(Danville) — There’s an effort to put an old Danville school building on Virginia Landmarks Register.
The owners of the former W. Townes Lea Elementary School on Cedarbrook Drive are asking the state Board of Historic Resources to add the half-century old building to the register.
Cedarbrook Elementary School opened in 1962 in the Stokesland neighborhood. The ten-acre parcel includes a 1969 addition to the building that added five classrooms and a gymnasium.
The school was later renamed in memory of former Danville School Superintendent W. Townes Lea, who served for nearly thirty years.
According to their application, the structure is a one-story, low-profile, flat-roofed, brick-faced building that closed in 2012. “The building is an expression of the International Style with simple geometric forms, minimal ornamentation, and horizontal massing,” the application states. “Its U-shaped footprint is divided into four sections: the front wing, oriented north-south, with a library, administrative offices, and cafeteria; the north wing, oriented east-west, which contains the twelve original classrooms; the south wing, oriented east-west, which is a 1969 addition containing five classrooms.
W. Townes Lea was one of three elementary schools built based on recommendations in Danville’s 1956 Comprehensive Plan. That includes Woodberry Hills (1959) and Park Avenue (1967). All three schools were designed by LBC&W out of South Carolina.
The Board will meet next month in Richmond and vote on the building being added to the list.
