Frederick County community leaders gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the African American Heritage Center on Tuesday in Downtown Frederick.

The African American Resources Cultural and Heritage Society was founded in 2009. The AARCH society has collected artifacts of African American history from all across Frederick and has worked to create space to preserve and store them. The Heritage Center plans to hold local and traveling exhibits, a theater, archival spaces for students and residents as well as other resources.

County Executive Jessica Fitzwater was joined by Frederick City Mayor Michael O’Connor and a representative from the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce in presenting AARCH society President Olivia White with certificates recognizing the organization's contributions to Frederick.

Fitzwater offered thanks to the late William Lee Jr., the founder of the AARCH society, and the late David Key, former president of the AARCH society, for their contributions to the center. “Without their visionary leadership, and the continued efforts of so many that are here today, we would not be standing here,” Fitzwater said.

AARCH Vice President Wilford Graham said he wants the center to be more than just a museum. The center is planned to be a gathering place to tell the forgotten stories of black history in Frederick. “It’s not just the collection of artifacts, but the unraveling of stories of what is Frederick,” Graham said.

Denise Rollins, Chief Financial Officer of the Rollins Life Celebration Center, wants one of those stories to be of her great grandfather, Albert Dixon, Frederick’s first black undertaker. “They didn’t want, back then, a black man working on white bodies. That’s history that could be forgotten, but we have to remember that,” Rollins said.

Construction for the heritage center should be complete by late summer or early fall of this year.