Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

“California, Here I Come,” written by Modesto native Joseph Meyer in 1921, was a signature tune of singer Al Jolson. This song is among the 55 framed vintage sheet music covers on display at the Courthouse Museum, starting June 28. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Singing California exhibit opens at the Courthouse Museum

What do George Lucas and Joseph Meyer have in common? They are both Modesto-born artists who made the San Joaquin Valley famous. While Lucas brought Modesto into the national spotlight with American Graffiti (1973), Meyer gave California an unofficial state song titled “California, Here I Come” (1921), which became singer Al Jolson’s signature tune.

Company H, Sixth Infantry Regiment, National Guard of California (NGC) was organized in Merced in 1893 and disbanded in 1907. The troops with its three commanding officers are seen in front of El Capitan Hotel and Southern Pacific Passenger Depot, probably before their departure to Bakersfield to break the Railroad Strike in 1894. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Company H – Merced’s First National Guard

On this Memorial Day, let’s take a moment to remember our first National Guard unit.

Photographer Alice Hare settled in Winton in 1911 and took some of the earliest pictures of this new town. (Lorraine Richards Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Women Making a Difference

March has been an exciting and reflecting month. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we also mourn the loss of our beloved community members and museum volunteers Maggie Randolph and Barbara Hale. Maggie is best known for her dedication to the founding and growth of Merced College. Barbara was an outstanding reporter and editor for the Merced Sun-Star until her retirement in the early 2010s.

Hugo Barrett’s postcard to his wife Emma Alice was postmarked Feb. 3, 1913. The postcard image depicts the Yosemite Lumber Company mill at Merced Falls. (Grey Roberts Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Merced Falls: Water, Power, and Mills

One February day in 1913, Hugo Barrett, a local farmer, dropped off a postcard at the Merced Falls Post Office in the Yosemite Lumber Company. It had a simple message to his wife, Emma Alice, who was visiting her sister in San Francisco: “Dear Alice, you had better stay down until Sunday anyway. Everything is OK here.” Hugo missed his bride and was excited to share with her a postcard image of something that had made Merced Falls, once again, the industrial center of Merced County.

Merced County Courthouse was designed by Albert Austin Bennett. (Grey Roberts Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

The Legacy of Architect Albert A. Bennett

Albert Austin Bennett’s son once said his father “wanted to be buried so the shadow of the capitol would fall across his grave.”

Stevinson’s Main Street, 1920s. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Main Street, Merced County

Main Street is where commercial and cultural life combine to define a community and provides a snapshot of American society.

Golden Valley High School Cardinal Regime at 86th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade, Los Angeles, November 26, 2017. The Cardinal Regime Marching Band and Color Guard is under the director of Michael Vasquez. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

A Christmas Tradition

The Hollywood Christmas Parade is an annual tradition in Los Angeles that dates back to the 1920s. Featuring celebrities, beautiful floats, and wonderful music, the parade takes place the Sunday after Thanksgiving and will be broadcast different dates before Christmas. This year, one of the celebrated participants was the Golden Valley High School Cardinal Regime —The Pride of Merced.

This house on the southwest corner of 22nd and Canal Streets was built by Dr. E. S. O’Brien around 1898. The two palms that he planted shortly after are still standing today. Judge Claud McCray lived in this 2-story house from the 1930s to his death in 1954. (Neil Morse Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Trees Mark the Portal to the Past

History is about the interconnection of people and places.

Looking east on 17th (Main) Street by N Street, 1922. Gateway Garage and Parisian Cleaners (seen in the center) would be unified with a common façade in 1928 when these two buildings were remodeled into the Montgomery Ward store. Notice in this photo, there are several garages and service stations on this 600 block of 17th Street. (Grey Roberts Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

From Gateway Garage to a Gateway to the Arts

Recently, I attended a concert by guitarists Francesco Buzzurro, Richard Smith and local favorite John Albano at the Multicultural Arts Center in downtown Merced. As I listened to these three wonderful performing artists and my mind wandered off to the Island of Sicily, I couldn’t help thinking, “where am I?”

