110 degrees magazine - Index

110 degrees magazine - wlinks_may08 - Index

BLOOM I BY ELIZABETH RIMBAULT I PHOTOS BY RUSSELL BYRNE
THE ANTIOCH
MUSEUM AND I
Antioch has a museum that our city can be justly proud of. The building
itself is stylish and graceful and well suited to its elegant situation in the
midst of wide grassy lawns overlooking the Delta.
I’m the Director/Curator of the Museum and President of the Board
of the Historical Society. I have been having a wonderful time with the
job. There are a number of citizens who, like myself, have been glad to
work hard to make the museum a show place for our city and a fitting
reminder of the people and events that have brought us to the place
where we are now.
STORY OF THE MUSEUM
The Antioch Historical Society Museum, 1500 West Fourth Street, is housed
in what was the first dedicated high school building in Contra Costa
County. The Riverview Union District conducted its first classes in the
building on November 4, 1911. Before that time students customarily went
only as far as the eighth grade.
The Riverview Union District was composed of Pittsburg, Antioch, and
the Black Diamond Mines towns of Sommersville, Nortonville, and West
Hartley, plus the Live Oak District, which included Oakley.
By 1921 Pittsburg pulled out to build a local high school of its own and
a decade later, in 1931, the remaining scholars were moved to the new D
Street School. The union district was dissolved and the name was changed
to the Live Oak District.
Beginning in 1932 the building was rented by the Bureau of Reclamation
who used the site for engineers who were working on all of the water
systems for the state, including our own Contra Costa Canal.
In 1947 the building was sold to Fibreboard Research and the classrooms
74 www.110mag.com May/June 2008
ELIZABETH HAS BEEN LEADING A SMALL ARMY OF
VOLUNTEERS IN PRESERVING HISTORY AND
ACKNOWLEDGING ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS
WHO GRADUATED FROM ANTIOCH HIGH SCHOOLS
AND WENT ON TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES.
were turned into laboratories for research in container technology. This was
the building in which the milk carton was invented, revolutionizing the
liquid container industry.
In 1965 Fiberboard Research departed and the Riverview Fire District
purchased the old school for an administration building. When the fire
district consolidated with Contra Costa Fire in 1996 the building was put
up for auction.
When he learned of the auction, Vern Roberts, Former Mayor and
member of the Historical Society found me where I was working on the
Urban Art Gallery Graffiti Art Project and urged me to go down and stop
the auction.
We had claim to the building because years earlier Tom Torlakson, who
had been a member of the city council, and at that time a member of the
County Supervisors had pledged that the building should go to the
Historical Society when the county’s use for it was over. I had served on
the Fire Commission when Tom was around and knew first hand about the
agreement to turn the building over to us.
Even though I had grown up in the 60s I had never participated in
protests, but I knew the routine so we made our signs with slogans like
“You Can’t Sell Our History” and made as much nuisance as possible of
ourselves.
Whether or not it was due to our interference nobody that day came up
with the base bid of 300,000 dollars. The delay gave us time to petition
the Board of Supervisors in a proper manner.
The supervisors decided to offer the property to silent bids. Our bid
was actually much lower than some others, but by then we had leveraged
public sentiment into believing that this was the right thing to