What's happening in California's oldest city?    

SAVE THE DATE! -- PACSJ's  20th Anniversary Preservation Celebration
November 12th, 6 to 9 PM, at the historic San Jose Woman's Club, 75 S. 11th Street, San Jose

Preservation Action Council of San Jose was founded in October of 1990 and began a long fight for rescuing valuable historic buildings in San Jose and educating the public on the importance of preservation.  PAC*SJ will celebrate the last 20 amazing years by honoring the founding members.  Please plan on attending the festivities and pay tribute to these dedicated people who started it all.  Enjoy gourmet delicacies, spirits, entertainment, auctions and friends.

Sponsorship opportunites:  Learn about the many benefits of becoming a sponsor.

30th Annual Italian American Family Festa  Visit the Italian Family Festa website for directions and details.

Come visit the PACSJ booth.  PACSJ is proud to have been instrumental in saving the historic River Street District, an Italian immigrant community.

PAC*SJ Garage Sale Success
As PAC SJ enters its 20th year as the historic preservation force in San Jose, we continue to build on our successes such as the ultimate in recycling, the semi-annual PAC*SJ Garage and Salvage Sales. Longtime member and former President, Patt Curia, has been hosting this event for over 10 years with the support of her adjacent neighbors' and a large cadre of volunteers. Many shoppers said the Spring 2010 event offered the widest assortment of merchandise ever. We earned nearly $5000 which was close to a record in revenue. It was hot. It was fun. The food was plentiful.

Many thanks to the volunteers who covered the three-day event: Judy Hill, Lynda Sereno and her mom, Rene Coca, Leslie Masunaga, Ellen Garboske, Luisa McEwan, Pat Colombe, Jane Luthard, Heinz Boedeker, Alice Gosak- Gary, Lucille Boone, Gwen Jennings, Virginia Carpio , Bill Walker, April and Hans Halberstadt, Linda Faulkner, Judy Stabile, Mim Bloom, Natalie Alexander, Lisa Wangsness, Gayle Frank, Joan Bohnett, Jim Zetterquist, Tom Aldridge, Sheik Ali, and several passers by who jumped in to help move things.

The sale included many items from a woman who recently moved into a retirement home. Member Sally Beste called us and said the woman's sons were clearing out the home in order to put it on the market and they would appreciate nonprofit organizations coming and taking items that the family could not use. The PAC team of vans, sports cars, SUVs and sedans zoomed over the next day and removed 8 car loads of vintage clothing, jewelry, sewing items, furniture and many other useful things. This influx really made our sale profitable and unique. The items were purchased for a modest price by people who loved and appreciated them. PAC*SJ is very good at finding the next owner of your treasures.

Georgie Huff donated 200 vintage roofing tiles and we sold them before they could be unloaded from the truck . Thanks, Joe Golda, for picking them up!

Remainders of the sale were donated to the following organizations: Sunday Friends, Salvation Army, YSI thrift store, Inn Vision, SJ Woman's Club, Horace Mann School, and other local elementary schools. Some items were retained for a future sale or auction including the last surviving pieces of the Donner Houghton House.

Special thanks to Craig Trimble, Manager of Antiques Colony, who took a donated naval sword and sold it to a collector without taking a commission.

Our thanks to Patt for her years of tireless efforts on this project. Special thanks to Patt's neighbors, the Salas' and the Wangsness-Liesenfeldt households for allowing PAC to decorate their yards with merchandise.

We plan to host another sale late summer. Watch for the date and hold on to that stuff!    Sale Pictures

Historical San Jose Photo Contest

San Jose's Historic Landmarks Commission recieved 150 entries for the Historical San Jose Photo Contest. You can view all the art work by going to www.smugmug.com,searching historicalsjcontest2010 and clicking view galleries at bottom. Galleries are divided by category.

Sadly, Naglee Park resident and SJ Mercury News reporter Holly Hayes has died of cancer.  Holly's tireless dedication to community journalism including her work on the SJ Mercury Wish Book, which raised funds for the less fortunate, will be sorely missed.  As a master gardener and the garden writer for the arts and entertainment section, she shared her love for tomato growing and other things green.  More from the SJ Mercury News.

