|
By Jorge Casuso
June 26 -- With Bob and Louise Gabriel recuperating
in a nearby hospital, the Santa Monica Historical Society
Museum they’ve helped keep alive publicly launched its
capital campaign Sunday to raise $5 million.
Bob Gabriel was in the hospital for surgery after a heart
aneurysm, when Louise slipped and fell, breaking her hip during
a hospital visit, family members said. Louise had hip replacement,
Bob’s surgery went well, and the couple is recuperating.
With the Gabriels’ image projected on a screen at the
new Lexus Dealership, the museum likely passed the halfway
mark in its effort to raise the $1.5 million needed to build
out and move into its new permanent home at the Main Public
Library that opened a year and a half ago.
 |
| Computer rendering of
new Historical Society Museum. (images courtesy of Andresen
Architects) |
The campaign will then turn to raising another $3.5 million
for an endowment to sustain the museum’s operations
and programming.
“We’re getting there, but we really need public
support,” said Jean McNeil Wyner, co-chair of the fundraising
campaign. “It’s a public museum.”
Council member Bob Holbrook, who along with his wife Jean
Ann have been long-time supporters of the museum, announced
the couple would match any donation of up to $10,000.
“I think it’s important to preserve the history
of the city, whether you’ve been here 100 years or five
years,” Holbrook said. “I’d like to have
something for future generations of Holbrooks to see what
we did. It’s important to give back.”
The names of major donors will be prominently displayed in
the different gallery areas, as well as on the two exhibit
display cases in the museum, which is scheduled to open next
April, museum officials said.
The City is renting the 5,000-square-foor space to the museum
for $1 a year, but donations are needed to “completely
build out the space,” which will include an interactive
section “that really makes history come alive,”
said McNeil Wyner.
“It is a small space,” said Kristina Andresen,
the project architect. “We have worked literally on
every square inch of the building. It’s a wonderful
space that is user friendly. Every space is multifunctional.”
 |
| Virtual roller coaster |
Some of the museums items, including an old medical bag,
a fire hat and parcel maps from the early years of the city
were prominently displayed at the fundraiser.
At one of the display tables, former Outlook photographer
Bill Beebe stood behind the old Rolleiflex camera he used
to snap the famous picture of President John F. Kennedy being
mobbed by a group of women as he emerged from the Santa Monica
surf.
“I’m the only fool that ran in after him,”
said Beebe, whose picture was picked by Life magazine, where
it ran, as one of the best photographs of its first 50 years.
“Those were the fun days,” he said. “It
was great to be a news man.”
The crowd was also quizzed on the identity of prominent buildings
from Santa Monica’s past that were projected on the
screen. And former mayor Nat Trives, threw out some little-known
facts about the city.
“In 1960, Pacific Ocean Park had greater attendance
than Disneyland,” Trives said. “And six million
Papermate pens came out of the factory in 1971.”
| 
