New effort to preserve Ampex history underway

“When the sign came down so did potentially the memory of Ampex and there was this moment of sorrow [in the community],” Borgens said. “That set things into motion where it was ‘wait a second we’ve got to do something to keep that history.’ If you don’t do something to celebrate the history it goes away eventually.”

Many Ampex artifacts are collected at Stanford and the university has indicated it’s willing to “help us tell the Ampex story,” Borgens said, adding that the museum also appears on board with the plan.

“The Ampex story is a rich story and there’s an opportunity to educate the next generation on what’s possible,” Wilson said, adding that some 60,000 students visit the museum each year. “It started with a terrible thing — ripping out the sign — but something much better is potentially happening.”

The exhibit being contemplated would be permanent, Borgens said, and would likely also incorporate memorabilia from other local major technology companies.

Borgens said $350,000 will need to be raised to make the vision a reality and she estimates the exhibit, if everything works out, could open in 2022 or 2023. Wilson said it could even happen sooner than that.

“I’m so excited for the direction this is going and I know we’ll come up with the funds,” she said, adding that Mayor Ian Bain has also been actively involved in the effort to preserve Ampex history.

As for the sign, it’s still sitting in storage somewhere in Hayward and there are no immediate plans for that to change.

The Ampex sign was erected sometime in the 1960s and it stood along Highway 101 until August of last year when Stanford, which owns the land, dismantled it to make way for construction of a new satellite campus.

Stanford officials at the time said they offered the sign to a variety of historical groups, and even Ampex, but no one expressed interest in taking it.

During the entitlement process for Stanford’s satellite campus, Redwood City officials agreed the sign was of local historic interest, but it was not granted any official protections.

“That was a different time,” Borgens said. “They did a lot of things with that development that would be different today.”

Wilson said the sign will likely never return to its former home.

“But Stanford is completely open to all or part of it being repurposed. They won’t get rid of it. They know how important the sign is,” he said. “We want people to know we haven’t forgotten about this issue and it’s turning in a positive direction.”

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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