City's History Is In The Making

The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society has taken on two huge, wonderful challenges -- fully restoring the Old Mint at Fifth and Mission streets and creating a world-class museum celebrating San Francisco's past, present and future. At stake are not only an endangered 130-year-old national landmark, but also a formidable part of our city's heritage.

From the start, the goal of the museum has been to help San Franciscans and visitors understand and appreciate the city they know, how it came to be and, perhaps most important, how it can develop in the future. The natural beauty of the city's setting and the ever-changing structural environment will be part of the story presented at the new museum. But San Francisco's development as an American city will also be explored in the context of its people: the first families of Native Americans, the arrival of Europeans and the coming of Asians, African Americans, Latinos and the countless other cultural traditions and lifestyles that have made San Francisco their home.

A vision for the Museum of San Francisco has been prepared by our consulting curator, Robert Macdonald, director emeritus of the Museum of the City of New York. The document is being circulated among historians and the general public to encourage recommendations for the museum's exhibits and artifacts. The information developed from this inclusive process will be used to create an outline that will guide the museum's curators and exhibition designers in the creation of visually exciting, intellectually accessible and emotionally evocative exhibitions tracing San Francisco's journey through time. The work of the museum's steering committee will also be available for public review and comment.

But a museum should also be more than a collection of exhibits. The goal is to create a dynamic center of learning using exhibitions and educational programs that not only teach, but also continually learn from the museum's visitors and participants in the museum's myriad public programs. The museum will be a "people place," where contemporary issues and challenges, all of which are rooted in the city's past, will be discussed and debated. This will be accomplished through museum-sponsored forums, lectures and conferences -- open to the general public, scholars, students and interest groups. The ultimate mission of the museum will be to serve as a lifelong source of wonderment and learning for the communities of San Francisco and the millions who come to see, feel and enjoy our unique city.

The museum will occupy the upper three floors of the soon-to-be carefully restored Old Mint. (The monumental "Granite Lady" is listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the nation's 11th most important building needing restoration.) To complement the museum, the historical society is negotiating with three potential subtenants: the Convention and Visitors Bureau, to relocate its tourist greeting center from Hallidie Plaza to the Old Mint's main floor; the American Numismatic Association, to open an American Money and Gold Rush museum on the ground floor; and a restaurateur, to open a restaurant and lounge, also on the ground floor. Additionally, Jessie Street on the north side of the Old Mint will be converted into an inviting pedestrian plaza. In short, the Old Mint will become a lively San Francisco destination.

In the next three months, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society intends to complete architectural schematic drawings and to begin seismic construction work on the building. The museum's grand opening will take place approximately two years thereafter.

Still, the process is incomplete without input and feedback from residents -- old-timers and newcomers alike. The historical society needs your help in selecting the museum's exhibition story lines. Only with the participation and support of it residents can the museum reflect San Francisco's legacy.



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What you can do
The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society is soliciting advice and comment on its plans for exhibitions and programs. Copies of the vision statement and accompanying questionnaire are available at https://www.sfhistory.org. Copies can also be found in San Francisco's public libraries. All responses will be considered by the society's exhibitions steering committee, chaired by Ira Michael Heyman, former chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley and former secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.