The following excerpt is from the Leesburg Patch.
Leesburg’s [Virginia] historic Thomas Balch Library, located at 208 West Market Street, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this week. The Leesburg Town Council issued a proclamation on May 22nd in honor of this event.
“Balch Library is a superb example of a well-managed and globally connected historical and genealogical research library,” said Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd. “Outside of our university libraries, the Library of Virginia, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, it would be hard to find its match in-state.”
Umstattd explained that the private nonprofit, Friends of Thomas Balch Library, has been one element of Balch’s success. A second has been the Friends’ Black History Committee, without which we probably would have lost some of our most inspirational history, such as the stories of the heroic individuals who operated, or traveled by, the Underground Railroad through Leesburg and Loudoun County, she said.
