Lot's of people think I get paid for my position as President of the Silver Spring Historical Society and all of its associate endeavors, like my monthly Silver Spring Voice column. I don't. It's all done for the love of my community and the preservation of its (continuing to disappear) heritage.
My real job is special collections librarian and archivist for the District of Columbia Public Library's Washingtoniana Division (DC history) and Peabody Room (Georgetown history), the latter located at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library, 3260 R Street, NW.
Well, the Peabody Room is not actually located in Georgetown now but at "WASH" in Room #307 of the Martin Luther King, Jr. (Happy Birthday!) Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW. The collection has been there since Fall 2007 following the devastating fire that heavily damaged the Georgetown Neighborhood Library on April 30, 2007. To see dramatic video of the library going up in flames, click HERE.
This library and the Peabody Room is scheduled to re-open this December, just in time to celebrate the building's 75th birthday. Here is the newspaper article on the re-processing of the Peabody Room's special collections that appeared in the January 6, 2010 Georgtown Current (click on article to make legible).
Here is an architectural rendering of what the new Peabody Room will look like. It will be triple the size of the original room and located on a newly created third floor. It will also have its own independant HVAC system.
For more information about the re-construction of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library, click HERE.
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