History gets new habitat

"When I made a sketch of the train station 30 years ago, when we first started, I never dreamed that we'd be able to move into the landmark," said Martha May, one of the founders of the Burlingame Historical Society.

The Burlingame train station was built in 1894 but has been vacant since June 2004. The Historical Society will be able to use the space rent free in exchange for maintaining the building.

"The (train station) is not the ideal space as far as museums go but it's the ideal location," said Russ Cohen, president of the Burlingame Historical Society.

Moving into the new space requires much work. A detailed analysis of the building, called a historical structure report, must be completed. A grant from the state office of historical preservation of $4,250 will go toward this report. The grant, however, is a match grant meaning the Historical Society must match the donation with its own funds. While the report itself will probably take about three months to put together, Cohen doesn't have an estimate of when the funds to continue with the report will be raised. Repairs to the building have to be done as well before opening the doors to the public.

Cohen may not be able to devote all his time to the project since he is running for City Council this November. But even with the work ahead, Cohen just looks forward to having a space to display the work.

"Where we're at now, this isn't a museum. It doesn't meet regulations," Cohen said.

Cohen said he hopes to create a 21st century museum in a 19th century museum with interactive displays.

"We've been cataloging things for the past 30 years. It's time to get it off the shelves and start sharing it," Cohen said.

Currently the Historical Society uses the upstairs portion of the carriage house in Washington Park for storage, meetings and research. The small three-room space is filled with shoe boxes, suitcases and file cabinets with pictures and articles stored and catalogued. The walls are cluttered with children's artwork, old store front signs and random artifacts.

With over 125,000 pieces of history stored away, the Historical Society receives about 100 calls a year with questions about the past, Cohen said.

From property research to questions from movie productions, the volunteer staff logs and researches each question in their cramped space.

On Thursday, a person working on a documentary requested a newspaper article about a murder in 1985. It took head research assistant Fiona Hamilton only 30 minutes to find the article. But that's not always the case.

"We had someone call about a ghost on Sequoia Avenue. We still don't know anything about that," Hamilton said.

The Historical Society is set up like a library, tracking the items and maintaining the information in a card catalog.

"Since the building is so full, once the items are documented the boxes are stored wherever space allows," Hamilton said.

This makes researching a task at times.

"We can do hours and hours of research and not find anything," Hamilton said.

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Interested?

For more information about the Burlingame Historical Society call 344-9960. Donations can be mailed to The Burlingame Historical Society, P.O. Box 144, Burlingame, CA 94011-0144.