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Dayton in running for archives site for veterans

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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer Updated 11:24 PM Tuesday, April 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Health Administration is considering putting its archives on the grounds of the Dayton VA Medical Center, the VA historian told a group of regional leaders Tuesday, April 28.

VA historian Darlene Richardson told members of the Dayton Development Coalition that historians had Dayton’s site in mind when they started crafting the plan to put all of the VHA archives in one place. Milwaukee has also expressed interest in holding the archives.

The Army Corps of Engineers will conduct feasibility studies on a site in Milwaukee and two sites on the Dayton campus by October. Richardson hopes to have a site selected by the end of the year.

“We are leaning toward Dayton,” she said. “We were leaning toward Dayton to begin with.”

Her comments came during the Dayton Development Coalitions’ annual “fly-in” to Washington, D.C. Some 120 regional leaders, including lawmakers and businessmen, flew into Washington for a two-day trip that will include visits with the region’s congressional delegation Wednesday.

History is playing a big role in the selection. The VA Medical Center is on the campus of what was originally a National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, one of three original homes for veterans. Milwaukee also had one of the original homes.

If Dayton is chosen, the facility would be open to the public and be the central location for all records, photos and information gathered by the VA over the years. It would be housed in two buildings.

Dayton’s asylum, later renamed the Dayton Soldiers’ Home, opened in 1867 and once had a zoo, library and arboretum. Soldiers injured during the Civil War would arrive by train to live on the grounds, said Richardson.

“Everyone wanted to be there,” Richardson said. “It was like going to Vegas.”

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This is an important opportunity for Dayton VA Campus. I fully support this effort and will make every effort to write/call my senator and congressman to let them know!

Cindy
10:16 AM, 4/29/2009

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I know a little cemetary only 5 veterans are burried there and their head stones are broken into small pieces and you cannot read the stone's that are still standing. I have asked people that works for the VA and the only reply I get is I will check and get you the info. for you to contact someone. Well I have been waiting for 3 yrs. and I still haven't got no info. that is ashame and a disgrace to our Veteran's that fought for our country.

Anita
9:39 AM, 4/29/2009

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by the time they would have to hire a certain quota of minority workers it will all go downhill as everything else they run or do!!

dan
7:32 AM, 4/29/2009

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Archive?

I would hate to see our VA records get lost inside that great repository in Washington, DC, known as the National Archives, and consumed by the bureaucracy that prevails there. Bring the records home and manage them here.

glortiz
9:58 PM, 4/28/2009

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Shouldn't VA archives be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration instead of being segregated from the rest of the government in Dayton? Permanent, historically valuable archives for other government agencies based in Dayton go to Chicago or College Park, and VA archives should be treated no differently.

Archive?
7:18 PM, 4/28/2009

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