The new LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE will officially open at Central Library (850 Ouellette Avenue) at a 2 p.m. ceremony on Thursday, April 14. Located on the second floor, it’s an enclosed space where customers can access resources from the WPL Local History Collection, as well as items from the Municipal Archive.
Windsor Public Library has been acquiring, preserving and making available historic records of the City of Windsor, its boards and commissions for many years but with the opening of the LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE, we have succeeded in bringing them all together and making them easily available at one location.
“The LOCAL HISTORY CENTRE showcases the rich and diverse heritage and culture of Windsor and provides an important visual connection to bygone eras. It will be particularly popular with local authors, genealogists, historians and others interested in the history of Windsor and Essex County,” says WPL CEO Kitty Pope, “as will the Famous Windsorites Portal we have created on our web site, which features short biographies about famous Windsor residents.” Click here for the portal.
There are over 7,500 photographs and 20,000 sets of architectural drawings, maps and plans available for viewing by customers. Records date back to the late 1700’s, although records for Windsor start in 1854, the year Windsor was incorporated as a village. Documentation on communities that became part of Windsor (Ford City/East Windsor, Ojibway, Riverside, Sandwich, Walkerville and the Townships of Sandwich East, West and South) are included and available for viewing. The multi-media collection includes paper documents (journals, letters, diaries), posters, audio tapes and ephemera. SEE ATTACHMENT FOR DETAILS.
There will also be a display marking the 50th anniversary of the amalgamation of the town of Riverside in 1966. Following the launch, the display will move to the Riverside Library.
Funding for the local history initiative came from a bequest from the estate of Norman Young who passed away in 2013 and his wife Denise Young who were huge library supporters
