Present
Throughout the year, the Society provides a varied program of lectures, panels, and discussions on historical and cultural topics, ranging from local interests, to events and people of national significance.
The Society liaises with the City of Glendora, the Glendora Public Library, the Hayden Memorial Library at Citrus College, and the University Libraries Special Collection of Azusa Pacific University.
Museum
Since 1952, the Glendora Museum has been housed in the Old City Hall, the first civic building built in Glendora, completed in 1913. This portion of the museum, named the Grace Sutherland Wing, had also been used as the city firehouse, police department and jail before 1923, and as the Frank J. Gard American Legion Post #153, until 1951. A second wing, the Merrill West Memorial Hall, was added in 1989. Admission to the Museum is free to the public.
The extensive Glendora Historical Society Archive contains memorabilia and resources dating to the 1850s and is among the earliest archives in the valley, attracting authors, researchers, and students of history at all levels. The Society Archive is accessible several times a year for public research.
Castle
Constructed from 1959 to 1986, Rubel Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. The castle features the Courtyard, Tin Palace, Big Kitchen, the Ed Bennett Room (used for Board Meetings), castle gardens, and living spaces for tenants. Tours are available at the Castle by reservation-only.
Major castle operations include scheduled tours and preservation efforts.
In June, the Society Board of Directors are sworn into office during the Annual Banquet at the Courtyard. Every December, the Castle is dressed with Christmas finery, and members are invited to a free social tea.
The Society was host to the "Rancho San Jose Dinner," a fundraising event held in the Castle Courtyard each summer and which aims to raise money for historical preservation and restoration. Funds from the 2016 dinner have gone toward the Society's collection of antique vehicles.
Collections
H. Paul Keiser Memorial Collection
Paul Keiser was from an early Glendora family (pre-1890), and served as the first Society Curator. Having a reputation as a great valley historian, Keiser amassed a collection of artifacts and records years before the formation of the earliest historical organizations in the upper San Gabriel Valley. The Memorial Collection was established after his death in 1951.
Bobbie Battler Archive
The Society received the bulk of the papers, notes, and records which had been maintained by historian, author and columnist Bobbie Battler after her death in 2003.
Michael Clarke Rubel Collection
The acquisition of Rubel Castle in 2005 included the full collection of objects and artifacts which builder Michael Rubel had amassed during his world travels. The collection ranges from Revolutionary War-era cannons, paintings, metal work and folk art, antique vehicles and equipment, and numerous objet d'art , spanning centuries. The Collection is spread across almost two acres of property, with the majority housed in the Tin Palace.
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Rubel Castle was established in Glendora, California, by Michael Clarke Rubel and is owned and operated by the Glendora Historical Society.
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