An official ribbon-cutting helped dedicate a new building, but it had already been christened by senior citizens painting with water colors, pre-school children singing and clapping, and amateur artists molding clay.
Soon student artwork will be exhibited in the halls.
The Stark Foundation’s new Walter G. Riedel III Education Center and Eunice R. Benckenstein Library and Archive was officially dedicated Thursday, but the education center has been in use since Family Fun Day activities in October.
The 15,000 square foot building is next to the Stark Museum of Art on Green Avenue and has a separate entrance on Sixth Street.
Riedel worked for the foundation for 40 years and served as president and CEO for 17 years. Current Foundation President Tad McKee described Riedel as “a force for children’s education.” Riedel supported children’s theater for school students at the Lutcher Theater and followed through with Michael Hoke’s vision to make Shangri La into an educational nature center with thousands of area schools visiting for classes each year.
McKee also praised the Shangri La staff for continuing the nature education even though Shangri La has been closed since Harvey flooded it.
The Stark Museum of Art has been sponsoring a juried art show for Orange County students and has chosen the ones for exhibition this year. The artworks will be on display in the Riedel Education Building.
“It has been extremely impressive to see the art talent in this community,” McKee said.
Riedel talked about the late Mrs. Benckenstein, affectionately known as “Mrs. B,” She was a longtime member of the foundation board and “the longtime a faithful friend of Mrs. Nelda Stark (co-founder of the foundation),” he said.
The Benckenstein Library and Archive houses collections of the Henry Jacob and Frances Ann Lutcher family, along with the families of their daughter, Miriam Lutcher Stark, and her son, H.J. Lutcher Stark (the other co-founder of the foundation).
The collection includes the journals that Henry Jacob Lutcher wrote while on a trip to Texas in the 1870s to scout the yellow pine forests for a lumber business. Orange’s history is closely tied to the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company established here when the Lutcher family moved to town in 1879.
Riedel said the Lutcher family and then the Stark family never threw anything out and Mrs. Benckenstein helped save documents and photographs. Mrs. Nelda Stark would sometimes say “take them to the river” and throw them in.
Historians and scholars will be able to use the library and archive.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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