Historical society perfect fit for library
Lewes will be alive this weekend with the annual Christmas Parade and Lewes Historical Society’s Christmas House Tour.
For Lewes Historical Society, which depends on events to pay operational expenses, the tour represents its largest revenue day. The society usually sells about 1,000 tickets for the tour. In addition to the private homes that owners generously open, the society also opens its own properties to show off the impressive historical assets preserved in Delaware’s most historic community.
This year’s tour comes when Lewes Historical Society is working to convince Lewes Mayor and Council that it would be the best choice to take over occupancy of the Lewes Public Library building in Stango Park. The city is reviewing proposals from several private organizations that have expressed interest in the building, paid for largely through private donations to the library and gifted to the city.
While it’s understandable the city will want future occupancy to be as economically advantageous as possible, the full breadth of the historical society’s benefits to the city should figure large in considerations.
For a community building purposefully designed 30 years ago to reflect Colonial and Victorian chapters of Lewes architecture, the society could hardly be a more perfect fit. Its uses would complement the new library taking shape on the 10-acre cultural campus that includes the existing library building and Stango Park.
Society officials say they would take on improvements to the structure of at least $500,000 to accommodate exhibitions, storage, archives and historical research. That would only make the asset more valuable to the city.
Lewes Historical Society, for decades, has led the community’s preservation efforts, has proven its ability to manage multiple sites, is supported by 1,000 members and 400 volunteers, and has brought millions of dollars to the community in economic development. It has done all of this while asking very little from the city.
Lewes Mayor and Council should do all it can to support this organization, which has done so much for Lewes, by finding a win-win solution in this process for the city and the society.
