Dawn to Dusk

By Laura Longley

That was Middleburg’s main message to the Loudoun County Parks, Recreation, and Community Services team about the hours for future use of Mickie Gordon Memorial Park.

On the evening of Aug. 31, more than 140 people, armed with sticky notes, markers, and maps crowded around large tables at the Middleburg Community Center for a charrette to share their ideas for this historic park.

Parks and Rec staff joined Steve Torpy, director of the department, to help out. Also on hand were Bridge Littleton, mayor of Middleburg, and Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large).

The gathering was upbeat and collegial, unlike the one held at the end of June when this same crowd assembled at the nearby American Legion Post to voice their opposition to the county’s plan to turn the historic park into a championship cricket complex. 

In that now scrapped plan, which caught the community by surprise, Parks and Rec would have installed 18 lights on poles 100 feet tall around three cricket fields measuring 450 feet in diameter. The lights would have blazed over the three fields from 6 to 11 p.m., obscuring the dark sky. Adding to the transformation of this 100-acre rural park would have been space for 250 vehicles on paved not pervious lots, a new entrance on Carters Farm Lane, and turn lanes off Rt. 50, an award-winning traffic-calmed highway.

Working in teams, each table produced a wish list of features for the park. Not surprisingly, several items appeared on all 13 lists. “Dawn to dusk” came up on top by a mile, but there was a strong runner up: maintenance.

Other recommendations included:

• Honor the park’s past: Create an indoor facility for hosting reunions and other events that includes a pictorial and narrative history of the Hall family and their field where, before the end of segregation, Black baseball teams could play. Tell the story of “Pop” Gordon and his son, Mickie, who for decades coached baseball for Loudoun County kids and adults.
• Restore baseball to the park: Rebuild the fields so the American Legion can resume their games and young people can get out there for a casual game with friends.
• Install a playground for children.
• Add trails, lots of them: Narrative trails telling the story of Native Americans in these parts, of African Americans who not only played ball here but gathered three times a year for horse races, dances, ball games, and music. Walking trails meant for walking, not dirt bikes. Exercise trails. Nature trails. A trail for horses leading from their parked trailers to nearby gravel roads.
• Clean up the pond for catch-and-release fishing.
• Be inclusive: Maintain the community garden area for everyone, whether they live east or west of Gilberts Corner. 
• Keep current with the county’s progress on constructing more cricket pitches in locations closer to where the players live. As cricket players at the meeting said, they don’t care about lights and they want fields closer to where they live; they can play during the day. That will save them hours on the road shuttling their children to fields in Maryland. After their report, Torpy noted that additional cricket pitches are now in a new site plan for Hanson Park. 
• Take a field trip to Fauquier: One table’s spokesperson mentioned a quiet, natural park on Rt. 55, between Delaplane and The Plains; she said it might be a good model for Mickie Gordon Memorial Park.
• Create a partnership between Middleburg and Loudoun County Parks and Rec for managing and programming the park. 
• Use the park for daytime events.
• Enjoy the dark skies: Occasionally, after dusk, bring out the telescopes for special sky watching programs that can be a lot of fun for kids and adults alike.
• Take the Special Exception off the table.
• As the meeting closed, Torpy laid out the next step—a meeting to unveil how the ideas could take shape on the land. 

Torpy also gave the crowd a heads-up about the park’s tennis courts. “I know I’ve got some credibility issues with this group here tonight, but I want to tell you that the courts are on the rotation for renovation. So, you’ll probably see that happening within the next 10 days.”

Randall summarized her takeaways. “What I heard at almost every table was that because the park was not being maintained, the park was not being used, and then the county says, ‘Oh, the park is not being used, so now let’s do something with it.’”

She went on to explain how the park work could get on a faster track with a Board Member Initiative. County staff can start putting money toward it, like maintaining the park right now and not six years out in the Capital Improvement Program.  “I think we have a gorgeous property over there,” Randall said, “and we shouldn’t wait to maintain it.”

Littleton closed the meeting with the news that another meeting will be scheduled in a few weeks. “When you guys get the date set,” he told Torpy, “we will get the word out to everybody.”