saturday of every odd month. Prior to the 2015–18 renovation, the total track length exceeded .
Charles Sowers was commissioned by the
San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...
(SFAC) to create "Windswept", a
kinetic sculpture installed on the facade of the Randall Museum in 2012. The piece took four years to create and test.
During the 2015–18 renovation, artist
Ben Trautman was commissioned by SFAC to create a
mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ( ...
of a stylized bird entitled "Wingspan", which was installed in the lobby.
See also
*
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
References
External links
Randall Museum websiteGolden Gate Model Rail Road Club (GGMRC) website*
*
{{authority control
Museums established in 1937
Museums in San Francisco
Natural history museums in California
Children's museums in California
Nature centers in California
1937 establishments in California