This circa 1914 photo was taken from the rooftop of the courthouse and looking south on N Street. The foreground is 20th Street. The area with numbers between 19th and 18th streets is the construction site of UC Merced Downtown Campus Center. The image of dusty streets and board sidewalks (seen here) was what Mary Belle Nuckolls Neumann remembered when she came to Merced on August 1, 1907. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Once a Neumann Home

A couple of columns ago, I wrote about a photo entitled “Calm Before the Storm” which depicts an aerial view of west Merced looking from the rooftop of Hotel El Capitan in the early 1910s. My original reason for examining this photo was to research the site where the UC Merced Downtown Campus Center is currently under construction.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Merced County Farmers Organized 100 years ago

Merced County farmers made 1917 a watershed year when they teamed up to work together to improve agriculture countywide.

“Calm Before the Storm” was probably taken in the winters of 1912-13 or 1913-14 in Merced. Looking west from M Street, the row of palm trees marks N Street between 17th and 18th streets. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

‘Calm Before the Storm.’ Century-old photo provides a glimpse of old Merced

It was an overcast day in Merced when this photo was taken.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Celebrating Herb Wood’s Life

Herb Wood, a longtime Courthouse Museum volunteer and registrar, passed away peacefully at home on May 10 and left behind his loving wife Kathy of 49 years and sons Herbert and Michael.

Merced Union High School was the first high school in Merced County located on M Street, between 21st and 22nd Streets. The building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style was built in 1897 and served as a high school until 1920. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Best of Luck, Class of 2017!

This graduation season is bitter-sweet for me as my daughter is part of the Class of 2017. It seems like just yesterday that she entered the little red door at Miss Jan’s Montessori School on Alexander Street and now she has exited Golden Valley High School.

Frederick W. Henderson had his law office next to his mentor, F. G. Ostrander, on the second floor of the Pedreira Building on the southwest corner of Main and K streets, Merced. “F. W. Henderson Attorney at Law” is printed on the second window from the right on the top floor in this photo taken in 1908. (Courthouse Museum Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

The kidnapping of F.W. Henderson

Springtime is the most pleasant season in the valley for outdoor excursions including picnics at Henderson Park.

Agostino Dal Porto and his mom Adina were among the passengers in the Conte di Savoia arriving ar Ellis Island in the 1920s. (Lillian Dal Porto Collection)

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Italian Americans of Merced County

It was their belief in hard work and an unbreakable family bond that enabled the Italian immigrants to build a new life in America.

Grey Roberts’ postcard of The Fraternal Brotherhood Ladies’ Drill Team in the Society Circus Parade on May 22, 1912. Notice Captain Paul Thon is in uniform. This uniform did not arrive in time for his drill team’s competition during T.F.B. annual convention on April 26, 1912.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

Connecting the dots: The discovery of the Fraternal Brotherhood

Paul Thon nervously straightened his bow tie while taking one last look in the mirror at his substitution outfit. His uniform had not arrived yet and the competition was about to start.

The Merced County Courthouse circa 1890, where the case of John L. Ivett’s murder was tried.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

For love or money: The 1890 murder of rancher John Ivett

Love and violence often made crimes in the Wild West more colorful and sensational, from Joaquin Murrieta’s vengeance for his beloved Rosa to the unsolved murder of John L. Ivett.

The first Merced County men to leave for World War I pose on the courthouse steps in 1917. The year also proved to be an auspicious one for Merced County farmers, with the formation of the Farm Bureau.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

100 Years Ago in Merced County History

Chinese New Year will be celebrated on Jan. 28 – the Year of the Rooster. The rooster is a symbol of pride, ambition, and trustworthiness, and such character attributes were demonstrated by the action of a Chinese American named Joe Wing Hoy. One hundred years ago, Joe Wing Hoy became the first Chinese American from Merced to be admitted into the United States Army, coincidentally in the midst of an anti-immigration movement.

The 2017 Merced County Historical Society cover features El Capitan Hotel on the northwest corner of Main and M streets in Merced.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

The colorful history of Merced County’s first hotel

The long-awaited 2017 Merced County Historical Society calendar is finally here! Society members will receive a free calendar when they renew their memberships. If you are not yet a member, please join today and receive a complimentary copy. The theme of the new calendar is “Early Hotels in Merced County,” featuring 13 historic photos of hotels from 11 Merced County towns.

Sarah Lim: Museum Notes

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