Joseph Young (left) of Elliston, regularly visits the volunteers at the Meadowbrook Museum, Henry King originally from Elliston (beside Young), Ann Harless of Shawsville, and Mary Lou Hawley (right), of LaFayette.
All-volunteer Meadowbrook Museum, housed in the Meadowbrook Center (267 Alleghany Spring Road, Shawsville), will open twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., beginning April 4.
Currently open on Saturdays at the same time, the museum is full of community-contributed photos, clocks, clothes, textiles, dolls, rugs and documents recording the history and culture of Eastern Montgomery County serving as an educational resource as well as a community meeting place.
The volunteers and visitors are resources too.
“I come here most days,” Joseph Young of Elliston said. He was late arriving and the volunteers had been waiting for him.
The local volunteers that day included Ann Harless, from Shawsville, “all my life,” she said. Asked where she hailed from, volunteer Mary Lou Hawley, said “LaFayette.” accenting the “Fay.”
“That’s how you can tell the natives,” she said.
The Meadowbrook Center houses the Meadowbrook Public Library, the Waldron Family YMCA, Meadowbrook Museum, Carilion Community Center, TimeSpace Recreation Room, and offices rented by local businesspeople and artists.
— Liz Kirchner
