The Harbor Area Podcast

Episode 8. Phineas Banning Part 4.

• Joel Torrez

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Hey folks in this fourth and final episode, Michael Sanborn, and I reflect on what Phineas banning would think of the modern day ports. We also talk about the museum, some of its latest installations. And I also wanted to remind you to please make sure to visit

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The banning museum website.

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At the banning museum.org. That's the banning museum.org.

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For more information on this wonderful historical site.

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If banning were alive today. How do you think he would react to the modern state of Los Angeles and its port system? I get asked this all the time. What would banning think of the state of affairs today? So he ran on the union ticket. Which is the Republican ticket. So you have a conservative. That is very dedicated to the love of country. And the love of business. And being an entrepreneur. So I think a lot of things. In today's world. I don't know if you would agree with it. I don't know if he would Work with it. But I think he would always be in favor of successful and good competitive business. I think he would be pleased. I think he really would be happy to see the success of the Harbor. And I think he'd be very happy to see how efficient. We're getting right. So if we're getting efficient with green energy, if we're getting more efficient with loading directly to rail. I think all of those things he had in his mind. 1860s. That was the big goal. To get things directly from ship derail, and then off you go. So I think he would. It'd be an eye-opener for him, but I think you would be pleased with how well businesses going. He'd d be very fascinated. I'm sure. And then he, probably be like what the heck and to other parts of it and talking about a. Harbor that you could probably walk up to your knees or waste that had to be dredged, for the ships to come into all the engine nuity and success around the technology. To growing from a population of what in the census, back then was 1500. I think we're at. How many million. In, in San Pedro and in particular. Yeah. I think it's 88,000 or something like that of us. That doesn't include Wilmington and then long beach is another story. I think we've talked a lot about Phineas and his work on the port and transportation. My next question here would be what are some of the museums, most popular exhibits or artifacts and why are they so significant? When you think about inside the house, all of the rooms that are open for touring. I have all been interpreted. So we have this office. We have a family living room, a parlor, a dining room. Set of bedrooms on the second floor. And all of those are designed and with the installations. So each one of those is an exhibit, right? So all of those were designed with the thought of. Recreating the time period that he lived there. So we really stick to the 1860s. Too about the turn of the century went in and Hancock were there. With the home and every time there was a new family member that lived there after Phineas is. Phineas at this time. They made improvements. So architecturally on the inside. When you look at the outside of the house, it is really remarkable. It really has not changed since 1864. But the inside different family members had. Done what they needed to do to make the home electrified. Bring in plumbing. Things like that. So we have to work with that with our interpretation, with our exhibits. We do temporary exhibits in our the visitor center. And we have a new one coming up, which is Phineas. Middle son, Joseph banning was an amateur photographer. And we have a beautiful collection of his glass plate negatives. And these were all taken. Beginning in maybe 1869 all the way through his passing. He took photos. So we were finally able to get Almost all of the glass plate, negative scanned. So now we're going to create contact sheets and we're going to show him. And this exists, this display is going to be, we were trying to have this up by Christmas. That's going to be an exciting one because our. He when he it's so exciting. Cause he would take pictures of just. Every day. Things, it wasn't, the first train or this ship is coming into port, he would take pictures of things on the property. Of things in Wilmington, we have the first street scenes are his photographs. So a lot of these are going to be put out and a lot of them will be seen for the first time. So we're looking at trying to do at least 20 of those glass plates, along with, he also did a stereo views, stereo cards. Yes. So he also made those. So we have his camera, we have his glass plates. We have just a whole wonderful collection of his items. And so that's going to be an exciting one. Because these are. There's pictures of the house that you look at it and go. We'll wait a minute. That's not there anymore. So why was this outside stairs, on the side of the building, what was that for? Makes you think. We have some wonderful things that were his, we've got, books and. Personal artifacts. Letters. Just a wonderful amount of things and a lot of things that you can't display. Because they're fragile. You don't want the light to affect them and things like that, but we do bring them out from time to time. And display them. I was evading the question about how do you. Reinvigorate, the museum and bring in, new displays or exhibits? And I was thinking to myself like, it's, An old house and what's there is there, so I stood away from the question, but yeah, these artifacts of these glass prints glass, negatives, glass. Negatives. Sounds really cool. In early photography. It was almost like a Polaroid. Where there wasn't a negative. And so the very first photos, which were the Types. The 10 types in and Ambrose types, or really. One, just like a Polaroid one, one shot. And that's it. That's how you're going to get. But when they finally created the glass negative in the 1860s. This opened the door for multiple copies, right? And so our first negatives were on glass. Not on film so it's really it just a fascinating process, how we get from that glass plate negative. To an actual. Photo on cardstock. Cool. And I, oh, I'm sorry. And when you were talking about just how do you entice people to come back? You go through it and you go, why would I want to see it again? We do that all year round. We have. God bless him. We have volunteers. That work with our decorative arts, with our textiles, with our inventory. So we changed the house, the settings. So we will winterize the home. We will summarize the home. We will do reflections in the dining room for dinner, for a breakfast. Or when the family's away. You there's a setting that we do on