To Protect IB History, City Considers Historic Repository

Imperial Beach is the only city in San Diego County with no historic repository for residents to pass on pieces of history to future generations, said former Mayor Diane Rose in a July 16 letter to City Council.

To give people a place to store and view documents significant to local history, Councilwoman Lorie Bragg suggested the city create a historic repository at a July 17 meeting. 

Bragg is also president of the Imperial Beach Women's Club, the oldest civic organization in California's most southwest city.

Along with another member of the Imperial Beach Women's Club, Adams wrote the city's first history in the 1970s.

Before Freda Adams died in May, a truck load of documents, pictures and important information about Imperial Beach was delivered to Bragg's home for safe keeping.

In the late 1940s Adams was a secretary of the Imperial Beach Civic Committee, who eventually called for Imperial Beach to become a municipality.

In arguing for the creation of a historic repository, Bragg said she was concerned about what the children and grandchildren of city elders will do with the boxes of old memorabilia found upon their death.

Instead of throwing things away, members of the community could donate items to the city. Collected items could potentially be digitized and placed on the city's website in the future, Bragg said.

"My idea is that we would collect items donated by members of the community and archive them in a room and I think a perfect room would be the Media Room in the Senior Center," she said.

The cost, how the city would receive items and other topics related to a repository will be reviewed by staff who will return with more information at a future meeting.

"There's probably other members of the community as well who would probably like to contribute or bequeath something to this if we had it," said Councilman Ed Spriggs.

Councilman Bobby Patton said city staff should look at other historical associations to see what tactics have succeeded elsewhere in San Diego.

The documents and photos Adams bestowed on Bragg by Adams don't belong to any individual but to the entire community, she said. 

"So in this truck load of stuff that has now been given to me the real question was does it belong to me? No. It really doesn't. I believe that it belong to the people of Imperial Beach," she said.

Passing the history on to the children of South Bay is what matters most, Adams told Bragg.

What would you add to a historic repository for Imperial Beach? Share in comments.

The idea of a historic repository for Imperial Beach isn't new, she said.

"And it wasn't me who came up with this idea. Actually about six years ago, Jay Robbins and Freda and myself sat down and we thought this stuff needs to be collected and protected," Bragg said. 

Adams and Jay Robbins were recognized as the city's unofficial historians in 2006 by then Mayor Diane Rose.

Bragg would like to see the repository collected at the Senior Center, digitalized and organized by Mar Vista High School students in need of volunteer hours and see the creation of a group to provide financial assistance.

Among items in the truckload:

• Notes and photos for the city's first history book written by Adams in the 1970s.
• A book written by a woman who lived in the Tijuana Sloughs from 1931-1944.