People have been using our White Plains Collection and local history programs to create some great projects lately! Students from a Community Design class at Purchase College taught by Warren Lehrer partnered with the White Plains Business Improvement District and the Library to create designs for poems written by Judith Sloan. Art In Vacant Spaces can be seen filling the windows of storefronts along Court Street, Martine Avenue, Main Street, and Mamaroneck Avenue. Inspiration for the poems was drawn in part from historic photographs in the White Plains Collections (check some out online!) and oral histories from People & Stories.
People working together on local history research at A Sense of Place.
On a recent Wednesday night, a diverse crowd gathered in the auditorium of the Library for A Sense of Place, the January edition of the White Plains History Roundtable. In a collaborative workshop setting, we learned how to uncover the history of any home, business, or building in White Plains. Some discoveries: the sad fate of White Plains last farm, the actual location of a home along the White Plains-Scarsdale border, and the less-than-perfect spelling of ancestors' names in old city directories.
More students of local history…
Local history events are about more than listening to a lecture. A Sense of Place was a fun, social event where people learned as much from each other as they did from the great resources in the White Plains Collection.
We post new oral histories regularly, and the March edition of the White Plains History Roundtable is just around the corner. Watch our Local History page for updates about future programs or contact Ben Himmelfarb.
