Jefferson School begins its new life

Lelia Brown walked the halls of the old Jefferson School as a student, a teacher and a community leader.

On Wednesday, the 76-year-old Charlottesville woman stood outside her alma mater and rang the “school bell” for the official kick-off of an $18 million renovation project to turn the building into a city community center.

“All of the dreams and hopes I had for this school have come to fruition,” Brown said. “I really thought I would never see this day, but I’m so happy it is here.”

More than 100 people, including a handful of former Jefferson School students, were in attendance as officials talked about plans for the new Jefferson School City Center, which is scheduled to open in the fall of next year.

The building, which has been closed since 2002, will one day house the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center and office space for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, Common Ground Healing Arts, Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle, Piedmont Family YMCA, an outreach clinic through Martha Jefferson Hospital and classroom space for Piedmont Virginia Community College.

“This is a very important day in the rebirth of the Jefferson School,” said Martin Burks, chairman of the Jefferson School Foundation, a nonprofit group formed in part to ensure long-term sustainability of the project. “This school is located in the historic Starr Hill district, right next to Vinegar Hill and between Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and the University of Virginia. This will be a true center for the community.”

The Jefferson School was built in 1926, adjacent to the old Jefferson Graded Elementary School, constructed in 1894. The newer building functioned as an all-black high school until 1951, when it was converted into an elementary school.

The school closed in the late 1960s during racial integration and was used as a “swing school” from 1975 to 1992 to house students as other elementary schools in the city were being renovated.

In more recent years, it served as office space, as well as housing preschool and PVCC programs.

Almost 10 years ago, a grassroots effort began to protect the school.

“I remember when blacks had businesses in this [Starr Hill] community and now this is all we have [from that time],” said Brown, who once served as chairwoman of the Jefferson School Task Force. “I didn’t want to see it go away.”

The Jefferson School Community Partnership bought the building and adjoining property from the city earlier this year for $100,000.

They’ve raised money from private donors and secured $5.9 million from the city before borrowing the remaining funds needed from Union First Market Bank to complete the project.

Holly Edwards, vice-chairman of the City Council, said it was the hard work of volunteers that made the renovation possible. She compared the effort to save the school to the biblical story of the Walls of Jericho.

“God has been with the Jefferson School Partners as they marched around City Hall,” Edwards told the crowd Wednesday. “And yes, they marched around City Hall, and as they marched around banks, and as they marched around developers and contractors. As they marched around the criticism, the walls around everything standing in the way just tumbled down."

For Burks and others who’ve been working to save the school, the day has been a long time coming.

“What is truly amazing is the magnitude and scope of commitment, hard work and ingenuity that has brought this project forward since its inception — from the vision set forth in the city’s task force to today’s groundbreaking,” Burks said. “The teachers, the Jefferson Alumni and the community as a whole can be extremely proud of this historic moment.”