Sonoma County Museum
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The Museum of Sonoma County, commonly known as the Sonoma County Museum, is a
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization located in downtown
Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...
. Its 7th St. campus comprises the historic 1910 Santa Rosa Post Office, a contemporary art gallery, and a sculpture garden. Between the two buildings, the Museum presents 10-12 rotating exhibitions per year and maintains a permanent collection of over 18,000 objects that document the region's rich history and celebrate local artists. The historic post office is on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.


History


Santa Rosa’s Historic 1910 Post Office and Federal Building

Originally housed in the old adobe home on Maria Carrillo's
Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa was an Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1841 by Governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno to María Ygnacia López. The grant was along Santa Rosa Creek, and encompassed present-day Santa Ro ...
, the Santa Rosa Post Office was later relocated in the Atheneum Theatre building on Fifth and D Streets. It was finally slated to be given a permanent home through a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on March 8, 1906. The legislation called for “the purchase of a site and erection of a public building at Santa Rosa, California . . . a suitable building with fireproof vaults therein, for the accommodation of the post-office and other government offices . . . ” with the entire amount of funding not to exceed “the sum of one hundred thousand dollars.” A month after the legislation was introduced, the 1906 earthquake destroyed most of downtown Santa Rosa. As a result, the Santa Rosa Post Office operated temporarily out of Jenkins Grocery, surrounded by wreckage and debris. Local hop dealer, C.C. Donovan, wrote to
James Knox Taylor James Knox Taylor (October 11, 1857 – August 27, 1929) was Supervising Architect of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1897 to 1912. His name is listed ''ex officio'' as supervising architect of hundreds of federal buildings bu ...
, Supervising Architect of Federal Buildings, asking him to give priority to the construction of the new Post Office slated for Santa Rosa. Taylor (known as the national architect) designed a structure that linked architectural design to the history, environment, and culture of the community and its surroundings. The new Santa Rosa Post Office building was an example of Classic Federal Architecture in California, a design style greatly influenced by the
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
of 1893. Construction of the new Post Office located at Fifth and A Streets began in 1908. The building process was a community effort, exemplified by determination and superior craftsmanship. The Santa Rosa-based contracting firm of Hoyt Bros. hired local firms to complete the majority of the interior and exterior work. Henry Kroncke of the Santa Rosa Planing Mills did the interior woodwork. J. C. Mailer Hardware installed the building's plumbing. Stone contractor, George Reilly, was responsible for the Bedford stone columns and marble
terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...
floors. Technologically, the building was ahead of its time. Ray Oil Burner Company of San Francisco installed a new automatic oil burning system, which was not shown publicly in the Bay Area until the 1915
Panama Pacific Exposition Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...
in San Francisco. In addition to heating the building, the system provided hot showers for the mail carriers. On March 9, 1910, Post Master H. L. Tripp and his postal staff moved into the newly completed Santa Rosa Post Office.


Moving the Museum

The Santa Rosa Main Post Office was eventually relocated to 2nd Street and following the 1969 earthquake that ravaged much of downtown Santa Rosa, the historic post office was slated to be razed to make way for a mall. Architect Dan Peterson led the campaign to save the post office by proposing that it be moved out of the path of urban renewal. Starting in April 1979, workmen raised the great structure and lay before it a bed of rails and a network of pulleys and cables. The building moved, but almost imperceptibly — an average of 36 feet a day. The building was moved over 750 feet to its new home on 7th street, between A and B streets. Architect Dan Petersen restored it as a museum and placed the building onto the National Register of Historic Places. It reopened in 1985 as the Sonoma County Museum.


Sculpture Garden

The Sculpture Garden was designed by Frederic Warnecke, a Landscape Architect, son of renown architect
John Carl Warnecke John Carl Warnecke (February 24, 1919 – April 17, 2010)Brown, "John Carl Warnecke Dies at 91, Designed Kennedy Gravesite," ''Washington Post,'' April 23, 2010.Grimes, "John Carl Warnecke, Architect to Kennedy, Dies at 91," ''New York Times,'' Ap ...
. It opened in the summer of 2011 and was dedicated to Evert B. and Norma Person.


