The more than 150-year-old wrought-iron staircase at Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont has been named one of Virginia’s Top Ten Endangered Artifacts. The Top Ten program is a project of the Virginia Collections Initiative and the Virginia Association of Museums.
An independent peer review panel chose the railing, believed to have been forged around 1845, from 25 nominations across Virginia to make the Top Ten Endangered Artifacts list.
Virginia’s Top Ten Endangered Artifacts program, funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, aims to raise awareness of the importance of preserving artifacts in the care of museums, libraries and archives throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.