First County Archives Under Construction
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The County puts up new buildings all the time and each one may require something a little different, but this is a first – a formal archive. The repository will collect and preserve County government records that date back to 1850. Documents include maps, deeds, historic birth, marriage and death certificates, and other official records.
Workers construct the base for mobile shelving.
The new County Archives will be housed within the new Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk facility in Santee. Typically, such facilities are inherited, retrofitted or renovated. The County Archives is being built from scratch and with painstaking detail to preserve documents that date nearly as old as 170 years.
“We’re doing everything right,” said County Archivist Aditi Worcester. “Controlled temperature, humidity, secure access, compact mobile shelving to give San Diego County records the best shot for being preserved into perpetuity.”
The 5,000-square-foot space will also boast its own dedicated HVAC system, emergency backup generator, state-of-the-art waterless fire suppression system, integrated pest management and UV lights designed to illuminate a specific aisle at a time.
That shelving? Builders had to strengthen the foundation to hold the stacks’ weight and the contents inside. These 9.5-foot-tall shelving units run 43 feet long and are 6 feet wide.
“It’s a smart system with giant motorized shelves that move,” said General Services Project Manager Luis Peris. “For example, if a staff person is looking for documents on aisle five, then the system is pretty smart, it will open to aisle five. All the others remain closed.”
Why all the fuss over old documents?
“The Recorder’s office is entrusted to maintain all recorded documents relating to property in San Diego County, such as property sales, loans, refinances, and maps, as well as vital records for life events – birth, marriage, death – which occurred in the County” said San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/Clerk Ernest J. Dronenburg. “The archives will offer county residents and other users the opportunity to conduct research and view publicly available documents, either electronically or by appointment, based on their physical condition.”
Records include such names as Wyatt Earp, A.E. Horton, Cave Couts, Yankee Jim and a deed of land to “three Indian ghosts.” Some 4,600 cubic feet of records, microfilm and maps will take up residence at the archives.
More documents will be coming in all time. But the archives have room to grow with enough storage for the next 50 years.
The entire building is 25,000 square feet and will become the County’s sixth zero net energy facility, meaning all the energy needed to run the building will be produced onsite. The one-story structure is being built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. And the site will also feature a wedding room and an outdoor arbor.
The grand opening for the new ARCC facility and its archives is scheduled for early 2020.