Contemporary Art, Expansion, and Name Change

In 2001, Tom Golden of Freestone donated his collection of some 125 drawings, sculptures, collages and photographs by world-famous conceptual artists
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
, remembered in Sonoma and Marin counties for their ‘70s project “
Running Fence ''Running Fence'' was an installation art piece by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which was completed on September 10, 1976. The art installation was first conceived in 1972, but the actual project took more than four years to plan and build. After ...
,” with white nylon fabric stretching more than 20 miles cross-country to Bodega Bay. In 2005, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) merged with the Sonoma County Museum, when that organization scrapped plans for a $5.5 million facility at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. In 2015, the Museum expanded east into the remodeled back half of former Conklin Brothers flooring company warehouse at Seventh and B streets. The expansion came with a rebranding and the Sonoma County Museum was reborn as twins, with one museum for art (Art Museum of Sonoma County) and one for history (History Museum of Sonoma County), under the parent organization of the Museums of Sonoma County. In 2018, the museum underwent a final name change to Museum of Sonoma County. The change from plural to singular reflects the Museum’s vision of being recognized as one organization with two buildings, multiple galleries, and a sculpture garden on its Seventh Street campus, rather than two separate entities (“Art Museum of Sonoma County” and “History Museum of Sonoma County”) under the umbrella of a parent organization ("Museums of Sonoma County"). “With our new name change, the Museum aims to bring art and history in alignment to allow for a more synergistic relationship between the two,” said Jeff Nathanson, Executive Director. “We are reimagining the Museum as a major cultural destination for the region, with a wide range of art and history programs for people of all ages and backgrounds.”


Collection

The museum maintains a permanent collection of over 18,000 objects that document the region's rich history and celebrate artists who have lived or worked in the North Bay. It includes extensive collections of historic paintings, sculpture, photographs, prints, costumes, textiles, ceramics, glass, industrial tools, machinery, wood sculpture, furniture, objects, documents, and graphics relative to the local communities, commerce, technologies, and lifestyles. Notable collections include: * Tom Golden's Christo and Jeanne-Claude collection, which the museum offers as a traveling exhibition. It includes 125 drawings, sculptures, collages, and photographs by world-famous conceptual artists
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
, remembered in Sonoma and Marin counties for their ‘70s project “
Running Fence ''Running Fence'' was an installation art piece by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which was completed on September 10, 1976. The art installation was first conceived in 1972, but the actual project took more than four years to plan and build. After ...
,” *
Marguerite Wildenhain Marguerite Wildenhain, née Marguerite Friedlaender and alternative spelling ''Friedländer'' (October 11, 1896 – February 24, 1985), was an American Bauhaus-trained ceramic artist, educator and author. After immigrating to the United States in ...
ceramics * Carroll Barnes sculptures * 19th century California landscapes by artists such as Thomas Hill, Frederick Farina Schafer, and Frederick Butman * Objects and artifacts related to the utopian community of Fountaingrove,
Thomas Lake Harris Thomas Lake Harris (May 15, 1823 – March 23, 1906) was an Anglo-American preacher, spiritualistic prophet, poet, and vintner. Harris is best remembered as the leader of a series of communal religious experiments, culminating with a group call ...
, and Kanaye Nagasawa * Song Wong Bourbeau (1909-1996), a third-generation Santa Rosan, was known throughout Santa Rosa not only as an astute businesswoman, but for her tireless dedication as a community activist and philanthropist. Over two hundred photographs and artifacts make up this extensive collection, representing the rich and significant history and culture of Santa Rosa's Chinatown and Chinese community.


See also

*
List of United States post offices Several United States post offices are individually notable and have operated under the authority of the United States Post Office Department (1792–1971) or of the United States Postal Service (since 1971). Notable U.S. post offices include in ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Museum of Sonoma County Museums in Santa Rosa, California Museums established in 1985 Renaissance Revival architecture in California Art museums and galleries in California History museums in California 1985 establishments in California