the table for that, and that's all part of the tour. So that when our volunteers are giving a tour, they can make mention of the dresses that are on the mannequins, the suits, what their reflection of. And what's the occasion in the house. What are they celebrating? So we would recreate when we know. Banning used to have dinner parties and they recalled regales. And his regales would make the paper. Was at Banning's regale, and they would print the menu in the little article, what they serve. But he always did her for a purpose. And that was to get you excited about his next business adventure. So he invited all these people over. He knew, could invest in. And get them excited with these extraordinary dinners. And he would have people from around the country would, when they were in town, he would always have them over. Just. It's just so fascinating reading all the history that was actually took place in the house. And so our volunteers do just a fantastic job. They are just a phenomenal force. That has been with us since 1974. Because once. The non-profit started that we're celebrating these 50 years. They started the volunteer program at the same time. And so these volunteers, We have, we've had a few volunteers that have done 30 plus years. This is amazing. When is that anniversary celebration? We've done a couple of them. We had what we do an annual fundraiser called the wisteria regale. Okay. And we do that in our stage coach barn. And that was for us this year. That was a big one where we were able to, we honored a lot of the. The this. The ones that have survived since 1974, and families and volunteers and people that have been very active with the whole program. Getting us to this point where we are today. Yeah. And then we also. We've got. No, that's really the big one for the year and we've done a couple of we do a A publication called banning and company. And it, that really highlights what. What FBM has done, for us over the last 50 years. All right, we're getting close to the end of our time together. And I want to ask you what. Initially drew you to this role and what has been your most rewarding experience so far? If I tell you how I got started there, it might get to the wrong ears. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So I was in 1990. 91 92. Okay. I was at Cal state Dominguez Hills working on my master's degree for historic preservation. Okay. And so one of the things you had to do was an internship. And as I was a kid. I had been to banning park. Many times I had one of my first field trips. Was a stop at banning park and we all had lunch. Got off the school bus. I ran around like crazies and just enjoyed the park. And then. Later on in life. We had a family friends in. That have become volunteers there. So I knew about it. And I went to the door, just cold called knocked on the door of the museum. And the director came out at the time. Her name was Zoe Berquist. And she asked if I could. Can I help you? And I said, yeah, I'm working on my master's degree. It was just here's my resume. By any chance, would you have. Any kind of an internship. So I'm looking for historic sites to do an internship. And she just stared at me for about five, six seconds. And he said come on in. Went into her office. And she goes we do have one, one project we really would like to get done here. And it's, we don't know how to start with this. But there are historic photographs in every room of the house and we don't. We don't know how to catalog them or to organize it or do anything like that. Which is the, do you know how to do that? And I said Yeah. And I had no idea what I was talking about. And she just looked at me in her eyes. Lit up and she goes you got the job. And I can pay you. And I went. Okay. Yeah. I go, when you want me to start. And she said how about next Tuesday? she goes, I can only offer you a part time, but we'll get you a good internship here. I said, fantastic. I will see you next Tuesday. And this was like on a Friday. So I spent all weekend at the library at Cal state Dominguez Hills, reading, everything I could find on historic photographs. And so by Sunday night I had convinced myself that I knew what I was doing. So I went in there I said what we're going to do is identify all of these and figure out years. And then we're just going to identify who, what, where, and when. And then we're going to start. And I said, so what's your. When you're at a museum is called accessioning, which is bringing an item into the collection. And then it's assigned a series of numbers. And I said, we're going to create. An excession. Index for all your photos and we'll be able, you'll be able to look all these up and know who's who, and what's what, and all that. She looked at me and she goes, that's fantastic. And I've. I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that we do there. We have had the opportunity to do. Some really incredible restoration work on the building. We have done both inside and outside. We have done some. Incredible. Collections that we've gotten from the family. And and from other donors it's just, it's. When you're in school and you're thinking about boy, I hope I can get a job with what I'm actually going to school for. And so I got very lucky and blessed with being able to work there and. And, uh, I've enjoyed it. We have, I have met some incredibly wonderful knowledgeable people that not only have worked their butt, but volunteers, just to me, ratable people We'll end with this question. If you could highlight one thing that visitors should take away from their experience at the museum, what would it be? That's a hard one. Because I, there are in my mind, there's so many avenues that I want when I, okay. So when I give a tour, I really find out from the group of people, what they're interested in. So are they interested in the family? Are they interested in the architecture? Are they. Have no idea what this place is. It's a way to connect with them, with what they're interested in. And then when you can make that connection. And they look at you and go, oh, I get it. I understand why this happened or why this then, they've walked out of there. You leash, you hope they've walked out of there. They've learned something. Regardless of what that is, or hopefully you've really improved upon what that little interest they have maybe in, in something Victorian or some kind of history. In Southern California or some kind of architecture, that's part of the house. Especially with the house. When you talked to him about what, you tell him that's a Greek revival. And then they look at you. What the world is Greek revival. If you think about Greek revival is a temple. And so that architectural form is really used. Predominantly in municipal buildings, it's really not used as a residential architecture. Yeah that, that was the toughest question. You've asked me this whole time.

