Issue 42: 38 Years Ago: County Converts School to Community CenterThis is a featured page


photo of Bluemont Community Center
Thirty-eight years ago, on October 16, 1969, the Loudoun County School Board released the former Purcellville Elementary School building to the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation rather than sell it as surplus property. This was the first in a series of transactions in which the county gradually took ownership of former school buildings for conversion into community centers.
That month, the Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive plan for Parks and Recreation that envisioned a system of county parks and emphasized the importance of recreational facilities for Loudoun residents. The plan promoted the use of school facilities for recreational purposes. With the closure of several older schools around the county, local residents and groups saw great potential in using the former school buildings as community centers.
The former Purcellville Elementary School was initially envisioned as a meeting place with programs for theater, dance, arts and crafts, including a snack bar and teen center.
Jim Stup, who was then the assistant director of Parks and Recreation, remembered that the building was in disrepair, with every windowpane and sash broken.
Nevertheless, it soon opened as the Loudoun Valley Community Center, with Betty Wiley serving as its first manager.
In February 1972, Robert Butt, Superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools, informed Stup that the School Board would deed the former Purcellville School to the county along with other schools that were scheduled to be abandoned.
The Lovettsville Community Center, first a high school and later an elementary school, was dedicated by the county in 1974. Douglass Community Center, which opened in 1976, had been part of the former Douglass High School in Leesburg, which had educated African-American students in the era of segregation.
These were followed by the Arcola Community Center, which opened in 1979; the Lucketts Community Center in 1981; the Sterling Annex Community Center in 1982; the Bluemont Community Center in 1986; and the Philomont Community Center in 1987. Two other county community centers – in Sterling and Middleburg – were never used as schools.
During the past year, the Arcola Community Center moved to a new location – another former Arcola Elementary School. The Carver Center in Purcellville, another former school for African-American students, opened in the spring of 2007. It is used as a senior activities center and adult day care center. This is one of a series of weekly releases from the Loudoun County Office of Public Information highlighting landmark events in the Loudoun County government during its 250-year history.


Sources: Leesburg Today
Loudoun Times-Mirror
Loudoun County website, www.loudoun.gov

Image: Photo of Bluemont Community Center, 2001 (photo by Jim Barnes)


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