The Saratoga Historical Museum
Historic preservation may not be the most pressing issue locally, but it has gotten attention recently with the destruction, planned and already accomplished, of some old houses.
The questions become: What is worth saving? What kind of official mandate should require it? And how should it be accomplished?
The simplest and most obvious answer is for the owner of a historically significant structure to appreciate that fact and to restore or preserve it in a manner suitable to its period. There are a few--too few--examples of this kind of preservation in town today.
Another method is to move a threatened structure to a new location, losing the element of place in the historical context, but at least maintaining the physical entity. The outstanding examples of this type of preservation are in the city's Historical Park, at Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Oak Street, and it's a story worth repeating.
When the Saratoga Historical Foundation was formed just over 35 years ago, one of the long-range objectives was to establish a local-history museum. In 1966, that objective seemed attainable. The Thomas E. Marsh house, dating back to the 1860s, was on the site of the planned Plaza del Roble commercial complex on Big Basin Way, and the developers willingly donated the house to the Historical Foundation with the understanding the structure would be moved off the property.
With a nucleus of $2,000 from the estate of Florence Cunningham, Saratoga's premier historian who had died the previous year, the Foundation set about raising additional funds and struck a deal with the city to locate the house in Wildwood Park and refurbish, even expand it, as a museum. It was a daunting task, delayed by heavy winter rains, but in January 1967, there the house was, sitting on blocks in Wildwood Park, waiting for a final site. Two years later, there the house was, still waiting for a final site, being progressively vandalized and drawing the unfavorable attention of the county Sheriff's Department and Fire Marshal's Office. The upshot was that, with the reluctant concurrence of the Historical Foundation, the city had the house demolished in the spring of 1969, paying as much for that job as the foundation had paid for the moving.
The next prospect, in 1970, was the William Haun house at Fourth Street and Big Basin Way, dating at least to the 1860s and maybe earlier. Again there was a commercial complex proposed, but this time the developer was going to let the house be moved to a different location on the property, where a museum would enhance the atmosphere. The question of such development became moot when the Haun house burned to the ground in 1971.
When the James McWilliams house on Big Basin Way appeared on the immediately-endangered-species list, the twice-burned, thrice-cautious Historical Foundation shied away from total involvement. However, most of the board members and many others in town got together to form the Saratoga Heritage Fund, which set about raising funds in 1973 to have the house moved to the city-owned site next to the Village Library. It was a heartening display of the same kind of community support that resulted in the building of that library structure in 1927. The McWilliams house was moved, willing volunteers pitched in to do painting and repairs, and even the people who enforce codes were happy.
Dedication ceremonies were held on July 4, 1975, and it was my privilege to offer some comments. Pointing out the pageant of history that had passed in front of that house, and then pointing to the house itself, I could think of no more appropriate observation than, "I give you, instant roots."
The building that had housed Swanee Purcell's dress shop was in the same situation as the McWilliams house. This time, heartened by the city's decision to make the site a Historical Park as its Bicentennial Project, the Historical Foundation paid for the building's removal and refurbishing, and it was dedicated as a museum on July 4, 1976.
The rest, as they say, is history.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 14, 1996.
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