Blog Archives

Chandelier Saga

12/19/2019

For the last month or two, the Clarke has been running a fundraiser to restore our historic lighting, which consisted of bronze chandeliers that were recently rediscovered after being removed about 60 years ago. The project is in the works, and thanks to friends of the Clarke, has been very successful so far. However, we're still a ways away from our goal so consider dropping by the museum or donating through our donation page here on the website or via Facebook. Every dollar helps us get closer to our goal!

What did the interior used to look like?

The Clarke is listed as on the National Register of Historic Places, meaning that it has been found to be a significant cultural or architectural landmark. The Clarke earned that designation due to its special architectural design, done by Albert Pissis, who was a San Francisco architect who helped to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. The exterior of the building is glazed terracotta tile, an unusual material that in Eureka appears exclusively on the Bank of Eureka building.

Pissis designed and built the Bank of Eureka building at a time when neo-classical architecture was popular. Architects drew on design motifs from Greek and Roman architecture including columns, leaf designs, and cadeuces, and worked to emulate the detailed decor of Grecian and Roman architecture. That included marble flooring and incredibly detailed ceiling work on the interior of the building. Thanks to a building restoration expert Lisa Jarrow, we discovered that all that detailed work was once covered in gold leaf, which was a time consuming process with spectacular results.

The building was lit by a combination of lighting fixtures over its operational days as a bank, from chandeliers and wall sconces to fluorescent lighting. The 6 chandeliers were cast bronze with spherical shades, which were updated to Art Deco style shades.

When Cecile Clarke purchased the Bank of Eureka building in the 1960s, that kind of elaborate decor was out of style, so the walls were painted over and the elaborate chandeliers removed and given to Cecile's Episcopal church. From there, the chandeliers appeared at Old Town Bar and Grill, a bank at the Mall, back to Old Town Bar and Grill, and then put into storage after being damaged by bricks during an earthquake.

Why restore the interior of the building?

Being a NRHP listed location, it's part of our duty as building owners and stewards of history to maintain this building's historical integrity for the future, while also ensuring that building remains useful and relevant to our community. Restoring our lighting gets us a step closer to emulating the historic grandeur of the building, while wiring the chandeliers and overhead lighting for energy efficiency helps us serve our community by lessening our energy usage footprint. The new lighting allows for flexibility in how the space is used, by providing more light when needed and less when it isn't and the return of the chandeliers encourage visitors to look up where all the detailed design work is. With this project and our ongoing paint restoration project, we're doing our part to maintain this landmark of local and national significance.

Where is the project at?

So far, we've been able to get the chandeliers back and take them to Santa Rosa, where missing parts are being recreated as 3D models. The models will be used in creating molds to cast the lost pieces in bronze. The 3D modeling phase is close to finishing up, and Northbay 3D and Design has been sending us updates through the process, including how long it took to do the 3D rendering on the item and how long it took to 3D print the pieces.

Original bronze piece next to the 3D printed version

Next up is to get the pieces cast in bronze and brought back to the Museum to be rewired for energy efficient lighting.

If the project is already in process, why is money still being raised?

We have enough money to cover these initial phases of the project, but we are still raising money to cover the cost of rehanging the chandeliers and updating our lighting in the entire building to be more energy efficient. It's a longer and costly project to tackle the entire building's lighting system but one that makes the most sense to have completed in one fell swoop rather than in short phases. A major lighting projects like this requires us to close our doors for a week at a time due to the lighting fixtures being on high ceilings that can only be accessed via large scissor lifts- meaning that we have to rearrange display cases to accommodate the lifts. We typically close in January for maintenance anyway, so it makes sense to be able to use that time for a major project like this one.

Additionally, with projects like this, it's typical for estimates for work, time, and materials to be higher than anticipated. We want to be sure that the project is fully covered, no matter what the final costs turn out to be. If there is any money left over from our fundraising efforts, it will be fully invested into other ongoing infrastructure projects, such as the addition of carpet to the non-marble flooring parts of the Main Hall, new carpeting to replace the 40 year old Nealis Hall carpeting, and restoring the interior and exterior of the Bank of Eureka building.

Thank you for your support!

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Guns on the Mind: Messenger Gun

12/14/2019

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Since the Symposium came to a close, I've been focusing on getting the Weapons Vault up and running. Working with community members who know more about historic firearms has been a real joy, and has sparked my curiosity in the role they've played (and continued to play) in our regional and national history. I'm still compiling my thoughts on all that as there is a LOT there, but I wanted to share a bit of information on one particular style of gun that shows up in our weapons vault that I thought was particularly interesting through how it was adapted to fit challenges met in the West.

In the double barrel shotgun case, you’ll see a gun that is noticeably shorter than the others. This is known as a “messenger gun”. In the 1850s, San Francisco was beginning to be a booming metropolis, being the leading port for new miners coming to California from around the world. At the time, the fastest way across the massive expanse of land was by horse or stagecoach.

Hydesville-Eureka Stagecoach outside the Vance Hotel, 1890. Cat #: 2005.063.451

Wells-Fargo stages traveling to San Francisco from Tipton, Missouri carried passengers, US Mail, and of course gold and paper money to their bank branches in California. Because of this, the well-labeled stages became common targets for robbers in the lawless west. In response, Wells Fargo started sending armed guards with the stagecoaches to protect the money, mail, and passengers over the 2800 mile route. The armed guard had a sturdy, short barrel (12 to 20 inches long) shotgun called a messenger gun and would sit up front in the driver’s box next to the driver, a spot oftentimes referred to as “shotgun” (The term “shotgun” used to refer to the front passenger seat of a car, however, didn’t become popular until the late 1910s and into the “Spagetti Western” era of films in the 1960s, where guards and their guns would oftentimes show up in epic chase scenes). The Messenger guns were typically loaded with buckshot and, when used at a relatively close range, were very effective with little aiming needed, which was good when sitting on a stage coach moving quickly over rough terrain.

