Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places

Lucy Shinn and (possibly) her older sister Annie (Clark) Holbrook courtesy of the Washington Township Museum of Local History. As seen in California Rose Cottages 1891 Vick's Illustrated, "La Marque rose 13 years old"

Please Help us Fund the Nominatation of Shinn Park to the National Register of Historic Places

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Why Nominate the Shinn House and Park?
To Document, Preserve, and Develop the Shinn Family History
for Generations to Come
to Understand the Roots of Our Current Day Community

Thank you to these individuals who have already donated to
the fund the nomination of the Shinn property to
the National Register of Historic Places

Alvin and LaVonne Minard
Barry Balk & Janet Barton
Mission Peak Heritage Foundation
Elizabeth Solinsky Terplan
Ann M. Solinsky Ziegler
Dan & Page Mosier
Friends of Heirloom Flowers Garden Club
Denise LePeilbet
Norma Macias
Margaret Balk
Tri City Womens Club
Anonymous

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Joseph Jr. and Grandma Lucy, representing the first and third generation of the Shinn family who lived here.

Help us Reach our Goal of $90,000

What is the National Register of Historic Places?

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts worthy of preservation because of their significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.  As important are the people who lived here and how they influenced us today.

The Fremont area has a very long and important history. Yet there are only four Fremont properties that are on the National Register of Historic Places:  Mission San Jose (1971), the Vallejo Adobe (1971), Washington Union High School (1981), and the Patterson Ranch/Ardenwood (1985). 

The Shinn family's legacy to our local, state, national, and international community is also worthy of recognition at a national level.

Why nominate the Shinn Property?

The nomination will be a well-researched evaluation of the Shinn family's buildings, property, history, people, and significance. This document will be available for generations to come to illustrate the significance of the Shinn family's legacy. This will help us educate the public, guide changes to the park and programs, continue historical research, raise money for projects like preservation of documents and photos, obtain humanities grants for community outreach and to create school programs, attract visitors from out-of-town, and much more.

What is the Nomination? How will my donation be used?

Michael Corbett, well-known local architectural historian, is currently researching and identifying the significant features and people of the former Shinn Ranch. He has interviewed Shinn family members and Shinn historians. He has researched the original land owned by the family and the transactions involved. He has inspected all of the buildings at the park that belonged to the Shinn family. He has visited the Shinn archives and Museum of Local History's archives to gather information about the buildings and family since 1856. The historic trees and gardens and barnyard are part of this extensive document. All of these items will be part of the document.

The resulting document is the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Michael will usher the nomination through the stages of review and re-review by local and family experts, the California State Office of Historic Preservation, the city of Fremont, and finally the National Park Service.  

Your donation will also help pay for a monument that identifies the site on the National Register of Historic Places - a great honor! If we raise more than needed for the nomination, the funds will go toward projects in the museum and archives, preservation,  education, and community outreach.

Highlights of the history of the Shinn Family - local, state, national, and international

The Shinn family’s history tells many first-person stories of the development of the San Francisco Bay Area, the state, and the country. The archives cover the Gold Rush era, the coming of the Transcontinental Railroad, the growth of California agriculture, the study of child psychology, and the development of forestry in California, and WWII. Issues of the day - agriculture, water, labor, immigration, education, psychology, women’s suffrage, and conservation - can be seen through the eyes of this family. The archives are rich with information about their neighbors, their Chinese employees in the house and on the ranch, and three generations of the family who lived here. Florence Shinn, Joseph's wife lived here from 1905 until about 1965 and was instrumental in saving the remaining four acres of the Shinn property as a park in the City of Fremont. Her son Vice Admiral Allen M. Shinn helped her with the planning.