In studying Davis history, I have sometimes puzzled over what
the detailed stories of various organizations actually were, including those of
even the best known and longest existing entities, such as the Community
Church, the Masons and the Davis Enterprise, as well as shorter-lived but key
institutions such as the Buena Vista Hotel, the original Varsity Theater, the
Davis Joint Grammar School, and Harby’s Meat Market--among a great many others.
There is, of course, at least some information available on
these and other organizations. For a few, there are even fairly detailed
accounts. But, overall, the record is sparse. The consequence is that our
picture of ordinary Davis life fifty, a hundred, or more years ago is fuzzy and
faded.
The simple fact is that no one kept detailed records on organizations,
or, if they did, those materials have long since been thrown away for want of
storage space or for other reasons.
But, in recent years, all that has begun to change. We are
living at the start of a new era of compact and detailed organizational record
keeping. We see this in two forms.