Mission Statement:
The mission of the Long Beach Heritage Museum is to promote awareness and be an educational resource of Long Beach History, through the preservation and exhibition of memorabilia and artifacts from the city's historical past.
History:
The Long Beach Heritage Museum, Long Beach, California, started in 1961 when Ken Larkey put on a photo display of the 1933 earthquake at the Long Beach Recreation Department hobby show. The display featured some of the photos and picture postcards that he had been collecting since he was nine years old. The exhibit was so popular that his booth was crowded every day. This convinced him to find a permanent home where people could see his collection of Long Beach memorabilia.
In February of 1971 Long Beach's first Historical Museum was open at the northwest corner of First Street and Linden Avenue, then called the "Queen of the Beaches Museum." After a few years the Museum was moved to Third and Elm, just east of the main post office downtown. It was then renamed the Long Beach Heritage Museum, to avoid confusion with Queen Mary exhibits. It was open to the public free of charge as the only Long Beach historical museum. Among the many activities at the Museum was the presentation of historical movie and slide shows in the forty-five seat theater with a complete stereo sound system and footlights on stage, with a grand curtain in front of the silver screen. Over the next 20 years many historical artifacts and other memorabilia were added to the collection.
In 1994, the Museum's 1917 building on Third Street was declared as substandard by the city building and safety department and was demolished. The Museum had to move its collections into storage. The city building used for storage was sold, and the Museum had to move again. It was moved to a storage warehouse provided free of charge by the generosity of the Bechler Corporation (Mountain View Dairy) of Long Beach in 1996. This was a temporary arrangement until a suitable building could be found. By the kindness of Ed Bechler and his son Richard, we were allowed to use this storage space beyond the intended time. The Museum is now raising funds to build a permanent home, and to have the collection on display once again for the enjoyment and enrichment of the public.
