Pittsburg Historical Society and Museum

 

 

 

Founded in 1961, the Pittsburg Historical Society has a museum at the building built in 1926 for the Coast Counties Gas and Electric Company (merged with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in 1954), and later used by the Pittsburg Post-Dispatch newspaper. After the building was retrofitted for earthquake safety, it opened in 2003.

 

This museum has a wonderful collection of artifacts, photos, and a well-organized library. Some of the references found at the museum are: 1913-1994 microfilmed newspapers of the Pittsburg Post-Dispatch and later Daily Ledger-Post Dispatch; map set of businesses at Camp Stoneman; a Pittsburg High School room and sets of their yearbooks; the family room that had many genealogies and histories of Pittsburg families; city directories; photo albums; and binders and binders full of subject file clippings that are indexed. [I found a newspaper article of my mother pictured next to Louis Armstrong, who had done a concert for the Junior Women’s Club benefit.]

 

The exhibits in the extra-large building are fantastic and cover many aspects of Pittsburg history, from Native American, through different ethnic groups, to the fishing and industrial industries. The exhibits are divided in small vignette rooms, with lots of interesting artifacts and photos to help tell their story.  Their research library is easy to use large enough to conduct research. Photocopies of items found in the binders is currently $1.