Upcoming: The D Street Documentary

June 29, 2011

D STREET is a full-length documentary about The City of Perris and Perris Valley, California produced by Borderline Hollywood producers; David E. Van Houten and Nicholas Cruz. D STREET will revolve around the history and future of Perris and in doing so looks to reveal the cultural and economic impact the city has on Southern California and the state at large.

Van Houten’s family (the Hooks, the Ellises and the Van Houtens) has been landowners and business leaders in the area for several generations. The documentary is meant to be a definitive account of an area that continues to be unique and vital and, in some respects, mysterious to many outside of the valley. D STREET looks to see what Perris Valley really is and if it’s a true measure of how America is changing.

D STREET is special because the filmmakers have invited those who feel they would contribute to the narrative of the film. If you have something to share we welcome you to reach us through our contact page.

Thank you

The D STREET Producers

Borderline Hollywood

What’s happening at your
Perris Valley Historical Museum?

January 30th – we celebrated the Pioneer Family of the year,
The Carlos & Evelyn (Young) Pico Family.
Carlos and Evelyn’s four surviving children, Germaine, Melliss, Marie, and Norman attended with their families as well as the family of the late Gabriel Pico, Norman’s twin brother. They presented the museum with an album filled with their history and photos. The family members put up a storyboard presentation at the event and it will be on display at the museum during the month of February. The Historical Association was honored to highlight a family with ties to our Luiseno Indians. With proclamations presented by Mayor Daryl Busch and Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley’s office, the family and guests had a great time.

Coming up…

February 27th – For “Black History Month” we will have…
· A special exhibit about the life and accomplishments of Clarence Muse, long time resident of Perris, and his contributions to valley life from his “Muse-a-While Ranch.”
· A program presented by the Inland Empire Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Association.

March 27th – GOLD! Experience some of what the gold mining era was all about. Learn all about our “Good Hope Mine” and how it helped to shape the Perris of today. Bring the whole family; it will be fun for young and old alike.
April 24th & 25th – Rail Fest Weekend will be exciting for all those railroad buffs out there. Come join us at the Old Santa Fe Depot for a very special weekend along the original transcontinental route

Fred T. Perris Day 2010

Come Join in the Fun

FRED T. PERRIS DAY

Celebrating the

Carlos & Evelyn (Young) Pico Family

Football Hero?

The son of Carlos and Evelyn, Norman was a graduate of Perris Union High School 1957.

Did Norman really make a living at flying kites, as predicted in the Perris Union High School yearbook?

Does he still consider "doing nothing" his favorite pastime?

Find out what Norman and his family are up to today.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

11:00 AM

Hosted by

The Perris Valley Historical Museum

Perris City Councel Chambers

corner of

Perris Blvd. & San Jacinto, Perris

New Officers Installed

Dr. Glenn R. Stewart, Professor Emeritus - Cal Poly Pomona

The annual Installation Dinner was held Sunday, March 29th at the First Congregational Church Fellowship Hall. Salmon appetizers followed by Pork Loin and Breaded Chicken provided by Quinn Hawley and his Perris High School Interact students were a big hit. Special kudos to Joyce Kerns for her leadership and her fabulous pork and chicken recipes.

Everyone was entertained by guest speaker, Dr. Glenn R. Stewart, Professor Emeritus - Cal Poly Pomona and grandson of Wilbert W. Stewart, owner of the Bank of Perris. He spoke of his family's migration to Perris and the history of the Bank of Perris. With the old bank building up next on the city's redevelopment plan and slated to be our new Archival Library, it was of special interest to all present. Everyone found the Stewart’s unconventional security measures fascinating. Why would customers stand sideways to the teller windows? That information and much more will definitely be kept in the archives of our historical association.

The association thanks Ralph Keyes for letting us borrow his collection of antique collectable banks. They were a new and unique spin on table centerpieces and everyone had a lot of fun figuring out how they worked.

