| Thomas Balch Library | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Balch Library | |
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| General information | |
| Address | 208 West Market Street |
| Town or city | Leesburg, VA |
| Coordinates | 39°07′00″N77°34′06″W / 39.1167726°N 77.5683237°W |
| Opened | 1922 |
| Renovated | 2000 |
The Thomas Balch Library is a history and genealogy library located in Leesburg, Virginia. [1] [2] The library, owned and operated by the town of Leesburg, serves as a designated Underground Railroad research site and has an active research program. [1] [3] [4]
The library was incorporated in 1918. [5] The architect for the library was Waddy Butler Wood. [6] In 1922, the Thomas Balch Library was constructed in Leesburg, Virginia as a memorial to historian Thomas Balch, a Leesburg native. Thomas Willing Balch (1866-1927) and Edwin Swift Balch (1856-1927), sons of Thomas Balch, originally endowed the subscription library. [7] The Library is part of the Leesburg Historic District. [8]
The Thomas Balch Library operated for fifty years under a private Board of Trustees. The library was staffed by volunteers and part-time employees. In 1960 the library dropped its subscription and became a free, though segregated, public library. It was desegregated in 1965. In 1973, the Loudoun County Public Library system was established. The Thomas Balch Library joined as a full service public library branch in 1974, alongside the Purcellville, Purcellville Bookmobile and Sterling libraries.
In 1994, ownership of the Thomas Balch Library was transferred from the Loudoun County Public Library system to the Town of Leesburg. Under the Town of Leesburg, the library began operating as a history and genealogy library. [9] The Martin L. Cook photograph collection was acquired by the library in 2008. Cook was commissioned after training at the Tuskegee Army Flying School and went on to serve in the U.S. Navy in the Department of Defense as an aeronautical engineer.
In 2003 a Palladio Award in the category "Traditional Buildings" was given to Bowie Gridley Architects for a "sympathetic" addition to the Library building. [10] The addition doubled the size of the 1922 building. [10]
In 2013, the state legislature passed a special bill enabling the Library to receive a gift of $618,000 left to it by Virginia L. Bowie, a Leesburg resident and longtime library volunteer. [11] [12] [13] The Library also holds an annual fundraising event at various local historic sites. [14]
The Thomas Balch Library offers patrons many services. Reference services include general collection research, and also manuscripts, archives, and rare book research.
Internet access is available on specified computer terminals. Interlibrary loan services are also available to patrons, with a small fee.
Reproduction services are also offered. These services are either self-serve or employee-assisted when special handling is required for specific materials. Reproduction services include both written information and photographs.
Every year, the Thomas Balch Library presents the Loudoun History Awards. These awards are sponsored by the Thomas Balch Library Advisory Commission. The awards were established to recognize contributions of local historian John Elbert Devine (1911-1996), in preserving Loudoun County history. The Loudoun History Awards were initially started in 1993. [15]
In February 2012 the library published work connecting slaves with their modern-day descendants. [3]
The library now serves as a designated Underground Railroad research site. [1]
On March 31, 2010, the Thomas Balch Library and George Mason University announced an agreement for academic cooperation. [16]
Loudoun County is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County is part of the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Leesburg is a town in and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is part of both the Northern Virginia region of the state and the Washington metropolitan area, including Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. European settlement in the area began around 1740, when it was named for the Lee family, early colonial leaders of the town. Located in the far northeast of the state, in the War of 1812 it was a refuge for important federal documents evacuated from Washington, DC, and in the Civil War, it changed hands several times.
Lovettsville is a town in Loudoun County, located near the very northern tip of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. Settled primarily by German immigrants, the town was originally established in 1836.
Purcellville is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia. The population was 8,929 according to the 2020 Census. Purcellville is the major population center for Western Loudoun and the Loudoun Valley. Many of the older structures remaining in Purcellville reflect the Victorian architecture popular during the early twentieth century.
Round Hill is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. Its population was 693 at the 2020 census. The town is located at the crossroads of Virginia Routes 7 and 719, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. The town's name refers a hill two miles northeast of a 910-foot (280 m) hill used during the American Civil War as a signal post by both Confederate and Union troops. House of Round Hill was built in 2004. Patsy Cline went to Round Hill Elementary School.
