The SAR Magazine

MAY 2015

The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.

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By Samuel C. Powell, PreSident, Sar Foundation T he 2015 Spring Leadership Meeting included a question-and-answer session held in our newly renovated national headquarters building in Louisville. The purpose of this session was to provide SAR members and Trustees an update on the concepts of outreach education, plans for the proposed SAR museum and fundraising for it. A panel composed of the project director and related committee members, the SAR Foundation president, the project architect and contractor, and museum-planning firm Solid Light, Inc., offered comments and took questions. Many questions have surfaced over the past few months as SAR transitions our fundraising efforts from completion of the building itself to the build-out of the interior spaces. You might say, first we built the schoolhouse, and now it is time to construct the classrooms and add finished program components. Occupancy of the building allows us to finish the interior as our financial resources allow. Two primary questions requiring answers were whether outreach education is a good fit for the NSSAR and how to fund this proposed outreach-education center, commonly called The Center for Advancing America's Heritage, or The Center. Many were concerned about a potential increase in dues and how long it would take to finish the Center. Concern was also expressed about how an outreach education program in Louisville would benefit our members who do not live in or visit Louisville. I will give you a brief summary of some of the salient points from the panel discussion and question-and-answer session. Where are we with our SAR National Headquarters project? In 1979, we moved from our prior location in Washington, D.C., to Louisville, Kentucky. After almost 30 years of continued growth in Louisville, we found ourselves in need of additional space for our library and headquarters staff. On March 27, 2008, a vacant warehouse complex on "museum row" of downtown Louisville was purchased for $1.45 million. The warehouse complex offered approximately 42,000 square feet of prime real estate compared with the prior facility's 18,000 square feet. This more than doubled the available space. In the process, we upgraded to the new location of 803-809 West Main St., one of the premier locations in Louisville. With the help of a $1 million gift from the William C. Drinkard Charitable Foundation and another $1.5 million raised through our members, we renovated and opened our new SAR Genealogical Research Library with approximately 50,000 volumes of books, periodicals and journals and microfilm and microfiche. This includes 5,000 family genealogies, 8,000 books on the American Revolution and special collections, including materials related to George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette and George Rogers Clark. The genealogical library was officially dedicated Sept. 25, 2010, completing Phase I. Fundraising continued and the approximate $3.5 million Phase II contract for renovation of the second part of the complex was approved by the Trustees in July 2012. The Phase II project provided for a new roof, structural 10 SAR MAGAZINE Outreach educatiOn and the Sar MuSeuM Questions and Answers Bob Gardner/MGM Photography

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