Shinn Historical Park & Arboretum

House tours are first Wednesday and third Sunday of each month. Would you like to become a member for $10 a year? Members get the newsletter and free tours. You can download the membership form online or stop by on a tour day. http://missionpeakreporter.org/docs/membership.pdf

Shinn house is open for tours until 4:00 today. Lots to see blooming, too!

A sea of Jupiter’s beard, the lush maples, the stately palms, and Mlle. Cecile Brunner.

We are having a pop-up succulent plant sale at Shinn park this Saturday morning 10 AM to 2 PM. These round arrangements are $25 each and we expect to sell out q...uickly. We are also having a succulent cutting swap table for people to exchange cuttings. please wear a mask and practice social distancing. We do not want to make change if possible so bring $1, 5,10... as We will have some smaller plants and arrangements as well for sale. See more

The Washington Township Museum of Local History has this great photo of the Niles IOOF lodge visiting San Francisco in 1899. The members are all very familiar to us either from street names, history books, or historical sites like Shinn Park. Allegedly the man in the second row from the bottom, third from the left is Joe Shinn.

Re-running this holiday appropriate post!

The Aesthetic Pruning class was in the Japanese garden today from 10-4:00. The four students worked on the pines and maples with guidance from instructor Alliso...n Levin. The waterfall was even resettled. Everything looks splendid! Be sure to come to admire the class’ work. The cherries and maples are very colorful. The ginkgo and cypress are turning colors. The weather is wonderful.

One hundred fifty years ago this summer, a group of pomologists came West to see the experiment called California. They visited many fruit ranches, gardens, and nurseries in the Bay Area. They stopped at Niles Station. We wish that they had visited the Shinn family, but they were just making a train connection. They did see a three story house covered with a Lamarque rose. The Shinn family had not built their house yet, so it was not theirs. Whose house was it?

We have a little cheer in the windows for the holidays! Thanks to Denise and Janet, the wreaths were installed in the windows of the Shinn house today.

Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Shinn opened their garden for parties to support the Toyon Branch of the Chidren’s Hospital. Shinn Park is a till a very hospitable place.

Join us tomorrow morning and share your ideas with us! Register at InventFremontParks.com

Remember to give your input to the city about what you'd like to see in the parks for the next 15 years! Next week are two other meetings!

Joseph Shinn was one of seven directors of the new Niles Co-operative Fruit Association. The other directors names should be familiar to you as well: Tilden, Tyson, Chittenden, Ford, Overacker, and Sullivan. June 16, 1894 Pacific Rural Press: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/ Joseph was one of the sons of James and Lucy. James passed later that year on October 29th at the age of 90.

Today, the City of Fremont is embarking on a journey to create a new comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan, and we want to know how you would like to r...ecreate in the future. Please join us at a virtual public input meeting to help shape the future of parks and recreation in Fremont. The meetings will include an introduction to the Master Plan, live polling, Q&A, and public commenting. To register, visit www.InventFremontParks.com.

Lucy Shinn's letter opinion on whether women should have the vote... in the "Opinions of Pioneers" column in the Washington Press, September 1, 1911. "I could hardly help being a suffragist when my husband was always such an ardent one. When I was asked to write my views, my first thought was that I was too nearly done with the affairs of this world to have it a matter of concern to me. But after all, when one has children and grandchildren, one can but feel a deep interest... in this question. In my view, the vote of women will have great influence upon the questions of education and morals that men are prone to neglect. I have known times right here when the polls were kept open all day for an election of school trustees, and not more than two or three votes were polled. I heard the remark that 'an auction sale of pigs would bring out more people than a school election.' Can you imagine the mothers forgetting such an election? or voting for a bad man when there? It seems to me that it is a lovely thing for women that husband and wife should have common interests - the more the better, and had women the vote, the circle of their common interests would be enlarged. I do not speak of the RIGHT of women to vote, for as we are human beings we must have the same rights as other human beings - no more and no less. And we do want a chance to do what we can for the good of our loved country. Lucy E. Shinn (at 85 years old) Thanks to the Washington Township Museum of Local History for arranging for these great old newspapers to be scanned by the California Revealed project!!! Kelsey Camello, Patricia Schaffarczyk

Milicent Shinn published a letter "Women Wants Ballots Men Won by War, Appeal to Farmers of State Asks Votes for All Alike" on September 11, 1911 right before the successful vote to give women the vote in California, 9 years before the 19th amendment. Lucy Shinn also wrote a letter to the local paper and that will be posted later. Read original here in SF Call: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/

Charles Howard Shinn wrote these words in his opinion piece for why we needed a State Horticultural Society in 1879. His words painted a very vivid picture of contrasts..."A mere naked-walled room where a few rather glum horticulturists come and loaf about for a short time each month, perfunctorily attend to business, monotonously read a paper, and soberly disperse, will soon find itself in the Sargasso sea of wrecks and worthless weeds. A quiet, but busy place where real investigations are going on, where people come because they want to, where botanists bring their discoveries, florists their new importations, fruit-men their seedlings, and lovers of beautiful homes their plans for rural developmentssuch a society will live by virtue of its own inner strength." CHS was 27 years old at this time.

The Ice Cream Social event popped up today unexpectedly on Facebook. It was added to the calendar very early this year when we had no idea of the current conditions. Will there be an Ice Cream Social this year? Stay tuned. The safety of the community is important to us.

The Japanese garden will be closed for a haircut this Saturday between 9am and 4pm. The rest of the park is open and please respect social distancing so that all may enjoy.The Japanese garden will be closed for a haircut this Saturday between 9am and 4pm. The rest of the park is open and please respect social distancing so that all may enjoy.