Saturday, June 6, 2009

It's Official -- NARA Laguna Niguel to Close

Joel Weintrraub sent along this notice from the NARA Staff Bulletin No. 584, May 2009:

"Moves and upgrades for our regional archives"
by Adrienne C. Thomas,
Acting Archivist of the United States

"Laguna Niguel - We are moving out of the massive Chet Holifield Federal office building, which formerly housed both the FRC [Federal Records Center] and the Archives, as well as many other Federal agencies. The Holifield building cannot be renovated to meet standards. In addition, visitorship and usage is low and does not justify the very high rent. Therefore, the archives will rejoin the FRC at its new facility in Riverside, which is about 50 miles from Laguna Niguel. The move is expected to be complete by spring 2010."

The new FRC facility in "Riverside" is located at 23123 Cajalco Road in Perris, CA 92570. The facility is described here, with directions from Los Angeles and San Diego. The web site says:

"Maintains temporary storage records from Federal agencies and courts in Arizona, southern California, and Clark County, Nevada.

"The Federal Records Center is open to the public from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, by appointment only. Call 951-956-2000 between 9 A.M. and 2:30 P.M. weekdays, except Federal holidays, to schedule an appointment.

"Please note: There are no genealogical or historical research facilities available at this location."

The Court Records currently available at the FRC include Bankruptcy, Civil and Criminal Case files - the list is provided here.

Surely they will be open to the public on a non-appointment basis after the NARA Laguna Niguel archival material is incorporated into their holdings.

1 comment:

Jean Hibben said...

I am so excited about this ... it is 10 minutes (literally) from my house (I'm just off Cajalco) ... and I have a very warm, inviting atmosphere so I welcome genealogists to visit my home after a hard day of research! Actually, I hope to be at the new location volunteering a lot. And, for the frugal among us, there is a Jack in the Box just about a block away & something else (I can't remember what - it's new) across the street.