Kicking off "a year of 16 months," Henrico County officials this morning officially opened the Henrico County Tourist Information Center, located at the Dabbs House Museum at the Eastern Government Center on Nine Mile Road.

The center, which is one of 61 certified visitors center statewide, will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The county intends to highlight its 2011 quadricentennial activities through the center and hopes to boost tourism as a result. Henrico is planning 11 featured events as part of its celebration, beginning with this year with the Oct. 16 Harvest Festival at Meadow Farm. {{more}}

"It's our anniversary, and it's our party, and we wanted to get excited," Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Pat O'Bannon said during today's ceremony. O'Bannon, who also serves as the chairwoman of the county's 2011 advisory committee, said she hopes the center will spur increased visitor traffic to Henrico.

"Tourism is our first stop on this journey," she said.

The center features multi-media information about the county's history, historical sites, cultural opportunities and local attractions. A new display highlights four centuries of Henrico history on a timeline. Tours of the facility, which also includes rooms redecorated as they would have looked during the Civil War, also are available.

The Dabbs House facility was built in 1820 and known as High Meadow. It later served as a Confederate hospital and as a military headquarters for General Robert E. Lee and then was purchased by the county in 1883 for use as an alms house for the poor.

The Henrico Division of Police occupied the building from 1941 to 2005, before the county renovated it and reopened it in November 2008 as a museum.