Is Veterans Center unique?

An historic resource report conducted in 2015 concluded the center was, well, just another building set up as a “living memorial” to World War II vets who didn’t want statues erected in their honor, preferring that their legacy be something more useful to the community.

Turns out the center might be the only building of its kind designed by famed architect Birge Clark, who has been called “The Architect of Palo Alto” and Palo Alto “The City that Birge Built.” Clark, who died in 1989, designed more than 450 buildings in Palo Alto and on the Stanford campus. More than 30 of his homes are on Palo Alto’s inventory of historic buildings and three are on the National Register of Historic Places. His resume includes the Lucie Stern Community Center in Palo Alto and the Lou Henry Hoover home on the Stanford campus.

The list, however, does not include a veterans’ center, according to Steve Staiger of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

“I am not aware of a veterans building designed by Birge Clark anywhere else,” Staiger said.

An old joke on the Peninsula is that everyone in Palo Alto knew about Birge Clark’s work, but no one in Menlo Park or Redwood City did. Redwood City certainly knew about him when the center was dedicated in 1956. The Redwood City Tribune devoted an entire page to the opening. An editorial in the paper called the center “one of the nicest pieces of architecture in this community.”

The center was witness to something else that was rare, if not unique. It was “paid in full” when it was unveiled to a city of then 40,000 people. After San Mateo County voters rejected plans for similar centers in three cities, Redwood City decided to build its own. Towards the end of World War II, citizens paid a special levy of 7.5 cents per $100 valuation in the tax rate.

About 1,000 people attended the dedication ceremony on May 28, 1956. The main speaker was Army General Walter Muller who said it was appropriate that the center be “a living memorial to veterans of your community — a memorial made possible by your toil and their blood.”

The center’s history contains another unusual chapter: a city commission worked its way out of existence.

The Tribune ran an editorial in 1976 about the demise of the Veterans Memorial Commission, calling the center a “magnificent structure” and “one of the city’s most attractive landmarks.” It praised the commission for helping bring about conditions that led to the center becoming an “excellent, well-run facility.”

The editorial concluded, “As it goes out of existence, the Veterans Memorial Commission has the satisfaction of knowing it did its job well.

Forty-two years later, the same might be said for the center itself.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.