Junk? Historical Artifact? It Depends on Who You Ask

The Rohnert Park Historical Society is racing the clock to find a new home after being notified by Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster to move out by June 1.
 
Unless an alternate location is found, stacks of photos, newspaper clippings, an old liberty bell, firefighter equipment from the 1940s and other Rohnert Park artifacts will be boxed up and taken to a storage facility.  

“There is a lot of stuff that has no monetary value, but it has sentimental value, especially to the people who grew up here,” said Tim Danesi, president of the historical society, which he founded in 1999. “Many much smaller cities have historical societies where people can do research, and here we are a big city and we can’t even get enough support for something permament.”  

The decision to ask the historical society to relocate was made by Amee Sas, the leasing director at Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster, recently renamed SoCo NEXUS, who said that the collection has consisted of mostly stacks of boxes.

“The items aren’t not really displayed here, they’re just piled up,” Sas said, adding that the Sonoma County Museum declined Danesi’s offer of donating the collection. “The Sonoma County Museum chose to not accept the collection and that might be part of the problem. If they would have been picked up by a museum, he wouldn’t need to keep them in storage.”  

Lindsay Austin, the executive director of SoCo NEXUS, in a letter to the Community Voice, questioned whether every town needed a history museum and said it took considerable investment and resources to properly acquire and exhibit materials.  

“Whether the artifacts in question are worthy of preservation and exhibition is a good question and one that Eric Stanley, the history curator, might better answer,” Austin said. "One thing is very clear, they do not belong stacked up in an office at SoCo Nexus.”   

Danesi defends the historical society’s collection as a “work in progress,” and says serves as a vital place for residents to bring items they may have acquired from family. He says that when he published a book about Rohnert Park’s history last year, many residents came forward saying they had photos, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia from the city’s earliest days.  

“Without this, what happens to the stuff that’s already been collected?” said Danesi. “Will it end up in someone’s garage? If you don’t save it, it will just be thrown away.”    

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