LANCASTER—The Lancaster Virginia Historical Society (LVHS) will hold a dedication and grand opening celebration for the Dunton Library for Genealogy and History at 11 a.m. October 12 on the LVHS campus at 8346 Mary Ball Road, Lancaster.
The naming of the new building honors Ammon G. Dunton Jr. for his longtime support of community history preservation and education and his many contributions to LVHS as a board member, past president and chairman of the library capital campaign.
Within the facility, the Genealogy Wing will be dedicated in memory of Elizabeth Combs Peirce and the History Wing will be dedicated in memory of Marion and Lorena Dobyns Conner and Edward Longworth and Mary Latane Tadlock, thanks to generous gifts from their families.
According to executive director Karen Hart, the grand opening of the Dunton Library will mark the culmination of 10 years of planning and fundraising for the $700,000 project to purchase and renovate the former home of Catherine Chilton into a modern, spacious, and accessible research center.
“We are so excited to reveal the transformation,” said Hart. “The new facility replaces a smaller, outdated building across the street and has improved amenities for users and better space for our holdings of more than 8,000 books, research files, county record indexes, family charts and genealogy reports, oral history recordings, and other reference materials on local, regional, and state history topics.”
The public is invited to attend the event and reservations are requested by October 3 at LancasterVaHistory.org or 462-7280. The program, according to Hart, will take place under a tent outside and will include remarks by board members, donors and honorees; a ribbon cutting; and cake and celebratory drinks.
The library also will be open for tours, although individual research assistance will not be available this day.
