Purcellville supports renaming Harry Byrd Hwy

The Town of Purcellville received a letter from Loudoun County requesting input on the renaming of the portion of Harry Byrd Highway – Rt. 7– that lies within the Town.  

Harry Flood Byrd Sr., who lived from 1887 to 1966, was an American newspaper publisher, and leader of the Democratic Party in Virginia for decades. 

Purcellville Mayor Kwasi Fraser suggested renaming this portion of the road, Billy Pierce Hwy. After a brief discussion, there was a unanimous consensus of Council in support of this change. 

William Pierce was born (1890) and raised in Purcellville. He is buried in the cemetery in between Grace Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Olive Baptist Church – two historic African American places of worship in the village of Lincoln.

He served in the military, and later followed his heart as a choreographer. He was the inventor of the Black Bottom dance, the craze of the 1920’s, and later the Sugar Foot Strut dance.  He was also instrumental in founding the Harlem Renaissance. The Billy Pierce Dance Studio in New York City was the largest of its kind at the time, and developed routines for Broadway stars as well.

Fraser said that the Purcellville Arts Council was looking at putting up something in his honor as well. 

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors initiated the process to rename Harry Byrd Highway at their meeting on Dec. 7.  At that time, the Board unanimously voted to adopt a resolution requesting to rename all of Rt. 7 within the County’s control from Harry Byrd Highway to Leesburg Pike, which was the former name of the road prior to 1968.