This page will be devoted to highlighting publications and websites that publicize some aspect about the Town of Purcellville.

1. The Journey Through Hallowed Grounds electronic newsletter for June 2006. 

2. Purcellville's Farmers Market featured in the Loudoun Extra section of the Sunday Washington Post dated July 16, 2006.

Please Note that the PDF that you will click on to read about the Farmer's market is very large. Since it was a scan of a newspaper article it could not be made smaller without blurring the newsprint. Download time with a high speed line is in the 1 - 2 minute range while a dialup connection could be 10 minutes or more.

3. Poem entitled TWO THOUSAND ONE, NINE ELEVEN (2001-911) read by Town Council Member C. J. Walker at the Town 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony (September 11, 2006). The copy posted was signed by Representative Frank Wolf at the ceremony.

4. Aticle published in Loudoun section of the Washington Post on February 24, 2008.

Blessed With More Space
Purcellville May Use Baptist Church To House Ever-Growing Town Hall



By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008; Page LZ01

For more than 70 years, sermons with titles such as "Lord, Teach Us to Pray" were delivered in the sanctuary of the red-brick Purcellville Baptist Church.

Next year, if church and Purcellville town officials have their way, the sanctuary will be filled with speeches on topics decidedly more secular, such as: Is another traffic light needed on Main Street?

"The sanctuary is beautiful, and it will make a great meeting room for the Purcellville Town Council," said Mayor Robert W. Lazaro Jr.

A travesty of the American tradition of separation of church and state?

Not at all.

In a two-step transaction, driven by the space crunch many organizations face in fast-growing Loudoun County, Purcellville Baptist has signed a contract to sell its stately, white-columned church to a real estate investment firm, which, in turn, has made a deal with the town to convert the church to a town hall.

"We are just bursting at the gills in our present Town Hall," said council member Janet Clarke. "We have only 7,500 square feet and it's cram-packed. We've had several council meetings where the public had to stand out in the lobby or sit on the floor."

Purcellville Baptist, meanwhile, is building a 34,000-square-foot church to accommodate its burgeoning membership. "We've just had dynamic growth," said church administrator Wayne Ruckman. "When our pastor came here in 1995, the church had about 50 members. Now we have about 1,000."

With Loudoun's population growing faster than many had predicted over the past two decades, business, church and government leaders often have found creative, though temporary, solutions to their space problems.

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is headquartered in a former bowling alley in Leesburg, for example. But longtime Sheriff Steve O. Simpson said his department sorely needs a new facility.

Purcellville Baptist outgrew its church several years ago, forcing it to hold Sunday morning services in a skating rink and community center. The new church is scheduled to open this summer.

And then there is Purcellville Town Hall, which in 1992 moved from a cramped building on Main Street that once housed a general store to the current space, which began life as a Safeway, also on Main Street.

But the town quickly outgrew the old Safeway building, forcing it to move some employees into an adjoining trailer and the police department into a leased building nearby.

"And now we just need more elbow room," Lazaro said. "So moving to the church is a great opportunity to consolidate and get more space."

Purcellville has the option of leasing the 15,000-square-foot church for up to 20 years at annual rents beginning at $340,790, or buying it outright for $3.6 million, according to the contract the town signed with Blue Ridge Realty on Jan. 15. The Town Hall would be rented or sold, Lazaro said.

"One thing that's common between a church and a local government is that both have very large meetings," said Town Manager Robert W. Lohr Jr. "So a large portion of a church building is the sanctuary and a large part of a town hall is the council chambers. There are a lot of similarities between a house of worship and a traditional town hall. So for us, this church works well."

Conducting government business in a church also has a good vibe, some town officials said.

"Well, God's everywhere, but perhaps even more so in a church," Lazaro said.

"I feel if we end up moving in there, we will be moving into a blessed building and those blessings will flow into the town," Clarke said.

The transaction won't be finalized until town officials determine what renovations will be required, those involved in the talks said. Architectural drawings must be completed and building permits obtained, they said. The facility also must be retrofitted to meet Americans With Disabilities Act requirements.

It's unclear whether there would be room in the church for the police department. While Lazaro said there would be space, Lohr wasn't so sure.

Either way, the Town Council would make the call on whether to lease or buy.

"After my look-see at the numbers, I think it makes sense for us to purchase it," said Lazaro, who as mayor is a member of the council. "If you do the numbers, the rent is $341,000. If you borrow the money over 20 years, the principal and debt service [for $3.6 million] is $240,000 a year. So why would you rent?"

You would rent, Lohr said, if the church doesn't look like a long-term solution to Purcellville's space problems. If the police department doesn't fit in the church, renting may be preferable, he said.

"We need to do a cost-benefit analysis to look at the options," Lohr said in an interview last week.

Moving into a church could mean getting a few extras, such as the pews, right?

"I believe we'll get the pews," Lohr said.

But David Haddock, a Blue Ridge Realty vice president, said: "The pews do not convey. The church owns the pews." Ruckman said the pews no longer are in the church. "They're in storage," he said.

Lohr wasn't sure the pews would be a good fit for the Town Council chambers anyway.

"Unfortunately, some of our meetings last a little longer than a one-hour church service or funeral or wedding," he said. "So you have to make sure your citizens can sit there for up to two or three hours sometimes."

Pews, he said, simply might not do the job.

"At the end of a long meeting, you want to make sure your citizens are still able to stand," the town manager said. 

5. Purcellville featured on cover of Virginia Municipal League Magazine (August 2009). Excellent article entitled "Field of Dreams" discussing the history and purchase of Fireman's Field by the Town.

(Pleae note that the article is a large PDF file that could takes about 5 minutes to view on a normal DSL line).