Historic Palo Alto church to become high-end office building.

The iconic First Church of Christ, Scientist in Palo Alto will be renovated and repurposed as an upscale office building.  The building at Bryant Street and Forest Ave was built in 1916 but hasn't been used since 2006.  Palo Alto's zoning code offers incentives to property owners to preserve historic structures via development bonuses.  Where buildings are either historically significant or seismically unsound owners are allowed to develop at a greater density than normally allowed.  The developer has the option of using this "bonus" space at either the building being renovated or at a different property. 
 
This forward thinking city policy will no doubt save other historically important structures in Palo Alto.  Maybe San Jose should consider this type of policy.  Read the Mercury News Article here.


Lowe's opens on the Site of IBM Building 25.

A true story of rising from the ashes. That's what can be said about the saga to save the historic IBM Building 25 and PAC-SJ's collaboration with Lowe's.

When Building 25 was lost to a fire in March 2008 it appeared we also lost any chance of commemorating the building and the history that took place on that campus. PAC-SJ had been in discussions for quite awhile with Lowe's at the time of the destructive blaze and had nearly reached agreement on how to incorporate the building or elements of it into the Lowe's project.  After the fire, Lowe's made it clear they intended to honor the agreement we had been discussing, and they drew up plans that would bring in design elements from Building 25 and the surrounding buildings of the IBM campus. They also agreed to rebuild a version of Building 25 on one of the outlying pads for eventual retail use, and construct an exhibit highlighting the history of the site.

In March 2010, the new Lowe's store opened. Design elements from Building 25 can be seen on the main warehouse building as well as in the historic exhibit. The historic exhibit allows Lowe's customers an opportunity to learn a little about the history and architecture of this location.  The Building 25 re-creation will wait until the economy improves but all indications are that this project has made the best of a bad situation and shows what can be done under adverse conditions.  More pictures of the new building here

Lowe's and PAC-SJ Announce Agreement Regarding Historic IBM Building 25   View the Press Release


Signposts Revisited is now available for purchase! This new publication combines author Pat Loomis' previous two books, Signposts and Signposts II and tells the stories of how our streets were named. Signposts Revisited is a must-read for anyone interested in local history. The book is a combined project of PAC-SJ, California Pioneers of Santa Clara Valley, History San Jose, and the Argonauts Historical Society.

Signposts Revisited is available through the PAC-SJ office for $25. If you would like the book mailed, please add $3 for shipping and handling. Call the office at 408.998.8105 or email: info@preservation.org to place an order. The books will also be available at all of our events.

The book is also available as a premium to new and renewing PAC-SJ members who JOIN at the $100+ level.


PAC-SJ is looking for a few qualified applicants to be considered for openings on our Board. Help us pursue our mission of preserving the architectural heritage of San Jose and help educate homeowners, developers, and decision-makers about the importance of historic preservation.

If you think you would be interested, please review the Board member requirements and application. Thank you for your interest.

Concerned about global warming? So are we. Want to do something about it? Of course you do. Start by reading Sustainability and Historic Preservation, by Don Rypkema.  Don believes "The best green building is an historic building" and that "historic preservation is the ultimate in recycling."  

Demolition of a historic building wastes the valuable the materials and energy spent bulding it. The EPA has noted that building construction debris constitutes around a third of all waste generated in this country. Preserving historic buildings fits well with Mayor Chuck Reed's Green Vision environmental plan to make San Jose a sustainable city. 

The San Jose Fire Museum (SJFM), proposes exhibiting their rare collection of historical fire fighting equipment in the former Fire House #1 on Market Street. The SJFM is determined to save the 56-year-old Art Deco-style station. It has a high historical evaluation score and served the SJFD for one third of its great history. Its goal is to turn this site into the most complete fire museum in the country.  More on the proposed Fire Museum

Alma Taylor, long time PAC*SJ member, has chronicled her experiences during WWII in this moving story about herself and all the "Rosies" who sacrificed for the war effort. In June 2004, the Rosie the Riveter / Home Front National Historical Park opened in Richmond, CA as a memorial to to these strong women and in May 2004 the 108th Congress made a resolution honoring their efforts.