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BUCHANAN HALL
Buchanan Hall was founded in the 1920s and was incorporated as a not for profit corporation on May 25, 1933 for the purpose of maintaining and operating a community center for Upperville, Virginia and the surrounding area. The specific purposes specified in the incorporation document were "to hold meetings of a civic, patriotic, social, religious, educational and charitable nature..." The trustees appointed on that date were Mrs. Anne Dulany, President; H. Rozier Dulany, Jr., Secretary; and A. Cook Reid, Trustee. On June 9th,1933 Ann C. Dulany and H. Rozier Dulany deeded the Buchanan Hall property to the newly organized corporation. The corporation, known simply as Buchanan Hall, has operated as the Upperville community center for the past seventy two years and today, as a 501(c)(3) organization, remains dedicated to its original purposes.
The structure of Buchanan Hall was assessed in 1942 to be in need of repair. A new trustee committee was appointed and named Mrs. Paul Mellon as Chairman and Lieut. Walter Williams as Vice-Chairman. Mr. Rozier Dulany, Mrs. Joseph Gibson, Mrs. William G. Fletcher and Mrs. Thomas Glascock were members of the committee. Gordon Staples worked with members to raise the funds needed to repair the facility. An article titled, "Upperville's Latest Community Project is Brought to Close", appeared in the November 5, 1942 Fauquier Times Democrat. Little capital repair had been done since that time and age had left the building basically unusable.
In the spring of 2000, a community meeting was held to discuss options for Buchanan Hall. A group of community members volunteered to study the various options and to assess the continuing need for a community center. After several months of intense activity, a plan was presented to a newly appointed Board of Trustees that recommended the renovation of Buchanan Hall. To be functional as a modem community center and to serve the purposes identified in the assessment study, the building needed to be expanded to twice its original size. The improvements included a new kitchen and two new restrooms on the west side, a new backstage and support spaces on the south side and enclosing two thirds of the terrace for office space and a vestibule on the east side.
Six years have gone by since that meeting at the firehouse in the spring of 2000. The project cost $900,000. This was accomplished by receiving $600,000 in donations and a bank loan of $300,000. The trustees will continue to need the help of the community to maintain the facility and to retire the loan. After sixty four years, however, we can once again say that Upperville has a modern community center for the benefit for all its citizens.
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