The Founding of the Gilroy Historical Society and the Gilroy Museum
by Mike Monroe
The Gilroy Museum is housed in the historic 1910 Carnegie Library Building, located at 195 5th Street in Downtown Gilroy. It is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am- 4pm. Contact them at 408-846-0446 / Gilroy. Museum @ cityofgilroy. org
T he opening story of the Gilroy Carnegie Library is well known with Ms. Caroline Hoxett donation of a parcel of land at the corner of Fifth and Church Streets. The property had been a tennis court. The slow evolution of the library into the Gilroy Museum is the place to begin. Per the internet archives, the concept of a Museum was developed in the mid-1950s, when the basement of the historic( 1910) Carnegie Library was remodeled as a " community room ". The dirt floor was finished and Mr. Armand White( 1899- 1976) was allowed to relocate his memorabilia collection from his home to the library beginning in 1958.
Armand Edward White was born to John Joseph White( 1872- 1910) and Margaret " Maggie " Cullen Fitzgerald White( 1856- 1953). His mother had previously been married to William Fitzgeald( 1845- 1882). The Fitzgeralds were both from Canada and were married in 1879 in Gilroy. Mr. Fitzgerald died at the very young age of 37 and is buried at Old St. Mary
Cemetery. Maggie ' s first marriage to Mr. Fitzgerald saw the birth of two daughters- Mary Catherine Fitzgerald( 1881- 1925) and Ellen Winifred Fitzgerald( 1882-1963). Armand ' s mother was pregnant with Winifred when Mr. Fitzgerald died. Neither daughter ever married.
After the death of William Fitzgerald, his widow remarried John Joseph White( 1872- 1910) in 1898. Their only child, Armand Edward White, was born in 1899. Armand served in World War l, taking a leave from Santa Clara College. He never married. After his brief military enlistment, Armand returned to Gilroy for a couple of years, but eventually completed his higher education in San Francisco where began a career in the interior decorating business
Armand ' s father, John, had died at age 38 when a shotgun he was carrying accidentally discharged. Like many of the early Irish immigrants, dairying, farming and ranching provided
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