AmeriCorps Member in Berkeley County Continues Service through Pandemic

During the 2019-2020 service I was able to work on two historic resource improvements for Main Street Martinsburg and Berkeley County Historical Society. The historic resource improvements included working on a Downtown Martinsburg Historic District inventory and also completing an exhibit for the Berkeley County Historical Society. By completing these historic resource improvements, I helped to improve the understanding of the historical value in Berkeley County WV.

On of my major projects for Main Street Martinsburg is to have an inventory of the Historic Downtown Martinsburg. For this project an excel sheet was created that included addresses, historic names and current 

names of buildings, current owners and tenants, and original construction date. During the pandemic, I was able to get out into the community and walk around to have a better understanding of the buildings to continue the building inventory and update any needed information for the inventory that was not available online. Much of the district now has been completed and includes all of the main streets that are home to many of the businesses and historic homes.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the museum that the Berkeley County Historical Society has to close. During this time, it provided time for the society to change and update a few exhibits. One of the exhibits that I was able to work on was one of the schools in Berkeley County. This exhibit provides an historic resource improvement to visitors especially now during the pandemic because it provides a glimpse of how different schools looked like not long ago. The exhibit focuses on how schools in Berkeley County looked like from the late 1800s until the 1950s. The exhibit includes photos of the smaller one room schools, school activities, class photos and school schedules that reflect that time-period. Due to the pandemic and how schools as we know them are currently changing, this exhibit may help remind the audience of the evolution of schools.
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The historic resource improvement for both sites can help both sites in current and future historic preservation efforts by having some groundwork completed and available. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Downtown Martinsburg Historic district may evolve with the change in business, but the current inventory can provide some background information on the buildings. The school exhibit is a reminder that schools have evolved in the past and the information may help in the transformation in how schools evolve now due to the pandemic. ​

Susan Crowell

Susan served in the Preserve WV AmeriCorps program during the 2019-2020 program year. She served at two sites during her term: Main Street Martinsburg and the Berkeley County Historical Society.