Sharlene Van Rooy says she and David Huboi are trying to save
one more small piece of Hollister’s history.
But actually, it’s a very large piece; one that requires
forklifts to move.
Hollister – Sharlene Van Rooy says she and David Huboi are trying to save one more small piece of Hollister’s history.
But actually, it’s a very large piece; one that requires forklifts to move.
Van Rooy and Huboi are working on reassembling a six-foot triangular piece of the terrazzo sidewalk that once stretched across the facade of Hollister’s old state theater at Seventh and San Benito streets. The sidewalk was originally created in the early 1930s, Van Rooy said, but was crushed to pieces by heavy machinery used to clean up the rubble from the 1989 earthquake.
“It was a very popular thing,” Van Rooy said of the terrazzo sidewalks, which were a common sight in front of state theaters throughout California. “You can go online and find other state theaters and find pictures of their sidewalks that have been preserved. It’s pretty rare, pretty special.”
When Van Rooy first began fundraising for the project with a collection jug on the sidewalk, she said, she was relatively new to the community. But she soon learned about the terrazzo’s storied past as older locals came up to her to share their childhood memories of the sidewalk.
“This is going to be a real interesting thing to see if people are doing the historical walking tour, or even if they’re just out walking. We’ll also have a plaque so people know why it’s there. It will be a nice little conversation piece,” Van Rooy said.
So far, all of the time, labor and supplies for reinstalling the triangle of preserved sidewalk have been donated, she said. Huboi, an architect, has donated his expertise and money, McKinnon Lumber has donated forklifts and contractors have also donated their time.
Anyone wishing to make a tax-deductible donation to the project can contact the Hollister Downtown Association at 636-8406.
