Rowan Public Library Features Dixonville Photo Exhibit
Salisbury, NC nJune 8, 2007
Beginning the third week in June, RPL debuts a new photographic display of Salisbury’s East End community. The best-represented neighborhood in the collection is the former “Dixonville”. The Wiley Lash family donated the snapshots to the History Room, which were taken in the 1960s, of houses, businesses and churches before the Urban Renewal Project began. The Urban Renewal Project was part of a federal program, which was to provide new affordable housing and improve the environment of urban areas. The library has approximately 609 photographs of houses, shops and lots depicting the area block by block. Betty Dan Nicholas Spencer has beautifully enlarged approximately sixty of the pictures with painstaking care. With the help of some former residents of this area, Betty Dan has spent the last several months identifying each structure as well as some people appearing in the photographs. Along with these sixty photographs, a Power Point program with all images will be available at the exhibit for those who wish to peruse the pictures for a specific address.
Join us on June 21, 2007, at 7:00 pm in the Stanback Auditorium at Rowan Public Library when Betty Dan will share with us her experiences from the start of her search which began by researching some tombstones at the Dixonville Cemetery and has expanded to include scanning all photographs, meeting some former Dixonville residents and understanding the changes that the Urban Renewal Project created for Salisbury. A reception will follow the presentation. The exhibit will be in the lobby of the Headquarters library from June 21st through July 20th. Come see a piece of Salisbury History.
Suzanne White
Public Services Manager