After 26 Years of Effort, the Museum of Redlands Opens Free to the Public on October 24
In Redlands, a city in San Bernardino County, California, a museum devoted to the city's history will open its doors after a 26-year community effort. According to the City of Redlands and A.K. Smiley Public Library, the Museum of Redlands is scheduled to open to the public on Saturday, October 24, with an opening celebration beginning at 10 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1 North Center Street. The museum occupies the renovated and expanded former Redlands Daily Facts building, a site long associated with documenting community life. The event is free, and admission will remain free.
The opening program will feature music from the Redlands Fourth of July Band and remarks from invited dignitaries. Visitors will receive commemorative keepsakes, including a pin and a postcard featuring a watercolor depiction of the museum building by Pasadena artist Joseph Stoddard.
The museum will become part of the Special Collections Division of A.K. Smiley Public Library, joining the Lincoln Memorial Shrine as the second museum managed by that division. The library's Heritage Room has long preserved Redlands' historical photographs, maps, documents, and oral histories. Redlands emerged during Southern California's great citrus expansion in the late nineteenth century, when orange groves built the city's economy and shaped its distinctive homes, schools, churches, and civic institutions.
After opening day, the museum will operate Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free admission.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：清晨的 A.K. Smiley 公共图书馆航拍（该馆特别收藏部负责管理新开馆的 Museum of Redlands，资料图）。Steve Carroll 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，取自维基共享资源。Photo: A.K. Smiley Public Library at sunrise, seen from the air; the library's Special Collections Division manages the new Museum of Redlands (file photo). By Steve Carroll, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
