Archives find new home at Belleville Public Library

Boxes waiting to be explored sit on one of the tables inside the Hastings Heritage Centre. Photo by Cam Kennedy

By Cam Kennedy

BELLEVILLE – The historical archives of Belleville and Hastings County will have a new million dollar home at the of 2015.

Renovations will be made to the Belleville Public Library to house the archives that contain the history of Belleville and Hastings County.

Hastings County and the City of Belleville will each donate $500,000 while the Hastings County Historical Society will chip in with $250,000.

A property at 315 Church Street was originally purchased in 2009 to house the archives with the society committed to raising funds towards renovating the building.

However, the site was deemed unsuitable to host the over 50,000 photographs and thousands of documents that would be on display.

The Church Street property has since been put up for sale. The money from the sale of the property will be put towards the library renovations which are slated to be done later this year.

Sharon White, an archivist with the Hastings County Historical Society, discusses the moving process of the archives into the Belleville Public Library.