In June of last year, the St. Louis County Library announced it would build a 60,000-square-foot Family Heritage Center. The center will become only the fifth, free-standing library dedicated specifically to genealogy and family history research. Perhaps even more amazing, it becomes the second such library in the state. The other resides in Independence, with Boston, Houston, and Salt Lake City rounding out the list.
The library’s foundation is raising money to build the library, and took a step closer this week with a $1 million donation from Emerson to build the auditorium at the new center. Below are abstracts and links to articles about the library and the latest donation from Emerson:
St. Louis County Library records to get a new home in Chesterfield
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But soon the collection will get a place of its own, the latest sign of how genealogy research has boomed in recent years.
The St. Louis County Library Foundation is designing a 60,000-square-foot Family Heritage Center in Chesterfield at the corner of Wild Horse Creek and Baxter roads, with the goal of opening it in 2012.
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Click here to read the full article in STLToday.
Emerson donates $1 million for genealogy center
Emerson is giving $1 million to build the auditorium for the Center for Family History, the genealogy center planned by the St. Louis County Library.
The large gift is part of the $18 million private capital campaign for the center, which will be built in Chesterfield. The library’s foundation is raising the money.
Ground has not yet been broken, but work should begin this year, said Jennifer McBride, communications manager for the library. Construction is estimated to take 15 months.
Actually both the Birmingham Public Library and the Mobile Public Library have had free standing buildings devoted to genealogy and have had for generations (pardon the expression). Both buildings are excellent family history research facilities. The Birmingham Public Library’s Linn-Hendley Research Library is the greatest place for southern genealogical research ever created or will ever be. The Southern Historical Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the South Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina, and the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscripts Library in the brand new Richard B. Russell building of the University of Georgia are also free standing buildings that well serve both the genealogists and the other historians.