Invitation
Ruby's House
Patricia Loomis History Library and
Dedication Event photos below
NEW HISTORY LIBRARY AND RESOURCE CENTER FOCUSES ON PROJECTS FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS
On Saturday, September 30, 2006 10 a.m., the South County Historical Society opened its
fourth building in the Village of Arroyo Grande’s Heritage Square. The event was a
dedication of the Patricia Loomis History Library and Resource Center located in
Ruby’s House at 134 S. Mason St. This new center will offer teachers, students,
journalists and researchers a wealth of materials on California history with a special
emphasis on local South San Luis Obispo County history. The Library and Resource Center
will be available to students and community members for research projects, including the
production of community history exhibits and historical reenactments. The Library and
Resource Center was made possible through the generous donations of two retired women
journalists, Patricia Loomis and Jean Hubbard.
Loomis, a granddaughter of local pioneers E.C. and Clara Loomis, was raised in Arroyo
Grande and has been one of the Society’s most important benefactors. Her generosity
allowed the Society to renovate and restore sections of the 1888 Ruby’s House in
order to expand their library and outreach programs. Loomis also donated a large number of
books from her private collection, including the Hubert H. Bancroft series on the history
of the West, a 39-volume collection written in the late 19th century. Loomis’s
interest in California history stems from her long career as a journalist with the San
Jose Mercury News, where for many years she wrote a history column named Signposts that
focused on early pioneers of the San Jose-South Bay region and the streets named after
them. She is also a long-time member and former officer of the Oregon-California Trails
Association, dedicated to the preservation and protection of overland emigrant trails and
the emigrant experience.
Several hundred books, pamphlets, photos, and scrapbooks were donated to the
Society’s new library by local writer Jean Hubbard. Hubbard wrote articles focusing
on South County history for the Times Press Recorder for 12 years. Her articles, books,
and wealth of knowledge on local history will be invaluable resources for researchers
using the new library. Jean is a founder and charter member of the South County Historical
Society, serving most recently as curator of the Paulding House Museum in Arroyo Grande.
Her contributions to the preservation of local history are well known and unmatched.
The Society’s Board of Directors, on behalf of its members, hope the Patricia Loomis
Library and Resource Center will make history come alive by offering valuable resources
for student and community projects designed to re-create local and California history. The
Center will also develop programs to make history more relevant for all age groups by
connecting the past to present-day challenges faced in South County and California. For
more information contact the Library’s interim director, Craig Rock, at 489-8282.
Comments by Library Director Craig Rock at the dedication ceremonies on September
30th in Arroyo Grande.
Welcome! It’s my honor and pleasure to give you a brief overview of the Patricia
Loomis History Library and Resource Center.
It is indeed a history library, a collection of books dealing with South County, San Luis
Obispo County, California, and the West.
It’s my philosophy is to include books on as many different perspectives on life in
the Western United States as possible. Books on our eleven local communities and the rest
of SLO County, because this is our most immediate past, present, and future. On the rest
of the California and the West, because people throughout this region shared many aspects
of pioneer life with settlers here. Today, we share a common pool of challenges, the
outcome of which will affect the lives of our children, their children, and so on.
The books in our library come from many sources throughout the years but recently three
donors have come through with significant contributions. We recently received nearly a
hundred books from John Loomis’ library; another hundred from Patricia Loomis
including the complete 39 volumes of Bancroft’s Works. The research for this
collection was gathered in the late 1800s by Hubert Bancroft of the Bay Area who employed
up to 50 historians who gathered historical information on California, the Pacific
Northwest, Mexico and Central America. The third donor I’ll talk about in a moment.
The Library is also a Resource Center – a place for researchers, teachers, and
students to visit, to explore various issues relevant to our communities’ past,
present, and future. For example, we have one collection of books connecting the Old West
to the New West – land, water, and other development issues. We have book shelves on
railroads, mining and oil, natural history, teaching the West, Native Americans, the
Missions, Early and not so Early California. We have original copies of Harpers Weekly
dating back to the Civil War era.
We have original research, magazines and publications on California history, local
genealogy and cemeteries, local communities and local families.
The Research Center also has a mission, a mission to record the oral histories of families
that have kept our local communities together by settling and staying in the area. We also
need to record the histories of newer families whose energy and love of the area we need
-- to insure that our schools, quality of life, and local institutions and groups
flourish.
The Research Center hopes to bring together all these groups – to sponsor speakers
and panel discussions, to recreate or re enact historical plays, skits, and Chautauquas -
where individual researchers act out the lives of historical characters. We need students
and skilled technicians to produce digital stories for community showings or school lesson
plans. We need people to research and develop programs involving cultural tourism and
historic preservation.
We need help in all the projects I just talked about. We need your energy as volunteers,
as consultants if you are skilled in a certain area, as docents, as researchers and
exhibit creators, or as financial supporters in you are able to do so. You can reach us at
473-5077 or email: mailcenter@southcountyhistory.org
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Click on thumbnails to enlarge
Invitation
Dedication Program
Photographs by Ross Kongable, Gary Scherquist, Gus Berger
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