Business of the meeting/dinner was conducted with the following officers installed to serve until next year:

President.....................................Quinn Hawley
1st Vice President................................Rudy Lee
2nd Vice President...........................Katie Keyes
Secretary.......................................Mae Minnich
Treasurer................................Dennise Manning

Directors

Ann Motte
Vincent Magana
Kay Busch
Bill Hulstrom
Maethorne Fowler
Midgie Parker – Director at Large

Museum Hours

The Perris Valley Museum is OPEN, four days a week.
It's located at:
120 4th Street
Perris, CA 92570

Thursday - Noon - 4pm

Friday - Noon - 4pm

Saturday - Noon - 4pm

Sunday - Noon - 4pm

Docent tours are available on request. Please call (951) 657-0274

Volunteers Needed

Docent First Graduating Class of 2009

With the reopening of our newly renovated museum with brand new and exciting exhibit space, comes the increased need for volunteers.

We need:

• Staff to man the Gift Shop


• Docents to amaze, entertain, and educate the public


• Capable individuals to accession, conserve, and maintain museum and archival objects.

We are still actively working toward fine-tuning our new exhibits. Collecting, preserving, and sharing your local history is an ongoing project. Please come and share the joy of continuing this valuable work.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please leave your name and phone number on our message machine 951-657-0274. We will be in contact soon.

Fred T. Perris Day a Big Success

Descendents of the Perris and Levet families had a great time.

There was quite a crowd for the Fred T. Perris Day celebration January 31st, at the newly renovated Santa Fe Depot. After many months of work from our entirely volunteer staff, the new exhibits in the museum were unveiled to the delight of the public. A large contingent of Fred T. Perris (railroad man) and Benjamin F. Levet (depot architect) family members came from near and far for the affair. Under clear, sunny skies we listened to tales of old from direct descendents Christina Perris and Mel Levet. Even Huell Howser showed up with the City of Perris' Michael McDermott, for a tour.

Even Fred T. Perris showed up in his survey wagon.

New museum hours are:

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Noon – 4:00 PM

Come visit our new museum. You might want to relive your childhood, teach your children and grandchildren their local history, or just simply have a look inside that building you have been driving by for so long.

We have a great little gift shop, knowledgeable docents on duty, and it is always free.

Perris Museum Reopens

The Perris Museum is now open. Feel free to call (951) 657-0274, for hours.

Two days before the grand opening to the general public, on Saturday (1/31/09), the Press Enterprise ran the fallowing article.

Perris Museum Reopening to Honor City's Past

by HOPE PIERSON

The opening of the Perris Valley Museum in the renovated Perris train depot will be celebrated Saturday. Members of the Perris Valley Historical & Museum Association have been working for four years to get museum collections ready for the opening. "Ninety percent of the work was done by our volunteers who love our history," said Katie Keyes, vice president of the historical society. "The most satisfying aspect is that we are preserving our history for future generations."

Katie Keyes, vice president of the Perris Valley Historical & Museum Association, holds a photo of Fred T. Perris, the man for whom Perris is named.

The museum is in the newly renovated Perris train depot at the corner of Fourth and D streets. The museum will open at 10 a.m. Saturday and the program will start at 11 a.m. Quinn Hawley, president of the group, will give a history of the museum. Christina Perris, the granddaughter of Fred T. Perris, the city's namesake, will present a program. Also on the program will be Mel Levet who will speak about his grandfather Benjamin Levet, architect of the Perris Depot. The museum includes exhibits on Native Americans, the gold mines, the mining district, farming and schools. The museum also displays the restored survey wagon used by Fred T. Perris. Free double-decker bus tours will take visitors to the historic downtown area of Perris. The bus will run every half hour until from noon to 3 p.m.

The historical group the Harvey Girls will help with the event. Harvey Girls took their name from Fred Harvey's Harvey House restaurants that were located along the Santa Fe Railroad in the late 1800s. The Model T Club from Riverside will exhibit automobiles. The Orange Empire Railway Museum will sell tickets for steam train rides during the event. The historical society, founded in 1963 to maintain the history of Perris, is looking for donations, including vintage clothing and artifacts from the Perris Valley area.

"We are the keepers of the history and donations must pertain to the history of the Perris Valley," Keyes said. Keyes, 66, who has lived in Perris all her life, joined the society 10 years ago. She said she "has always been interested in helping the people of Perris. My family was honored as one of the pioneering families of the valley."

Information: 951-657-0274.

