LPCA History Committee Awarded County Grant Funding

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By Elizabeth Sheehy

The LPCA History Committee is excited to share that Lyon Park has been awarded a $25,000 Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) grant through Arlington County’s Historic Preservation Program.  The funds will support the “Lyon Park History Preservation and Education Centennial Project.” 

This project has three primary goals:

  1. digitizing Lyon Park historical documents and installing a display case at the Community House
  2. designing and fabricating exterior historical markers in Lyon Park
  3. supporting educational research and QR code signage in Zitkála-Šá Park

We are pleased to be partnering with the Arlington Historical Society and Arlington Library’s Center for Local History. They will provide guidance with best practices to safeguard Lyon Park’s artifacts and documents once they are scanned.  We will also benefit from the expertise of the Historic Preservation Fund team, which will provide advice as we move forward. The HPF supports the Lyon Park project as it “will help strengthen the community’s understanding of historic preservation, Arlington’s history, built environment and/or cultural heritage….it will contribute to a stronger community by providing a link to the past, present, and future.”  

The project is intended to be completed within 12 months, just in time for the launch of the Centennial Celebration of the Lyon Park Community House, which opened in 1925. From the start, the vision for the Community House was to create “A social, civic, and recreative center; so democratic as to attract the humblest; so wholesome as to appeal to the exclusive; so broad in scope as to bring youth, maturity and old age into closer companionship to the benefit of all.” That’s an inspiring mission to guide Lyon Park for the next hundred years.

And a big THANK YOU to Thora Colot and Toby McIntosh who have been instrumental in moving this project forward. This project provides wonderful opportunities for community participation. Some tasks require just a few hours to complete, while others are more detailed. If you are interested in volunteering to help, please contact me at elizabeth.r.sheehy@gmail.com. There is something for everyone!

 

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