September is a great time to fall in love with local history – and there is no better place to start than Thomas Balch Library! Located on West Market Street in Leesburg the library is the perfect place to dive into exploring historic downtown architecture, embark on a journey to uncover your own genealogy, or to discover real stories of how history happened here.
Thomas Balch library’s eye-catching building, designed by architect Waddy Wood and first dedicated in 1922, continues to serve as community hub, offering regularly changing art and historical exhibits, workshops, book talks, lectures, and other programs. The beautiful building itself is worth a visit, but it also features more than 25,000 books about history, genealogy and related topics to browse, free access to online databases such as Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com, and most uniquely, the opportunity to view historical letters, documents, photographs and artifacts from more than 260 years of local history. The library is free to visit and open to the public seven days a week, including evening hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (for more information about hours visit our website). No appointment is needed for research, or to explore the collections – simply stop in during regular hours.
Curious how to get started?
A great way learn more about what the library has to offer by visiting the library’s website. There you can access the library’s Centennial Library catalog, explore digital exhibits and collections, and also up-to-date information about exhibits and events. Events to look forward to in September include an exhibit highlighting items library’s archival collections: Archival Connections revealing unexpected connections and stories behind some of Balch’s most interesting holdings. Upcoming programs are a workshop “Using Maps in Historical Research” with Charlie Grymes on September 5 and a talk on September 22 featuring Rohulamin Quander presenting “The Quanders: Since 1684, an Enduring African American Legacy”. Library programs are free but require pre-registration. Not able to make it in-person? Many programs are offered virtually, and recordings are available on YouTube. A excellent recording to start with is A Brief History of Leesburg presented by Betsy Arnett, an overview of Leesburg’s development.
Ready to explore further?
Thomas Balch library is an outstanding place to begin a day out in Leesburg. The library offers several guided walking tours – including a tour with Leesburg native Jim Roberts in October and Rich Gillespie’s November “Leesburg, Loudoun County and the American Revolution” tour. There are also several self-guided tours you can stop in and pick up at the library where library staff can also help you get started with one of the numerous self-guided tours available on the Town of Leesburg’s Tour Leesburg App. Looking for a unique start to a night out in town? Stop by the Donaldson Log Cabin (14 Loudoun Street SW) on the First Friday of each month for a new pop-up exhibit featuring rarely seen items from Thomas Balch Library’s collections. September’s exhibit will feature items from the history of the Cabin – one of Leesburg’s oldest buildings.
This blog is written by Laura E. Christiansen, Library Director, a guest writer from the Thomas Balch Library