Monuments Where You Live

By popular request, some ideas for pt. 2 of the extra-action final project.

You might first want to check out official city and town websites for the town where you live, or the town you'd like to explore. Some, like Los Altos, even provide maps for historic walking tours under their visitor section. Explore the history section of these sites – perhaps they reference founders or original main streets. Maybe you've seen those names before – on street signs, on storefronts, on local newspapers. Often, these city hall sponsored sites also contain information for tourists, information that gives directions to parks, libraries, museums, schools, downtown districts. Almost all of these carry names: Lucie Stern Center and Mitchell, Juana Briones, and Heritage Parks (to name only a very few) in Palo Alto; Andrew Spinas, Dove Beeger, and Fleishman Parks in Redwood City. Some towns and counties have history or heritage museums.

You might also want to explore a larger memorial: the Golden Gate National Cemetery, which if you've ever taken 280 up to the city, you know is impossible to miss; the Father Serra statue, also on 280, just north of Woodside; UN Plaza in San Francisco; the Rosie the Riveter memorial in Richmond; Memorial Church at Stanford University; historic El Camino Real, which stretches the length of the Bay Area (and far beyond), marked always by curving, green bells. The entire city of Colma could be a study in itself; the town motto – "It's great to be alive in Colma" – is telling of the small city's primary function.

Think about anywhere that proper names appear – schools, streets, theaters – or places that retain old streetfronts – the Guild theater in Menlo Park, the La Honda Store up in the hills above Woodside and Portola Valley. All of these are places of history.

Take a walk; bring a journal. Write down the names, statues, plaques, and signs that you see. It might surprise you how many are out there.