San Mateo County History Museum: The Old Courthouse is a New Museum
Upon entering the 1910 courthouse that is now Redwood City’s newly renovated San Mateo County History Museum, a mosaic state seal is at your feet and the 38,240-piece stained glass Great Dome far above your head. Each is as round as the circular rotunda in which you stand. Darting off in several directions inside the San Mateo County History Museum and up the grand staircase are retired courtrooms that now tell many tales.
These tales, as numerous as the influences that have shaped the county, are told interactively—not just with buttons to push and videos to watch, but much that kids are welcome to touch in drawers beneath the exhibits. Along with an innovative “object theater” show called “Living the California Dream”—in which objects related to the county’s suburban lifestyle are spotlighted in sync with the audio—it’s a truly 21st-century museum experience.
The experience, footnoted with signs and brochures in each gallery room, begins with the Ohlone tribe (you can step inside an Ohlone dwelling), Spanish mission outposts and Mexican ranchos. But the vast majority of the museum space is devoted to the county’s history in the last century.
You’ll see how people got around by admiring carriages, a stagecoach, a streetcar platform and an antique car. You’ll see how you they earned a living by admiring tools of the now-dormant whaling and lumber trades; Redwood City was named for the felled redwoods once shipped from its port. You’ll learn plenty about industries that are still thriving: agriculture and commercial fishing on the coast and high-tech and bio-tech in the suburbs on the bay.
Did you know this is the county where the credit card was invented (not necessarily a good thing) and where Barry Bonds grew up (ditto)? You’ll learn these things, but mostly you’ll learn about people, places and phenomena that make county residents proud, like John Madden (also in the county’s sports hall of fame), Mavericks (you can try to stay upright on a surfboard while watching a video of its infamous big waves) and multiculturalism (Basques, Italians, Japanese and Latinos are among the immigrant groups who have made their mark).
Posted on Apr 5, 2011 by Bob Cooper
