New Exhibits at the Civic Center Library
by Laurie Thompson
April 10, 2018 — The next time you’re at the Civic Center Library, please check out our new exhibits in the California Room showcases.
Do you remember roller-skating in your youth? Did you ever skate at an indoor roller-skating rink? Whether or not you did, you will enjoy our Romance of Roller-Skating exhibit featuring the collection of Velma & John Bratina. Both were part of the Dance & Figure Skating Club which performed at San Rafael’s Skateland in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Also included in the exhibit are some of their costumes.
On display, as well, is a bench designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1951 for the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin. We are grateful to Robert and Carole Nicholas for donating the bench to us. Because we wanted to preserve the original cushions which came with the bench for posterity, Volunteer Drusilla Miller fabricated facsimile cushions in a similar shade of blue so that the bench could be used by patrons of the Civic Center Library.
We wish to thank the Friends of the Civic Center Library for underwriting the cost of the facsimile cushions.
You may have read the exciting news that several local historical societies cast the winning bid on the Heisler Locomotive №9 which once formed part of the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway. We congratulate the Friends of Mt. Tam, The Mill Valley Historical Society and the Marin History Museum for making this long-time dream a reality. According to author & expert Fred Runner the №9 engine was built at Heisler Locomotive Works in Erie, Pennsylvania, in March of 1921 and was shipped shortly thereafter to Mill Valley where it worked the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway until 1924.
To celebrate this accomplishment, currently on display is a scale model of the №9 meticulously crafted by the late Michael Murray of Corte Madera, accompanied by some associated historical ephemera.
We look forward to seeing you at the Civic Center Library!
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