One of the strongboxes used to transport gold in these stage coaches is also in this room, near the door. It is incredibly heavy and requires at least two people to carry when it is empty. This particular box was used to safeguard money en route to the mill at Ridgewood, CA (Cutten) and is similar in style to the boxes Wells Fargo used to transport money and gold.

With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, long distance stagecoach services declined and the prevalence of messenger guns declined as it was quicker and cheaper to transport goods across the country on the train.

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What's Been Going On At The Clarke?

12/5/2019

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It's been really, really quiet on the blog for the last few months- oh my it's been about 4 months since I last posted! Things have most definitely not been quiet around the Clarke though. Here's what's happened since August:

New Exhibit: Whiskey in the Wall!

Whiskey in the Wall opened at Arts Alive in September with great enthusiasm from those who came out to the opening. We spent a good chunk of September setting it up, which included printing and sticking 8 inch by 11 inch sticky labels onto foam core then individually cutting them out to make the timeline cards around the exhibit. Time intensive, but so worth it! We also held a special curator-led tour of the exhibit which was a big hit.

Archaeology Day in October

Our attendance numbers this year topped last years and we added California State Parks to the list of groups that hosts a table at the event. Flintknapping, as always, was a big hit. Thanks to Humboldt State's Anthropology Club for coming out with fun activities!

First Annual Humboldt History Symposium

At the very beginning of November, we co-hosted the Humboldt History Symposium at the Wharfinger Building with the Humboldt County Historical Society. Tickets sold out and the house was packed. We featured 9 speakers, with Ray Raphael as the Keynote and had representation by a majority of our regions historical organizations in attendance. It was great catching up with other local history professionals and hobbyists, and there are already calls for another Symposium in November of 2020.

The Historic Weapons Vault

I had set the goal of opening the historic Weapons Vault in December, which meant that as soon as the Symposium was over, it was time to dig into moving stuff and putting guns in displays. Thanks to Volunteer Christina, who has been coming in weekly since January 2019 (if not earlier than that) to help with the big move, Volunteer Dean who provided a lot of helpful information on how to display the guns, and staff members Ben and Brittany for doing a lot of the facilities type work to prepare the room with a fresh coat of paint and new cases, the exhibit is ready to open to the public this Saturday, December 7, for Arts Alive. But wait, there's more!
December's Arts Alive will also feature a variety of home brewers and local distilleries who will be offering tastings of their brews in the Prohibition exhibit space, which features an authentic homemade still on loan from the North Coast Redwoods District of the California State Parks.

The Chandelier Saga

Throughout the last few months, Museum Director Ben Brown has tracked down the original Bank of Eureka chandeliers to be restored and re-hung as part of our ongoing interior restoration project. Additionally, Lisa Jarrow who came out earlier this year to start restoring the interior paint came back out and did a bit more work on the back wall of the museum. It's looking spectacular, just like it did in 1911! Katie and Ben co-authored an article on this ongoing project, which will be in the Spring 2020 edition of the Humboldt Historian.

Nealis Hall: Community Dresses

Set of girl's regalia made by the Trinidad Rancheria Cultural Department and community members, on view from May-October 2019

Over the summer months into fall we were able to host newly made dresses, necklaces and more by local regalia makers as a part of the ongoing exhibit in Nealis Hall Long Ago to Today: Women's Ceremonial Dresses.

The first set of regalia we hosted over the summer months into Fall was from the Trinidad Rancheria. This set of regalia was made by Trinidad Rancheria Cultural Department with community member assistance as a part of a regalia making program for youth in 2016. It is taken care of by the Trinidad Rancheria Cultural Department and comes out for ceremonial dances and dress walks.

Making this set of regalia meant gathering and processing materials like the brain tanned elk hide, clamshells, picking out glass beads, cleaning and drilling pinenuts for the strands. Further cutting materials, laying out the design of the dress and finally assembling it together. Youth program participants assisted in preparing materials and stringing necklaces and dangles for the dress.

Newly completed set of regalia by Marlette Grant-Jackson, on display until January 2020

In November we were elated to receive as a loan until January, a newly completed set of regalia by Marlette Grant-Jackson. She is a Yurok Tribal Member, raised in Hoopa and an alumn of HSU & ITEPP. She is a mother of four (3 adult children and 1 three year old granddaughter). She is the ITEPP Cultural Resource Center (CRC) Coordinator, and ITEPP Professional Academic Advisor. Marlette made this dress apron and skirt, finished in September 2019 and beaded cape, finished August 2019, over the past year and a half.

She had documented and shared in-progress photos of her project over social media. She had originally planned for the apron to look differently, as can be seen in the photographs at the top. She had made two different designs and had ultimately cut each apart as she started on a new design. Leileanna Brown is shown wearing this dress in the photo at the bottom.

The dress is made from deerskin, chartreuse green beads, clamshell discs, pine nuts; deer dew claws, abalone disks, & jingle bells. The dress makes a beautiful sound when moved, due to the dangling sound elements.

We have been blessed to host these newly made sets of regalia from the community to connect to the older regalia items in the collection. Showcasing the revitalized and continued connection to ceremony and making here in our local indigenous communities.

Be sure to come out for tonight's Arts Alive!
6-9 pm in Old Town Eureka.