By Alabama Public Radio
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wual/local-wual-795658.mp3
Northport AL – A new effort is underway aimed at preserving the heritage of West Alabama. The Heritage Learning Center in downtown Northport hopes to offer residents a chance to archive, research and even make an audio recording of their family histories. Alabama Public Radio's Brett Tannehill reports ...
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Pieces of the past are lost every day. Those old stories your grandmother used to tell you. That special copy of a hometown newspaper someone's been saving for decades. Photographs of what on first glance appear to be nothing, but truly provide a snapshot into history.
Civic groups are joining together in a project to create a new home for these "things" at the Heritage Learning Center at Shirley Place in historic downtown Northport.
TIERCE - These are projects we need to be doing now before they are lost.
That's Betsy Tierce, a member of the Heritage Learning Center steering committee. She's also one of the first to donate personal items for archiving at this unique new effort. Organizers hope the Center will be a place where people bring their own items, research their families and communities, attend heritage workshops and record oral histories.
Tierce says it will also be an important educational tool for students.
TIERCE - I'm delight to have the children involved in our heritage. I just want the children to realize that this is a fun project. I want them to read, I want them go on field trips, I want them to enjoy it and remember, and tell their children. I want to pass it on.
TAYLOR - I'm very excited about how it can be the piece of a larger puzzle ...
Gene Taylor is executive director of the Community Foundation of West Alabama, which pledged 100-thousand dollars in matching funds to launch the project. Taylor says the Center will be a big addition to the historic downtown area.
TAYLOR ... that might include bringing the bridge here and developing a park around that area and the whole waterfront development project. I just think it's a project that's very timely. We'll have a good place and a good draw. I can see the educational systems around here making good use of it as well.
The Center will reside in a building that sits behind Shirley Place, built in 1838 by Fred Shirley?? one of the area's earliest residents?? Evans Fitts is the architect for the project.
FITTS - Originally it was for housing a car or two and a garden shed. We think we can work with the existing structure and make it more of a meeting place, a gathering place ... it shouldn't pose too many problems.
The energy driving the idea of the Heritage Learning Center comes from local historian Marvin Harper. Harper, who has led a number of other local history projects, has been working to make the Center a reality for the past two years.
HARPER - The energy comes from the fact, on my part, that it's so important. I see it as an important element and an important asset to the community through economics, through better citizens and learning your neighbors. There are so many things if you know about your heritage.
Though the Center is not officially opened, it will celebrate the National Day of Listening this Friday, in which the StoryCorps project encourages people to tell stories to each other, and record them if possible. Once matching funding is secured, construction of the Heritage Learning Center could be completed within about 6 months.
For APR News I'm Brett Tannehill