Vi Bateman couldn't sleep last Thursday. She was too excited.
The following day, she was finally going to see the beginning of a long odyssey that began with her dream to have affordably senior housing in Fairfax County.
On Friday morning, Oct. 24, ground was broken on a new county senior center which completes the campus of Herndon Harbor House, coincidentally celebrating its fifth anniversary this month.
"It's all I remember growing up," said Carla Bateman of her mother's quest for affordable senior housing, which at the time did not exist in Fairfax County.
Once completed, the Herndon Senior Center will be open to the public and will provide needed additional space for the residents of Harbor House.
THE CAMPUS OF HARBOR HOUSE has long been planned to provide affordable, independent living for seniors, accommodations for adult day care and a county senior center, in a joint effort between the Town of Herndon and Fairfax County.
"It took a long time. We did a lot of studying on it," Vi Bateman said.
Vi Bateman said the nonprofit Herndon Harbor House Inc., of which she is president, was formed in the 1980s to research all the information the various government bodies required before signing onto the project; and the group continuously pushed for the facility to go forward every time there seemed to be another bureaucratic road block.
"We did all the ground work," she said. "It took a lot of studies to prove we were right in the first place."
The facility, located on the corner of Grace Street and Jorss Place, provides 120 residential units each with a kitchen and living space, as well as several common areas to encourage residents to socialize.
Bea Feldman, one of the first residents, said that when the facility was under construction, her daughter told her about it, but Feldman was not quite sure she was ready for a retirement community.
"I wanted a place that was cheerful so I wouldn't became a depressed person. I also wanted an active place … and a place where I could find steady, fast friends," Feldman said. "I have found that here. I was the first person to sign a lease at [my] building."
THE NEW CENTER will provide an additional 23,000 square feet to help Feldman and the other residents of Harbor House stay active. The two-story building is proposed to have several multipurpose rooms, meeting rooms, lounges, game rooms, storage rooms, a computer room, a library, an arts and crafts room and a commercial kitchen and dining room, as well as administrative offices. It will be overseen by the county's Department of Community and Recreation Services, which runs the other 13 existing senior centers throughout the county.
"This senior center is being built for you, my senior friends," said Dorothy Keenan, supervisor for senior services for the Community and Recreation Services, at the ground breaking. "When this is complete, there will be 14 senior centers in Fairfax County and this will be the first one open on weekends and evenings."
Construction, which began just hours after the ceremony, is expected to take 18 months to complete, said Kristina Norvell, director of public affairs for the county Department of Housing and Community Development.
"It means more room to interact, more room for classes," Vi Bateman said of the new center. "We have a lot of performances here and there's not enough room."
At the ceremony, Herndon Vice Mayor Carol Bruce said, "A resident described Harbor House as a little piece of heaven here in Herndon. When the facility first opened its doors five years ago, it was not just an asset to Herndon, the seniors were an asset as well."
Eventually, an esplanade, "Fortnightly Boulevard," is envisioned to join Herndon Harbor House with the downtown area, said Conrad Egan, chairman of the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority.