CAPE CHARLES, Va. — A building that stood abandoned for nearly six decades on Old Cape Charles Road is beginning a new chapter as a community resource center for the Eastern Shore.
The former Cape Charles Elementary School, which closed in 1966 following school desegregation, has officially reopened as the Cape Charles Impact Center. The building was originally a Washington-Rosenwald School and served generations of Black students in the community.
For former student and Cape Charles resident Margaret Commodore, stepping back onto the property brings a flood of memories.
“It was a school where we felt comfortable. Our teachers nurtured us. It was like a second home,” Commodore said.
She recalled afternoons spent playing behind the school, jumping rope, playing dodgeball, and cooling off near the pond with a hose. “When you come by here, all the memories flood back, all the good times, all the experiences we had,” she said.
After desegregation, the school closed its doors in 1966 and remained unused for decades, slowly deteriorating. Now, after extensive rehabilitation, the building has been transformed into a hub for community growth and opportunity.
William Weeks, the new executive director of the Cape Charles Impact Center, said the goal is to create a space that brings organizations and residents together to address the region’s most pressing needs.
“We will function as a hub, a place where nonprofit organizations can come together and look at the critical needs of the Eastern Shore and how we can begin to address them,” Weeks said.
The center will host a wide range of programs, including culinary classes in a newly renovated, state-of-the-art kitchen, workforce development courses in partnership with Eastern Shore Community College, after school activities for the youth, and senior programming.
Weeks said restoring the building has been both challenging and rewarding. “It feels really good that we can take a building that was almost on the ground, rehab it, and bring it forward to serve individuals and families today,” he said.
More than 60 years after it first shaped the lives of Eastern Shore children, the building is once again open to the public, this time with a mission reflected in its new name.
“I hope it will make an impact on the people who come here,” Commodore said. “Because it certainly made an impact on my path and my life.”
To learn more about the Cape Charles Impact Center, click here.