The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park is a linear regional park in Northern Virginia. The park's primary feature is the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail, an asphalt-surfaced paved rail trail that runs through densely populated urban and suburban communities as well as through rural areas. Most of the trail travels on top of the rail bed of the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, which closed in 1968.
Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia located at the eastern base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The village's center is located along Snickersville Turnpike, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the incorporated town of Round Hill. The village borders Virginia's fox hunting country and is within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the Appalachian Trail and the Bears Den and Raven Rocks formations in the Blue Ridge.
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) is a branch of the Loudoun County, Virginia, United States government, and administers public schools in the county. LCPS's headquarters is located at 21000 Education Court in Ashburn, an unincorporated section of the county.
Neersville is an unincorporated community in northwestern Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is located in the Between the Hills area of the Loudoun Valley on Harpers Ferry Road at the foot of Short Hill Mountain. It is notable for being the birthplace of Confederate guerrilla John Mobberly.
Loudoun County, Virginia, was destined to be an area of significant military activity during the American Civil War. Located on Virginia's northern frontier, the Potomac River, Loudoun County became a borderland after Virginia's secession from the Union in early 1861. Loudoun County's numerous Potomac bridges, ferries and fords made it an ideal location for the Union and Confederate armies to cross into and out of Virginia. Likewise, the county's several gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains that connected the Piedmont to the Shenandoah Valley and Winchester were of considerable strategic importance. The opposing armies would traverse the county several times throughout the war leading to several small battles, most notably the Battle of Ball's Bluff.
Loudoun County Public Library (LCPL), with more than 200 employees, both professional and paraprofessional, serves the citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia. There are 10 physical branches, plus Outreach Services, which delivers books and other resources to the disabled, elderly and homebound.
Wilson Gap, originally known as Gregory's Gap, is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain, located on the border of Loudoun County, Virginia and Jefferson County, West Virginia. The Appalachian Trail crosses the gap.
Loudoun County Transit is a public-transportation service provided by the Loudoun County, Virginia government. Loudoun County Transit provides fixed routes and on-demand/paratransit bus service.
The Leesburg Historic District in Leesburg, Virginia is a historic district that includes Classical Revival, Greek Revival, and Georgian architecture and dates back to 1757. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and its boundaries were increased in 2002.
The Loudoun County Combined Fire-Rescue System (LC-CFRS) is made up of the career Loudoun County Fire and Rescue (LCFR) and 16 volunteer organizations. LC-CFRS has the responsibility of protecting the citizens and property of the towns, villages, and suburbs of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, and technical rescue response services, including Hazardous Materials mitigation, Mass Casualty Incident response services, environmental danger response services and more. The headquarters and training facilities of the department are in Leesburg, off Sycolin Road.
George Rust was Virginia plantation owner, soldier and politician. During the War of 1812, Rust helped defend Baltimore, Maryland, and rose to become a general in the Virginia militia, as well as the civilian superintendent of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
Purcellville Train Station is a historic railway station located in Purcellville, Loudoun County, Virginia. The station is adjacent to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail. The Southern Railway constructed the station in 1904. The station is a one-story, rectangular frame building with a hipped roof and deeply overhanging eaves supported by triangular knee braces. It was a station on the Washington and Old Dominion Railway and later, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad from 1912 until the line closed in 1968, with passenger service ceasing in 1951.
The Old Stone Church Site encompasses a location in Leesburg, Virginia that was the site of property of the Methodist church from c. 1770 to 1900. On May 11, 1766, Nicholas Minor, a founder of the new town of Leesburg, deeded a half acre of property to Robert Hamilton, a Methodist convert, for ″four pounds current money of Virginia, for no other use but for a church or meeting house and grave yard.″ The site is the earliest known Methodist-owned church site in America. On September 28, 1768, the deed was delivered to members of the Methodist society. The deed, recorded in Deed Book L at pages 451–453, may be seen today in the Clerk's office of the Loudoun Courthouse.
William Obediah Robey was an American Presbyterian minister and teacher in Leesburg, Virginia. He is the first African-American known to have taught school in Loudoun County, Virginia and was the first African-American member of the Leesburg Presbyterian congregation.
Municipalities and communities of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States | ||
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