Historical society marks 50th year

Walking tour of Palm Avenue and free archivist’s talk will celebrate history of the area and the group

The Redlands Area Historical Society, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary year of its incorporation, offers two programs in March, a walking tour today on part of Palm Avenue and a program Monday by local historian Larry E. Burgess, who was part of the group who founded the historical society.

The walking tour will begin at 10 a.m. at the Charles Kendall Adams house at 120 E. Palm Ave., part of Plymouth Village retirement community. Cost is $10 for Historical Society members and $15 for nonmembers, payable at the beginning of the tour.

Tom Atchley, vice president of the Historical Society, will lead the tour, which will go west on Palm Avenue and end just west of Center Street around 11:30 a.m.

On the tour, Atchley will discuss the architecture of the houses and people who lived on Palm Avenue from the 1880s to the 1920s, according to a news release.

There are many houses on Palm that have received the Historical Society’s Heritage Award, and architectural styles include Victorian, Italianate, Greek revival, Craftsman, Eastlake stick, classic box, California

bungalow and California ranch.

The Historical Society’s Monday program is at 7 p.m. at the Contemporary Club, 173 S. Eureka St., Redlands. it is free and open to the public.

Larry Burgess, who will present the program, was the first archivist at Redlands’ A.K. Smiley Public Library and later served as library director from the 1980s until he retired in 2012.

Over the years, he has given more than 2,000 presentations on historical topics and in 1971 he began a class on the history of the San Bernardino Valley, which continues today, offered in the fall and the spring.

In 1972, Burgess joined Roger Baty, Curtiss Allen, Alice Van Boven, Tom Atchley, Russ Wilmot, Gary Mason, George Ide,

David Critchlow, Paul Allen and Gerald Smith to form a historical society and two years later, the board elected to incorporate the Redlands Area Historical Society, with Roger Baty as the first president and Burgess as program chairman.

Burgess has written many articles, columns and books on topics dealing with Redlands, Southern California and the West.

To learn more about the organization, go to rahs.org.