How many of you have been patrons of the Handley Library long enough to remember a time before the Bowman Library branch existed? What are your memories of its building and its opening?
20 years ago, on November 4, 2000, the Winchester Hiram Lodge conducted a ceremony setting the cornerstone for the Bowman Library. The stone was taken from the Handley Library building during its 1999-2001 renovations, as a way of symbolizing the unity of the regional system.
Bowman opened eight months after the ceremony in July 2001, but setting the cornerstone still marked a significant achievement in the expansion of the Handley Library System to a larger collection and a wider audience.
138-689b thl, "Cornerstone Raised for Formal Laying," Handley Library Records, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA.
Handley Regional Library 100th Anniversary Book Committee. Handley Regional Library: The First One Hundred Years. Winchester, Va: Handley Regional Library, 2012.