A.D. White was the type of man who remembered everything he ever saw, heard, read or learned, said Kathryn Slasor, a member and founder of the A.D. White Research Society Ltd.

White was a teacher and the supervising principal for elementary schools in Avella Area and Cross Creek, and in Jefferson and Hopewell townships from the late 1920s to 1959. From his retirement until the time of his death July 4, 1994, four months before his 100th birthday, White became a local historian for the area. His dream, Slasor said, was passing down his records and making them accessible to everyone.

The nonprofit society, founded two months after his death, finally will have its own library. Three years ago, the society bought an old train station in Avella from the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Co. and the first phase of work to stabilize the building, renovate the interior and ready the structure for use as a museum, library and genealogy research facility, is nearly finished.

His 10 books and many papers include information on locations such as the Cross Creek Valley, Patterson Mills schools, Mount Pleasant and Jefferson townships and the Bethel Presbyterian Church in Eldersville. Most of his work, though, was family-oriented. He kept genealogies on hundreds of local families.

"It's remarkable the information that's in his writings," Slasor said. "It was his idea to keep all this so somebody some day would know and remember."

The society received a $150,000 grant in federal transportation money from the state Department of Transportation for construction. Wrangler Construction, of North Strabane, began working in January on structural and interior work to convert the old station.

The refurbished interior will allow the society to move White's records into a secure, dry space. Currently, the collection is split and being kept in different places -- a storage facility, Mount Pleasant Library and at Slasor's home and the home of her sister, June Welch. Copies of his records will be kept as backup.

White kept everything and some of the information is contained on pieces of scrap paper, Slasor said. Once the materials are moved into the new library, the society must find someone to begin the arduous task of cataloging, filing and arranging the material for use.

"Whoever can read his writings will learn an awful lot," Slasor said.

The library will have a reference room, an office and a conference room. Researchers will have access to the collection later this year. The library also will provide a facility for small meetings of citizens' groups, seminars and additional community activities after the completion of the second phase.

One room runs the full depth of the station and the two side rooms once were used as a passenger waiting room and a handling and storage room for freight and express.

The second phase is to restore the wooden exterior and other features to the way the 45- by 19-foot depot looked in 1914. The station sits on less than an acre near the center of town. Passenger service stopped in 1931 and the station was used for telegraph offices for train operations until 1949.

The next phase also is intended to provide parking and complete landscaping. The society plans to apply for more federal transportation money later this year to pay for the second phase.

The society is seeking tax-deductible contributions from the general public to pay for interior furnishings and the society's operational expenses. Contributions also will be used to cover the costs of acquiring and cataloging additional research material.

"We're pretty happy with the way things are going so far," said President Albert W. White, one of A.D. White's 10 children. "We're looking forward to the completion of the job. We're on schedule and things are going fine."