Society News

Our installation dinner was held at the Captain’s Table at Orange Coast College on February 20. Mary Hornbuckle officiated the “swearing in” ceremony.

The Costa Mesa Historical Society has been busy this year, providing our usual tours of the historical society building, and helping researchers find information on buildings, people, activities, events – the who, what and why questions that concern everyone.  Our facility has been improved, both inside and out.  We are working on new exhibits to open in June this year.

The Diego Sepulveda Adobe, which has been closed for several months for repairs, is set to open on March 5, 2011 at 10:00am. There will be a program, and you are invited. The building will again be open for tours on a regular basis the first and third Saturdays of the month from 12-4.

As always, we are looking for more volunteers to help with specific projects both at the historical society building and the adobe. If you are interested, call (949) 631-5918, or e-mail to cmhistory@sbcglobal.net.

The Costa Mesa Historical Society opened its doors after renovation on June 10. We will now resume our Thursday and Friday hours, from 10 am-3 pm.

The Historical Society recently installed an audio/video workstation to support the digitization of our extensive collection of oral histories, movie films, and videotapes. Many of the Society’s recordings are growing weaker with time, so converting them to digital formats allows us to preserve them for generations to come. Director Dave Rusher has just completed work on Costa Mesa’s 25th Anniversary oral history collection. Now he’s working on reel-to-reel recordings, starting with a tape of the very first meeting of the Society in 1966. Director Bob Palazzola has completed the rescue of 50 local history VHS videotapes and is starting to work on the SAAAB videotape collection. Shown here is the new workstation in action – digitizing a tape from the Helen (Vidal) Humphreys collection. This recording is in Spanish – habla Español, anyone?

Costa Mesa’s Cadette Girl Scout Troop #1072 visited the Society’s museum on March 1, 2009 to take a tour of city history covering prehistoric times up to the present.  One popular item was a set of 4 large aerial maps showing the city’s development status in 10-year increments from 1955 to 1985.  The girls had fun trying to locate their houses on the maps.  Shown here are Troop leader Laura Wells and 5 troop members on the tour led by docent Kathy Bequette.

The Diego Sepulveda Adobe in Estancia Park has opened to the public and has returned to its regular schedule: the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month from 12-4pm.

The Diego Sepulveda Adobe in Estancia Park will be closed to the public in February while it undergoes repairs.

“Flooding caused by a clogged drain at the building housing the Costa Mesa Historical Society, brings more issues to light.”