gc
24 January 2006, 02:19 PM
Cultural District may get archives facility
By MIKE LEE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/13698870.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
FORT WORTH -- The National Archives' regional depository would get a new, more accessible home in the Fort Worth Cultural District under a plan that will be unveiled today. U.S. government records for a four-state region -- a treasure trove covering everything from Gulf Coast pirates to the space program -- are now stored at the Federal Records Center in south Fort Worth. But the building is crumbling, and security is so tight that the facility can sometimes seem like Fort Knox. The new building would be part research center, part museum.
"It gives us an opportunity to popularize these treasures that literally belong to you and I," said Tarrant County Probate Judge Steve M. King, chairman of Archival Holdings, a nonprofit group developing the museum. Plans call for a 53,000- to 56,000-square-foot building with space for displays, research rooms, an auditorium and offices to be built on a vacant lot just north of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, on Montgomery Street. Archival Holdings would lease the land from the city at $10 a year for 99 years and sell bonds to pay for the estimated $15 million to $18 million construction cost. The National Archives and Records Administration would rent the building from the nonprofit.
The Fort Worth City Council is expected to approve the lease today. If Congress endorses the plan, construction could start in early 2007, and the museum could open in 2008. "They'll have all kinds of classes for children and educational programs at the museum. It's going to be a great enhancement to the Cultural District," Councilman Carter Burdette said. The Fort Worth archive is one of several regional branches of the National Archives across the country. The Fort Worth site attracts thousands of genealogists and historians, and administrators are working on a new warehouse in south Fort Worth to house the collection.
The archive contains records for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. King, who has written a book on the history of the original Tarrant County Courthouse, said archivists would be able to circulate materials from the warehouse to the museum, making them more accessible to thousands more people. "The National Archives has everything from your last year's tax return to the only copy of the Magna Carta in America," he said. "Having a regional facility with exhibits space will allow traveling things to come here that have just never been seen by the public."
By MIKE LEE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/13698870.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
FORT WORTH -- The National Archives' regional depository would get a new, more accessible home in the Fort Worth Cultural District under a plan that will be unveiled today. U.S. government records for a four-state region -- a treasure trove covering everything from Gulf Coast pirates to the space program -- are now stored at the Federal Records Center in south Fort Worth. But the building is crumbling, and security is so tight that the facility can sometimes seem like Fort Knox. The new building would be part research center, part museum.
"It gives us an opportunity to popularize these treasures that literally belong to you and I," said Tarrant County Probate Judge Steve M. King, chairman of Archival Holdings, a nonprofit group developing the museum. Plans call for a 53,000- to 56,000-square-foot building with space for displays, research rooms, an auditorium and offices to be built on a vacant lot just north of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, on Montgomery Street. Archival Holdings would lease the land from the city at $10 a year for 99 years and sell bonds to pay for the estimated $15 million to $18 million construction cost. The National Archives and Records Administration would rent the building from the nonprofit.
The Fort Worth City Council is expected to approve the lease today. If Congress endorses the plan, construction could start in early 2007, and the museum could open in 2008. "They'll have all kinds of classes for children and educational programs at the museum. It's going to be a great enhancement to the Cultural District," Councilman Carter Burdette said. The Fort Worth archive is one of several regional branches of the National Archives across the country. The Fort Worth site attracts thousands of genealogists and historians, and administrators are working on a new warehouse in south Fort Worth to house the collection.
The archive contains records for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. King, who has written a book on the history of the original Tarrant County Courthouse, said archivists would be able to circulate materials from the warehouse to the museum, making them more accessible to thousands more people. "The National Archives has everything from your last year's tax return to the only copy of the Magna Carta in America," he said. "Having a regional facility with exhibits space will allow traveling things to come here that have just never been seen by the public."