By Katie Moen/The Westfield Leader, May 8, 2024
WESTFIELD — In its more than 250 years of documented history, the Town of Westfield has borne witness to two world wars, the end of slavery, vast technological advancements, floods, political demonstrations, the Great Depression, the loss of residents in a terrorist attack, and even two global pandemics. But even with so many major events under its belt, the story of Westfield, and all small towns, is best told through the eyes of the people who have lived here.
Now, thanks to the efforts of the Westfield Memorial Library, local history buffs have a new opportunity to take a deep dive into genealogy reports, letters, maps, town documents, photographs, newspapers and even old high-school yearbooks.
Over the course of the past several months, the library has been working to convert an under-utilized storage room on the second floor into an organized archive dedicated to local history and research.
“This room was always supposed to be used for this purpose, but over the years it just sort of turned into a hodgepodge of filing cabinets and random stuff,” said the library’s director, Allen McGinley. At one point, the room also experienced what Mr. McGinley called “a bit of an HVAC disaster.”
“Going through those filing cabinets was like being on a treasure hunt,” said Jennifer Schulze, who serves as the library’s head of adult services. “Everything was remarkably well-preserved, all things considered, but I’m glad that we were finally able to catalog everything and figure out a more productive and accessible way to store it.” read more