The first item has been moved into the high-gloss Museum of Redlands building: a humble 1920s citrus truck. Its bed is packed tight with stacked wooden crates, as if ready to ferry a load of oranges to a packing house. On the panel door is the logo from the Bob Break Ranch, which used to operate west of Redlands in Bryn Mawr. Behind a two-story window on the museum’s Brookside Avenue side that glows against the night, the truck is showcased like a new car in a dealer’s showroom. It’s a quaint and enticing sight for passersby and motorists. Other than that, the museum at Brookside Avenue and North Center Street is bare — a condition that won’t exist much longer. After years of fundraising, the reimagining of the midcentury building that was originally home to the Redlands Daily Facts has been completed. Two private events last week gave donors a chance to see the result of opening their wallets. For the general public, an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Feb. 2 will let you see the space during this pause before exhibits go in. “It’s kind of a walk-through for people curious what the building looks like inside,” Steve Stockton, president of the board of directors, told me at Thursday’s preview. The Museum of Redlands as seen from Brookside Avenue glows at night. The main building repurposes the former home of the Redlands Daily Facts, with a two-story addition for museum storage and other uses. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) I didn’t donate anything other than a free evening, but earlier in the day, while in Redlands for other reasons, I’d been invited to attend. I was delighted to be among the first to step inside. After all, the Museum of Redlands has been in the works for a quarter-century, the building was purchased a decade ago and it’s been under construction for four years. Anticipation is high. The architects are Culver City’s Johnson Favaro, who also designed the 2021 Riverside Main Library, a shockingly modern structure. (I’ve likened it to a spaceship atop a hydraulic lift for an oil change.) The 20,000-square-foot Museum of Redlands is more restrained, but still playful. The exterior plays up the building’s 1956 origins with big windows and a steeply angled overhang. A second-story addition has a relief whose swoops turn out to be the curves of giant oranges and leaves. The Clara Mae Clem Central Gallery at the Museum of Redlands is named for the woman who bought the property and donated it for a museum. The gallery was originally the press room where the Redlands Daily Facts was printed. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) Inside the main gallery, a permanent metal awning’s intricate patterns evoke Victorian wallpaper. The lobby’s freestanding gift shop is shaped like a giant wooden box, meant to remind us of citrus crates. So many people donated to the museum fund drive, the previews were split up over two successive nights, 150 guests each. “We raised well over $25 million in private money,” Stockton told the assembled donors Thursday. Afterward, Stockton elaborated to me: “We had 1,200 different donors. It’s not like 50 people donated all the money. We had broader support.” Donations ranged from $50 to $5 million. The effort began in 1998 as the idea of two friends, Nelda Stuck and Liz Beguelin, who thought Redlands ought to have a city museum. They went to the City Council to pitch it. The council said, in Stockton’s words, “You build a building and we’ll take care of it.” A nonprofit, Redlands Historical Museum Associates, was formed. Items began to be collected. Nelda and husband Monte visited some 15 museums in and beyond the Inland Empire to explore the types of new or repurposed buildings and the lease arrangements. Stylized oranges and leaves form a relief on the Museum of Redlands building, its west side seen here from the courtyard. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) In 2014 supporter Clara Mae Clem gave $1 million to buy the Facts building, after which the newspaper left for smaller quarters. Tim Rochford bought the vacant lot next door and donated that. At that point the ball was rolling. In his remarks Thursday to donors, Larry Burgess, who’s on the museum board, recalled announcing to supporters in 2016 that the goal was $14 million. The news, he admitted, may have produced the loudest groan in Redlands history. “I reminded them that they had just raised $14 million for the YMCA,” Burgess said. (Did they groan again?) Apparently he was just softening them up, because the cost eventually doubled. With the renovated building, a second-story expansion for storage, and an events pavilion and courtyard, plus soft costs for architects, permits and inspections, Stockton told me the total cost is $29 million. The facility will be donated to the city of Redlands, although the precise terms still must be worked out. After the Feb. 2 open house, Museum of Redlands will lease the building to the city for four months. “City Hall will have control of the building so they can start exhibition work while the gift is negotiated,” Nelda Stuck told me. “The last time there was a gift like this was the Bowl in 1924, the Lincoln Shrine in 1931,” Stuck said. “It’s been 90 years.” At the second of two preview nights, 150 donors listen Thursday as board president Steve Stockton talks about the more than two decades of work that went into establishing the Museum of Redlands. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) The A.K. Smiley Public Library will oversee the museum on behalf of the city. I had been in the library’s Special Collections room earlier Thursday and every surface had stacks of paper, small objects and ephemera, all destined for the museum. “We have so much we’ve collected over the last 25 years,” Maria Carrillo Colato, the Special Collections manager, told me inside the storage area. “We know we can fill it up.” When will the museum open? They’re not promising a date, wisely, with “six or eight months or so” as close as anyone came. Late summer or fall, then. “Whenever I go someplace, people say, ‘When’s it going to open?’ They expect me to say ‘In two weeks,’” Char Burgess, the board’s president-elect, related. Related Articles Local News | Sex scandal at college shook tiny La Verne in 1899 Local News | Who has LBJ’s hat from 1964 San Bernardino visit? Ex-mayor Pat Morris Local News | ‘Unique’ group of military aviators gathers at March Air Reserve Base near Riverside Local News | Pranksters in Riverside used to deface De Anza statue often Local News | Jimmy Carter stopped in Inland Empire before and after presidency Her shorthand advice: “Tell your friends it will be worth the wait.” More Redlands A thank you to the Rotary Club of Redlands, which hosted me as its lunchtime speaker Thursday. The 60 members present got a kick out of the columns I read aloud — including the next day’s on LBJ’s hat, filed only two hours earlier and read off my phone — and pelted me with questions. Better that than rotten produce. Not only did I walk out with a bunch of cash from book sales, but a few members seemed persuaded to subscribe so they can read me regularly, which is more important in the long run. Still, I appreciated having money for gas and eggs. David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, more staples. 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