Vision of new life for Old Mint as history museum
From today’s SF Gate, “These fall days mark the beginning of a major effort by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society to transform the venerable Old Mint at Fifth and Mission streets into a museum to celebrate San Francisco.”
“There’s no museum about San Francisco,” said Gilbert Castle, executive director of the museum and historical society.
“One of the designers is “asking the museum’s potential audience for ideas on how the museum should look and what stories it should tell. He and the historical society have assembled a 22-page vision statement that covers the city from the days of the Ohlone Indians to the end of the 20th century as a kind of guideline. It’s not a blueprint or a plan — that will come in part from the community and other historians — but rather a way of drawing comment from the public.”
“The vision statement is available in public libraries and on the Internet (www.sfhistory.org). The society will also circulate the vision statement for comment and ideas to more than 400 San Francisco community groups, to academic historians, to community historians, and other groups such as the California Historical Society.”
