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Arts & Entertainment

Artesia's Museums Preserve, Showcase City's History

The Artesia Historical Museum and Old Fire Station #30 make up city's Historical District, with 700 local students visiting each year.

The railroad tracks west of Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia may divide the Old Fire Station #30 and the Artesia Historical Museum, but both complement each other as part of the city’s designated Historical District.

The Artesia Historical Society, founded in 1993, operates both museums and advocates for the preservation of the city’s rich history, which traces its origins to 1875 with the construction of the first grammar school. At the time, Artesia also covered what is today known as Cerritos, La Palma, Lakewood, Norwalk, Bellflower and Hawaiian Gardens.

Located on 18644 Alburtis Ave., the Historical Museum is in the Frampton/Dantema house, a 1920s style home originally located on Pioneer Boulevard. The house, which moved to its present site in 2003 with the help from the City of Artesia, features artifacts and furniture reflecting the city's past. Some of the items range from iceboxes in the kitchen to radios in the living room.

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On the other side of the tracks is the Old Fire Station #30, which is a new addition to the Artesia Historical District. The Historical Society began offering tours of the Old Fire Station in Oct. 2010, after an extensive renovation of the facility.

Originally built in Downey in 1937, the Old Fire Station #30 moved to Artesia and served the city until 1985. Previously owned by the Artesia Chamber of Commerce, the City purchased the building in order to convert it into a museum.

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Delores Eveland, Vice President of the Artesia Historical Society, says that Mayor Pro Tem John Lyon played a huge role in helping the Historical Society renovate the fire station. The Old Fire Station #30 has been decorated like fire stations during the 1940s and 1950s, complete with uniforms, sleeping quarters and a completely restored 1942 fire truck permanently loaned from the Los Angeles County Firefighters Museum.

The Historical Museum and Old Fire Station #30 attracts around 700 school children each year, said Historical Society President Barbara Applebury, noting that third graders’ curriculum includes learning about the history of their cities.

Eveland said that the society encourages hands-on interaction with items from the past in order to reinforce what they learn from the tour guides.

“The kids are excited and they can’t get over what life was like when iPods and video games were not around,” she said.

Students swap portable game consoles for a game of horseshoes, while on rainy days, they play games like jacks and pickup sticks.

Although schools have had to cut their transportation budgets in the last few years, Eveland said that it hasn’t stopped the Historical Society from getting students to learn about the City’s history.

“We’ve covered the cost of buses to come to the Artesia museums,” she said. “Teachers have to come to us to apply for the service.”

Although the properties are limited mainly to school and private group tours on most days, both the fire station and museum are open every second Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

While it is a relatively young organization, Veronica Bloomfield, a volunteer for the Historical Society, says that the organization is fortunate for the support from the City of Artesia.

 “Other historical societies that we’ve met at events said that they haven’t had the rapport with their cities like we’ve had,” she said. “We’re relatively a baby and we didn’t have a [permanent] building until 2002. When you start an organization, it takes years to get off the ground. We’ve had Open House, met in peoples’ houses and we had the City of Artesia to understand what a historical society is all about.”

Despite its relative youth and intimate number of volunteers, Bloomfield said that the organization shows lots of expertise and devotion to preserving Artesia’s unique history.

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