Museum of Redlands (MOR) Community Open House

Join us on February 2 when we open the doors to the completed Museum of Redlands building! Enjoy cookies* and punch as you get to see the museum before the galleries are filled with displays! This is Redlands Historical Museum Association’s (RHMA) gift to our city! We encourage you to REGISTER so we may plan appropriately for this event.

• Register
• Sunday, February 2, 2025 3-5PM

BREAKING - The iconic new Museum of Redlands is now complete and ready to be gifted to the City of Redlands by the Redlands Historical Museum Association.

To celebrate that, the RHMA invites all residents of Redlands to a free, public open house on Sunday, Feb. 2, from 3-5 p.m. The purpose is to let the community view the interior architectural changes converting the building from the former Redlands Daily Facts. The location on Brookside Avenue is the corner at No. 1 North Center St.

The official museum opening is planned for this summer after the museum partner A.K. Smiley Public Library has the needed months to install the first exhibits.
This will be an opportunity for the public to see the three display galleries (including the Brookside gallery now showing the 1923 International Citrus Grove truck); how the Facts' central atrium has been converted to a sky-lighted gallery; how the back pressroom, circulation and ink and paper storage areas have been converted to a huge, light-controlled display gallery.

Additionally, the public can tour the administration offices, the museum library/study, the board/meeting room, the additional Pavilion structure with kitchen, the outdoor performance stage, view the more than 250 donor pavers, and enjoy the citrus-tree-lined Dangermond Events Pavilion Courtyard with good westside view of the sparkling white citrus façade of the new second floor added specifically for storage.
This might be the only time the public may walk through that storage area, which soon will contain modern museum rolling shelving in a closed-off area for artifact preservation.

Reservations are recommended at HERE. Plans to open a museum for Redlands began in 1998 when Liz Beguelin, president of the Redlands Area Historical Society, and Nelda Stuck, Facts reporter writing columns urging consideration of a museum in Our Town, met with Smiley Library Director Larry Burgess and board president Bill Hardy seeking mutual cooperation on the goal.

The 100-year-old Library basement was overflowing with artifacts that few people saw. This was the opportunity to get historic items on public display. Beguelin and Stuck soon had the approval also of the Redlands City Council, and the 501c3 non-profit status was set up for membership and with endowment funds coming in.

In 2015, after five previous structure considerations, the 1956 Mid-Century-Modern Daily Facts building came on the market, with board member Clara Mae Clem putting up $1 million of the purchase price, and Tim Rochford purchasing the adjacent vacant lot, making the addition of the Pavilion and garden area possible.
The Johnson Favaro architectural firm of Culver City was selected, with construction continuing from 2021 to date by Tilden-Coil Constructors. Larry Burgess, emeritus director of Smiley Library and member of the Museum Capital Campaign, said, "The indefatigable drive of the Redlands Historical Museum Association brings to the residents of Redlands a New Year gift. In fact, the largest private gift in the city's history. The Museum of Redlands/MOR represents two decades of volunteer work and $27,000,000 from donors. Redlands and all those who visit now have a community cultural living room forever linking past and present in dialogue about our future. Congratulations and thanks to all those donors who chose not small but large vision. Your dream is now reality."

RHMA President Steve Stockton noted, "When the MOR was interviewing the architects Johnson and Favaro for the job, they told us: 'We want to take you where you do not think you can go' That was a challenge to the Board of Directors and --- here we are."
Stockton said, "This magnificent $27 million edifice is a gift to all people in Redlands from over 1,200 donors, large and small, and the first new culture site added to the city's other important structures in more than 50 years."

Char Burgess, Capital Campaign co-chair said, "The Museum of Redlands/MOR is a unique gift to the City of Redlands from the Redlands Historical Museum Association. It is the largest gift ever given to the city. It is for all people everywhere and, in a very real sense, the gift comes from many people everywhere. Residents of Redlands, past residents, relatives of residents, all joined together to make MOR happen. It is hoped that it will be a place that looks back on Redlands and, in doing so, helps everyone look forward through new lenses. It is a place that will be continually changing, using traveling exhibits and a Museum Store as a lure to entice. It is a place that will educate and enliven new spaces dedicate to youth education."

Tim Rochford, Capital Campaign co-chair, added, "MOR will educate and inspire with displays and stories about the people that built our great community. With inspiration from the past and a commitment to education and traveling exhibits, it will ensure the qualities that make Redlands special will continue by inspiring our community to greatness into the future."