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So Halloween just passed and Thanksgiving is approaching.

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Yeah. Do you believe in ghosts? Anything like that? Okay. So we have, I've had people over the last 29 years that will come up to me and go. You know that room's haunted. And I go, okay. Let me guess. Upstairs middle bedroom on the west side, which happens to be the girl's room. And they look at you and go, yeah. Do you, have you ever felt that up there? I go, I have not. That is the room. Where people that, I don't know if they're. They've got a paranormal, sensitivity where we're, where they feel or see things. I've never seen anything. I have smelled things. So we do actually go into some of the rooms and you in the morning and you can smell perfume. Wow. And you can smell. And one smell that I always used to smell was. Tobacco. Okay. Not. Burnt tobacco like you're smoking, but. Like a cigar tobacco. Or pipe tobacco before it's lit. Okay. I smell that all the time. And in some occasions, we've actually, you go into the house and the dining room area. You smell food. The work that you've been doing for the last 29 years as a civil servant, making sure that this. Information is available to students, adults and, keeping it alive with people. Who really care about Wilmington, banning and the history. Thank you so much for coming out here and sharing this with us. Thank you, Joel. I really enjoyed this. It. It's always. A good experience to be able to share. The banning mansion and the history and the legacy of it. And so thanks for having me. I look forward to doing. Others with you. Of course. Yeah. Thank you so much.

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Hey, thank you for listening today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to click download. Let me know if you have any stories to tell about the Harbor area. Email me@harborareapodcastatyahoo.com. That's Harbor area podcast@yahoo.com.

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Take care and remember to treat each other kindly.