Lorton Breaks Ground On 'Supermarket' Of Community Services

LORTON, VA — Fairfax County officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday for a new community center in Lorton that will be co-located with a remodeled library and space for a nonprofit community group. The complex, described as a "supermarket of human services," will include a 30,000-square-foot community center and an additional 6,000 square feet for the Lorton community library.

The groundbreaking event, organized by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck, attracted a diverse group of community members, many of whom have been working for years on improving county facilities in the Lorton area.

In his introductory comments, Storck applauded the effort to combine the library with the community center and the Lorton Community Action Center, a nonprofit organization that partners with religious groups and other community organizations to serve senior citizens and low-income residents in the area.

"What we’ve done is we’ve combined folks that are feeding the mind with folks that are feeding the body with folks that are feeding the soul" into "one true place that all of us can be a part of," Storck said.

At the conclusion of speeches, the officials were handed shovels for a ceremonial groundbreaking. Construction on the project actually began in July. The entire complex is scheduled to be completed in spring 2022.

In her speech, Elsa Galvan, a member of Lorton Community Center Steering Committee and a LCAC volunteer, told the audience how the new complex will benefit the entire community, including the area's Latino residents.

Speaking in Spanish that was later translated by Diego Rodriguez Cabrera, Storck's LatinX community outreach manager, Galvan said the facilities will allow the area's young people to "coexist with other young people from all around the community."

"In my family, my two young children are incredibly excited to witness the realization of this marvelous construction," Galvan said. "They tell me that there’s no better place in their young lives than to grow up in this beautiful neighborhood in Lorton."

Gerald Hyland, Storck's predecessor who served as Mount Vernon District supervisor from 1988 to 2015, spoke about how Lorton has changed since he was first elected to the county board.

Lorton was "in the words of some people here the armpit of Fairfax County because of the intensity of industrial development," Hyland told the audience.

He pointed to the county's siting of the sewage treatment plant and landfill in the Lorton area. "We took everybody’s crap, and we took everybody’s garbage," he said. With new residential development in the area, Lorton has seen its population grow over the past 20 years, boosting the area's status in the county, he said.

Jessica Hudson, director of the Fairfax County Public Library, noted that the temporary closure of the Lorton library for renovations is not ideal for local residents.

"But at the end, you are going to have a beautiful new facility. Think of how much better it is going to be," Hudson said, pointing to the 6,000 square feet of additional space at the remodeled library that will be "purposely designed" to meet the needs of the community.

LCAC Executive Director Linda Patterson recalled how one of the nonprofit group's founders, Christine Herbstreith, had a vision almost 40 years ago for the type of complex now under construction. In 1981, Herbstreith told the Washington Post that her dream was to build "a supermarket of human services" in Lorton, Patterson said.

Based on decades of work and advocacy by members of the community, Herbstreith's dream will soon become a reality.