Museum Grand Re-Opening

The Grand Re-Opening of the Museum will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

We will celebrate Fred T. Perris Day, with our special guests the Perris/Levet family members. Christina Perris, will present a program about our town's namesake and her great-great grandfather.

The city of Perris has contacted Huell Howser and he is planning to be in Perris that day to tape one of his great shows for PBS.

This will be a historic day for Perris.

Ribbon Cutting Celebration

The following is an article that appeared in the Press Enterprise.

Rails revived: Historic train depot reopens in Perris
by JULISSA McKINNON

For the first time in decades, a loud whistle announces a steam locomotive rolling to a stop at the historic Santa Fe Railway station in downtown Perris.After 10 years of fundraising, planning and renovations, the historic train station at 4th and D streets is open to the public again.But in this new chapter, the depot will no longer serve as a hub for shipping potatoes or other crops. Instead, city leaders hope the train depot will become an attraction for train enthusiasts and history buffs, especially once the Perris Valley Historical Museum sets up its exhibits in January.

Lloyd Higginson, a station master who staffed the Santa Fe Railway Station in Perris for 20 years, reacts with his wife Gloria during a reopening ceremony on Wednesday.

The $1.5 million depot renovation is just one piece of a much larger plan to refurbish the city's entire downtown, which includes renovating D and other streets and building a Metrolink commuter train station near the intersection of C and Second streets. When all is done, the historic train depot should be surrounded by Metrolink parking."The idea is to have the modern (improvements) next to the historic, and keep the railroad nature of Perris," said Dave Stuart, the city's special projects manager who has shepherded the station remodel since the city jumped into the project almost a decade ago. "To attract higher-end developers and investors you need to fix up your streets, streetscapes, historic anchors and buildings."About 100 people turned out to celebrate the grand re-opening of the depot, sitting at shaded tables in near-100-degree heat to hear tributes to the city's longstanding ties to the railroad.Among the crowd sat Lloyd Higginson, Perris' last station master who staffed the Perris depot for 20 years until it shut down in 1972.Higginson, 86, now lives in Cloverdale, a rural town in northern California. He recalled how the summer potato harvest always brought bustling times at the station, when agricultural crops were the area's main product.

A train pulls up Wednesday during the rededication ceremony of the Santa Fe Railway station at Fourth and D streets in Perris.

Only then would he get extra help at the station as workers toiled to ship out dozens of boxcars brimming with potatoes, typically eastbound, Higginson said. He recalled frequently working until 2 or 4 a.m. to make sure the loads left on time.Perris Mayor Daryl Busch officially dedicated the depot to Higginson, gifting him with a plaque from the city.Higginson retired after a 43-year career with the railroad that, in addition to Perris, took him to Rialto, Corona, Riverside and Arlington."It was one of the better jobs," he said, as his wife and two adult children sat nearby. "The pay was good. It brings back a lot of memories. Several of my brothers worked in the railroad. My father worked in it for fifty-some years."Today, people still make a living from the railroad. Others work on trains for fun.Linc Reed-Nickerson is one of several volunteer engineers who make a hobby out of cleaning and caring for the antique trolleys and trains housed at the Orange Empire Railway Museum located about 1 ½ miles south of the depot."It feels like an extension of the museum," Reed-Nickerson said of the refurbished depot. "It gives us a destination instead of riding out and shoving back. People can ride the trains out here now."

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

We will be joining the City of Perris for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly restored historic Santa Fe Depot where we will be honoring the last Stationmaster Lloyd Higgenson.
4th and D Streets in old downtown Perris, Wednesday, October 29th, Noon . This event is by invitation only. There will be a public grand opening in early 2009.

The unique Victorian red brick building that has been restored to its 1892 grandeur will be dramatically enhanced by the new beautiful gardens that have been designed to reflect the structure’s classic motif. We are very pleased that the city has chosen to give new life to this treasured piece of Perris history, which was listed long ago as a landmark of record on the National Registry of Historic places. It can now take its place as the centerpiece of the new downtown.

The development of the new exhibits is progressing well in anticipation of the grand re-opening of the museum slated for Fred T. Perris Day 2009. Saturday, January 31st
Be sure to visit us for Fred T. Perris Day, or after, for our exciting new exhibits and some surprises too!.