For Immediate Release
GENEALOGICAL LIBRARY PURCHASES
ADJACENT NEWBURY STREET PROPERTY
New building offers expansion; growth
opportunity for NEHGS
Boston, MA – January 3, 2013 – Brenton Simons, President and CEO of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced today that it has
purchased the adjacent property located at 97 Newbury Street, giving NEHGS an
opportunity in future years to expand on its current location at 99‐101 Newbury
while growing its national leadership position. The seller, jeweler John Lewis,
has leased back the property from NEHGS and plans to continue to his successful
retail jewelry operation there for the foreseeable future.
The purchase of the 4‐story brownstone building by NEHGS will give
the non‐profit genealogical library and archive an additional 4,500+ square
feet for a variety of purposes, including education and public programs,
collaborations with other organizations, exhibition space, parking, and a
museum store retail enterprise. In particular, NEHGS can continue expanding its
collection of more than 28 million objects while allowing the organization to
maintain a larger portion of those important artifacts on the premises rather
than in off‐site storage. It also allows for the addition of expert staff to
help the increasing numbers of people coming in to learn more about getting
started with their own family history research.
Simons said, “This is an historic time at NEHGS. The organization
has grown dramatically in recent years, nearly reaching maximum capacity in our
present building. Adding this new space will allow NEHGS to continue its
leadership role while serving more than 65,000 members and registered users in
new, more effective ways.”
Simons added, “We are especially excited about the opportunity to
build a new platform for educating
and training the next generation of genealogists while advancing
the important work of preserving
our nation’s family and local history for decades to come.”
The brownstone, built in the 1870s by local department store
founder Eben Jordan, will be preserved
by NEHGS because, Simons noted, “It is an important part of the
Back Bay cityscape.”
“We look forward in the fullness of time to the lasting legacy
that the acquisition of John’s building
will offer to the people of Boston, New England and indeed the
United States in discovering their
family history,” said NEHGS board Chair David H. Burnham of
Cohasset, Mass.
NEHGS, founded in 1845, moved to 99‐101 Newbury Street in 1964 and
expanded by adding an
additional four floors to offer greater access to its collection
of more 200,000 books in addition to the
original artifacts. Today, NEHGS is the nation’s leading resource
for family history research and has
appeared in a number of celebrity genealogy programs, including
serving as anchor location for the hit
PBS show, “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr,” and
actively participating in the NBC show,
“Who Do You Think You Are?” which included on‐air expert research
for actresses Sarah Jessica
Parker, Brooke Shields, and Ashley Judd.
