BELLAIRE — After 10 years, Bellaire Public Library now has opened its Local History Center and Bellaire Room in hopes of preserving local history.

“We are honoring the spirit of this town and the hands and hearts that built it,” library director Erin Rothenbuehler said.

She added that the reason it took a decade of work is due to the vast amount of materials the library had to collect and sort through, as well as creating an area in the building that would be suitable to store the historic materials.

“Once that was identified, then we had to go through the renovation process to try to give it the security and climate control issues that you need with older materials, and then moving the materials,” Rothenbuehler said. “Then we had to find funding and find a staff member who was able to actually process the collections and get them ready for the public to use.”

The staff member that was found is library archivist Shelley Jacobs.

Jacobs started working for the library in January by processing and cataloging the materials that were already in the library.

She said that the library had already collected a lot of historical items.

“There were some amazing things that I discovered while going through the materials that were exciting to see, and I think we already have a really good beginning to having a good collection of local history,”

Many newspapers throughout the years have been digitized by the library and are available on its website.

The materials in the local history center are Belmont County newspapers, yearbooks, photographs, family histories, city directories, county histories, pamphlets, posters, advertisements, programs, booklets, maps, and informational files.

“As we look to grow our collection, I hope that we can raise awareness of the importance of consulting someone about the items you come across that you might not know are worth preserving,” Jacobs said. “In previous positions that I’ve held, I’ve had some heartbreaking phone calls from people. I remember one call in particular from an elderly woman who called and she was doing some research on family materials, but then she started talking to me about some really extensive genealogical and historical work she’s done, and her kids weren’t interested in it, so she threw it out.”

She added that she cringes when she hears stories like the woman’s who spent years collecting materials just for it to be lost forever.

Jacobs said that she has also worked on religious collections in the past, and has had phone calls from church members saying that their church is closing and asking her what they should do with the items in the church.

She said that a lot of congregations don’t realize that if it doesn’t have a denominational collection, some of those records are really valuable for genealogists, such as baptismal, birth, death and marriage records.

“All of those things are really important records to genealogists, and those are valuable and need to be preserved,” she said.

Bellaire public library board of trustees president Ron Marling then said that the grand opening of the local history center marks a proud milestone for not only the library but also the community.

“With this grand opening we celebrate not just the preservation of our past, but also the promise of future discoveries,” Marling said. “This space honors the stories of people and events that shaped us and invites everyone to explore them and connect with our shared heritage.”

Rothenbuehler added that she recommends residents to schedule an appointment to come to the local history center and Bellaire room to ensure that whoever’s most familiar with the materials is able to be in the room with them to identify what they’re looking for. The room is open Monday- Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.