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Martinez Historical Society 1005 Escobar Street - Martinez, CA - (925) 228-8160 |
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Current Exhibit: “Meet Me In Martinez (1900-1930)” Jazz great Dave Brubeck grew up in Concord in the 1920s. Reminiscing about those days in a 1972 interview for the Martinez News-Gazette, he told about saving up enough money to buy a bicycle. But Concord was too small to support a business big enough to offer bikes for sale. So one Saturday morning his parents drove him from their home on Colfax Street across through Pacheco and down what was soon to be State Highway 21 (Pacheco Boulevard) to downtown Martinez to purchase the bike. He then triumphantly rode it all the way home. Whether by automobile or bicycle, train or ferry, horse and wagon, or on foot, and even for a short time in the 30s and 40s by airplane, Martinez was the destination for Contra Costans in the first half of the 20th century. Martinez had everything. Downtown businesses included popular local establishments such as Beard’s Jewelers as well as chain outlets such as Western Auto where Brubeck bought his bike. Banks ranged from the local Bank of Martinez to the growing Bank of America. Hotels and restaurants, picture shows, Saturday night dances on Main Street—there were lots of things to do, lots of business to conduct, lots of things to buy. And, as the new Museum exhibit shows, all methods of transportation led to Martinez. To Museum Director Andrea Blachman and exhibit designer Adria Schwarz, it seemed natural to combine pictures and artifacts of how people got to Martinez with pictures and artifacts of the activities available to them once they arrived. Much of the exhibit consists of materials from the Martinez Historical Society’s collection. In the entryway are several dozen postcards of Martinez arranged around a map of the city in the early 20th century. In the display closet off the Dining Room are hand-lettered and printed posters from the Peoples’ Theatre, the earliest “movie house,” which was located on Main Street where La Tapetia restaurant is now. Also in the closet are mannequins dressed in clothes of the early 1900s (loaned by Ellen Green). One wonders if women chose to see Viola Dana in “They Like ‘Em Rough” or preferred the Tam O’Shanter show put on by the Martinez Woman’s Club in 1924 in Curry Hall. Society members and others loaned many important items for this exhibit. Holger Berthelsen, whose father owned a bicycle shop in West County for many years, provided authentic California license plates from 1914-20, each with a medallion indicating the year of issue. Antique car buff and Society member Norman Schwartz loaned a three-foot-high “Michellin Man” statue named Mr. Bibb, who always sported a cigar in the advertisements and a Universal Tire. Dave Gilbert was another contributor. For the case displaying social activities and parties, the pictures of gala weddings are interspersed with items such as a lovely decanter, from the Italian Hotel, loaned by Carol Pistochini Hatch, and a seltzer bottle from Martin Bonzagni’s Excelsior Soda Works. Martinez Historical Society past president Richard Patchin loaned items from his railroad collection, including model trains of the period and crockery and silverware that would have been used in Fred Harvey’s dining car restaurants on transcontinental trains. Throughout the exhibit are fascinating items and pictures that tell a century-old story. How did this exhibit come about? Director Andrea Blachman explained that “the story evolved” starting with transportation as a theme. Adria Schwartz added, as she pointed to the display case with photos of shops and examples of products, “We started pulling artifacts out one after another.” An exhibit like this takes weeks to plan and implement. It also takes, Andrea points out, many people who are generous with their time and their possessions. Adria and her husband joined the Society two years ago. She is an artist who is interested in every type of art. But most of all, she says, “I like telling a visual story.” The Museum cases have given her an opportunity to do just that. As she says, “I’ve been crawling around the display cases ever since.” Praising Adria for her artistic gifts, Andrea also appreciates other volunteers and donors who make an exhibit like this possible. Pointing out the dozens of vintage photographs in the exhibit, she noted that Martinez resident and photographer Tom Zamaria scanned them from the Museum files and also created “case maps” to help visitors enjoy the items on display. Society members Bettye Bloom, Rosemary Cook, Sammy Decker, Kristin Henderson, Richard Patchin, Kathie Parker, and Norman Schwartz provided additional valuable assistance. The late Ray Taylor, who owned a barbershop on Main Street in the 1920s next to the present Victoria’s Kitchen, recalled the excitement of downtown Martinez on Saturdays when everybody “came to town.” He and his partner at the shop would provide haircuts and a shave to customers all day and into the evening, finally closing about 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. Then each of them would barber the other, change clothes, and head up Main Street to the plaza in front of the Court House to join the other young town and country folk for a community dance. “Meet me in Martinez, Venus . . . meet me at the dance!” This exhibit will be on display for the next six months and will be followed by one highlighting the 1930s and 1940s. Special tours can be arranged by appointment; call 228-8160 or 371-7146.
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